To practice mindfulness, you simply pay attention to whatever is happening in the present moment from a place of compassion, curiosity, and nonjudgment. If you’re in professional addiction treatment, you can consult with your care team to incorporate meditation into your treatment and even learn advanced skills. Building new skills does not happen quickly, so patience while learning and practicing this new coping technique is essential. In guided meditation, you will work with a trained meditation or mental health professional. Health insurance coverage for addiction treatment may be available and depends on your specific insurance plan.
Breath Awareness Meditation
However, it is most beneficial as a complementary treatment along with other forms of addiction treatment, such as individual counseling, group therapy, and family therapy. Other benefits of meditation therapy include altering brainwaves, which contribute to improved psychological function and reduced cortisol, the body’s stress hormone. Although mindful meditation cannot cure cancer, studies have found it helps lung cancer and breast cancer patients deal with pain, stress, low self-esteem and fatigue. One study also found people with chronic pain who meditated were able to reduce their pain by up to 42%, which led to better sleep, improved mood and better activity levels. If you enjoy being active, movement meditation might be a good choice for you. If you need to improve your focus and learn to identify body sensations, focused meditation might be suitable.
How Can Meditation and Mindfulness Help You?
Without knowing the patient’s opioid misuse history, the attending physician unwittingly prescribes an opioid medication and advises the patient to wait several weeks before resuming physical activity. As a result of the self-awareness cultivated through daily mindfulness practice, the patient may recognize the cravings that arise as she holds the prescription slip in her hand. To prevent relapse, she might use mindfulness skills to deconstruct the experience of craving and contemplate the consequences of relapse versus maintaining abstinence. As the craving abates, she may choose to not fill the prescription, use a non-opioid pain reliever, and attend the exercise therapy class for social support even if she cannot participate physically in the exercises.
Meditation For Addiction Recovery
For instance, Sancho et al’s16 recent systematic review raises the concern that MBI intervention effects do not seem to persist at follow-up assessment. Thus, there remains a need for more large-scale, robust RCTs to reveal the clinical outcomes and therapeutic mechanisms of MBIs for addiction. Mindfulness and meditation techniques can help manage intense feelings during recovery. These techniques have various benefits for managing emotions, reducing stress, and improving self-awareness. Fortunately, practicing mindfulness and meditation techniques doesn’t require special equipment or training. You don’t have to worry about spending extra on external tools or expenses, you just have to be patient with yourself as you learn these techniques.
Planning a Vacation with a Loved One in Recovery
Your treatment team can help you to select a type of meditation that will benefit your addiction recovery. Meditation techniques can be implemented in any type of addiction treatment program. Some of these treatments include inpatient rehab, outpatient addiction treatment programs, and continued aftercare treatment. Individuals who practice meditation gain insights into themselves that help them make decisions that support their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Recovering addicts who keep in touch with themselves through daily meditation are more likely to recognize early warning signs that they may be headed for relapse. They can then use their other recovery tools to keep destructive behavior at bay.
- Pre-pandemic studies indicated that more than 85% of individuals relapse and return to drug use within one year of treatment.
- First-generation MBIs (ie, MBSR, MBCT) influenced the development of contemporary MBIs for addiction (ie, MBRP, MORE).
- For instance, Sancho et al’s16 recent systematic review raises the concern that MBI intervention effects do not seem to persist at follow-up assessment.
- Recognizing and then challenging these damaging thoughts allow us to see ourselves in a more hopeful, more accurate light.
The session begins with an initial consultation to discuss your goals and any specific stressors, followed by an assessment of your mental and physical health history. Meditation requires no special equipment or designated setting; it can be practiced in any quiet addiction meditation space, whether at home or outdoors. As the practice deepens over time, individuals often notice an increase in self-awareness and an improved ability to manage the highs and lows of recovery. Incorporating meditation into one’s personal journey of recovery can be a transformative step. It serves as a powerful tool for individuals traversing the challenging path of overcoming addiction. Movement meditation refers to meditation that occurs while you are moving rather than seated.
- Understanding what triggers your cravings or causes you to feel down is good so you can avoid those habits or thoughts and curate your day-to-day.
- This process of deep concentration and mindfulness leads to a profound sense of relaxation and tranquility.
- Yet despite all that we can achieve and possess, we can become convinced that we won’t be happy or contented unless we acquire even more.
- That said, meditation should be part of a comprehensive treatment plan and not the only means of treatment.
- They can also have a significant effect on your mind throughout recovery, as they both teach you to be deliberate and pay attention to what triggers your cravings.
Other Proven Addiction Therapy Methods
This practice can act as a grounding technique, helping to center thoughts and emotions, particularly during moments of temptation or stress. For those seeking expert support, listening to recorded guided meditations or attending meditation classes can be incredibly beneficial. Everyone has their own unique needs, preferences, and strengths, so not every meditation technique will work for everybody. It is important to try different forms of meditation to see which is most beneficial for you and your recovery.
Here we also provide clinical recommendations about how these therapeutic mechanisms might be applied to intervening in SUDs and preventing relapse. In this review, we first briefly discuss the etiology of addiction and neurocognitive processes related to the development and maintenance of SUDs. We then discuss how mindfulness training intervenes in SUDs and prevents relapse, and review evidence of the mechanisms and efficacy of MBIs for intervening in substance use and preventing relapse. In a 2017 study, researchers found that practicing mindfulness in MBRP may reduce the link between craving and substance use and increase resilience for relapse. In 2014, a randomized control trial (RCT), the gold standard trial for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, was conducted by Bowen and colleagues.
- In cases of withdrawal-related symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, or depression, meditation can help ground you in the present moment, calm your nervous system, boost your mood, and improve your ability to sleep and manage pain.
- Adopting meditation as a personal practice offers empowerment and a sense of control in one’s recovery process, creating a nurturing environment for healing and personal growth.
- These positive brain changes lead many people to try meditation for substance abuse recovery.
- Meditation also impacts the amygdala, which reduces fear and increases the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, governing motivation and motor control.
- Finally, we provide clinical recommendations about how these therapeutic mechanisms might be applied to intervening in SUDs and preventing relapse.
The Benefits Of Meditation Therapy For Addiction Recovery
By practicing mindfulness to savor everyday pleasant activities, an individual in recovery from a SUD can self-generate feelings of contentment, relaxation, and joy. Consider an individual with cocaine use disorder in full remission who practices mindful savoring when his grandchildren visit on the weekend. By using mindfulness to focus on the positive emotions and the sense of meaningfulness that emerge from spending time with his grandchildren, this individual may feel more satisfied and contented than he ever did when using substances. Consistent with the reward restructuring hypothesis, by practicing mindful savoring over time, the experience of natural reward may outweigh the drive to use drugs to obtain a sense of well-being – fortifying the individual against relapse. Breath awareness meditation has been found to reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms.