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Additionally, while mindful meditation can be an effective treatment in the recovery process, it should never replace professional addiction treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy or medications when necessary. With these tips in mind, individuals struggling with addiction may find mindfulness practices helpful in their journey towards sobriety. There is a growing body of research indicating that mindfulness-based meditation may help individuals cope with addiction and prevent relapse into addictive behaviors. One study found that participants who had completed a 10-week meditation program showed significant reductions in craving intensity, greater ease in abstaining from substance use, and improved self-efficacy for engaging in healthy behaviors compared to those who did not meditate. In conclusion, mindful meditation may have potential benefits for individuals struggling with addiction.
Six months following the intervention, the mindfulness-based program and the traditional relapse-prevention program were more successful at reducing relapse than the 12-step program. One year later, the mindfulness-based program proved to be more effective than the other two in reducing https://ecosoberhouse.com/ drinking and drug use. Getting the courage to leave someone with a substance use disorder is never easy, and it requires changing behaviors that you have engaged in for a long time. Before leaving someone struggling with addiction, you can try to get them to seek the help they need.
Loving Someone with an Addiction: What You Can Do to Help
This was more effective among older volunteers and those who had higher blood pressure prior to the study (42). Metta, or loving-kindness meditation, is a practice of developing positive feelings, first toward yourself and then toward others. A similar study showed that people who regularly practiced meditation performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience (23). Another study found that people who completed a meditation exercise experienced fewer negative thoughts in response to viewing negative images, compared with those in a control group (14). What’s more, some research suggests that a variety of mindfulness and meditation exercises may reduce anxiety levels (9).
From my own experience and work, I know that regular mindfulness practice allows us to set aside distractions and enter the transformative state of open mind. Stress increases the likelihood of alcohol and meditation for addiction drug use, and can precipitate relapses following treatment (1). Clinicians and researchers recognize the critical need to incorporate stress management techniques into inpatient and outpatient treatment.
Controls anxiety
The most effective programs address the true reason for addiction — unhappiness. If we don’t healthfully and naturally deal with this pain, we find ways to cope, like addiction, to feel normal again — to feel good again. Furthermore, meditation was found to be almost 6 times more effective than the control group’s more traditional chemical dependency solution. When meditation makes you feel so good, healthfully and naturally, then there are no biochemical or psychological potholes that need to be filled through addiction. Conversely, the study found dopamine levels to be extra low at other times (the crash) — which ultimately forces the brain into seeking more of the drug’s temporary dopamine boost, creating a vicious cycle. The meditative mind neutrally observes the coming and going of urges and cravings in a very unnemotional and detached way.
