In most types of treatment, doctors focus on alleviating the patient’s physical symptoms. By prescribing medication to prevent side effects, doctors help improve their patient’s quality of life. However, some complex diseases manifest in ways that are subtle and nontransparent. This particularly applies to mental disorders. More than one in four people diagnosed with a mental disorder also struggle with substance abuse. An addiction to drugs can cause permanent brain damage by impairing the ability to make decisions and interfere with the brain’s reward system. Moreover, substance abuse can cause several physical conditions that affect the cardiovascular and immune systems. Fortunately, holistic therapy can help patients recover from drug addiction.

What is Holistic Therapy?

Rather than targeting physical symptoms, the holistic approach focuses on healing the whole person. Holism is a medical concept that encompasses the physical, social, mental and emotional aspects of well-being. Holistic therapies can effectively treat several mental disorders, which affect a person’s life beyond the observable indicators of disease. Substance abuse, for example, destroys relationships and creates economic burden for many families. These events can create a sense of disconnect for the patient, who is looking for emotional support and wants to escape the recurring cycle of addiction.

Among recovering addicts, relapse may occur and could reestablish old behavioral patterns. Inhibiting the symptoms is a temporary solution and fails to address the lifelong effects for other health conditions. Several holistic addiction treatment facilities provide several therapies that can effectively treat withdrawal and help promote a positive lifestyle by giving patients nutrition advice and helping them establish a fitness routine.

Can Treat Several Conditions

There are several mental conditions holistic therapies can help treat. Anxiety disorder is a condition that affects 18% of the U.S. population. Feeling nervous is sometimes a healthy, adaptive response to physically or socially tense situations. However, excessive bouts of worry can interfere with decision-making and causes a state of constant stress. Like generalized anxiety disorder, depression affects mood and makes it harder for people to achieve success in life. A loss of pleasure and persistent feeling of hopelessness are both common symptoms.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental disorder that develops in response to a traumatic event. Despite popular belief, flashbacks and nightmares do not wholly comprise the list of symptoms for PTSD. Post-traumatic stress interferes with a person’s ability to relate with others, making it difficult to keep friends or hold a job. These mental conditions include symptoms with far more outreaching effects on a person’s whole life. Holistic therapy can work to heal the patient’s pain and restore lost balance, which could mean rebuilding damaged relationships and establishing new, healthy habits.

Types of Holistic Treatment

To treat substance abuse and other conditions, treatment facilities provide a variety of therapies that help improve physical and emotional health. The holistic approach creates an entirely new paradigm that redefines disease. Holistic therapies address the root cause of disease, which can develop from as a result of several biological and environmental factors. By eliminating the cause, holistic therapy targets and reduces all symptoms, eliminating pain and flushing toxins out from the body. Holistic therapy sessions mostly focus on either self-care or counselling. Talking to a counselor can encourage a patient to open up and disclose their troubling experiences. The counselor and patient can work together to piece together fragmented memories of trauma, which occurs due to dissociation.

Most self-care focuses on physical improvement. Yoga is rooted from Indian philosophy and helps people understand the emotions they have without needing to act upon them. Balanced coordination and breathing techniques help regulate energy levels and lowers the frequency of cortisol release. Massage therapy helps relieve the joints and improves circulation. The massage helps relax the body from a state of constant tension, a common state among addicts. Several facilities offer fitness classes. Fitness exercises help release endorphins, lowering a person’s susceptibility to anxiety and depression. Another type of treatment is art therapy, which encourages patients to release their emotions by creating expressive art and encouraging mental engagement with imaginative ideas.

By taking a broader look at a person’s life, holistic therapies effectively improve the patient’s overall health and sense of well-being. Integrative treatment has become increasingly popular among many physicians, which integrates a traditional, symptom-based approach with a complex, holistic approach. It helps that holistic therapies encourage emotional wellness in such a way that patients feel inspired to live a better life.

Have you or a loved one experienced holistic therapy?

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