Drug or alcohol rehabilitation therapy can be a literal lifesaver for many individuals. However, the approach based on Western medical practices often treats the addition as a discrete issue, rather than a single aspect of the whole individual. Holistic rehabilitation practices are just that. This article will examine the primary differences of holistic therapy, as well as the role of emotional or spiritual support in the overall scheme of treatment.

You are Not Your Addiction

One of the popular oversights of western medicine is its discrete approach to the treatment of disorders, diseases, and addictions. While this approach is effective with the treatment of physical trauma and many common illnesses, it can also cause a caregiver to miss a great deal that is contributing to addiction. Holistic rehabilitation is about the whole human cosmos. It does not privilege your addiction, as if it were occurring in isolation of your personality, your life, or a set of physical circumstances entirely unique to you.

Rather, holistic therapy seeks first to establish whether addiction is a symptom of preexisting mental illness. A large proportion of addicts tested scores within the range for many mental illnesses. If these underlying illnesses are not addressed at the time therapy is engaged, the addiction may return or even become worse over time, which may concomitantly fuel the progression of the mental illness. By treating any underlying illnesses or issues at the same time addiction is being addressed, the healthcare professionals assisting you can help to ensure that your recovery is legitimate.

Another common root of substance addiction can be chronic pain. It is all too easy to slide into an escalating habit of relying on painkillers to treat chronic issues informally. This can include alcohol. Assessing each patient for such underlying causes can often help relieve the pain of the individual who is self-medicating. By removing this root cause of substance abuse, the addiction can then be effectively addressed.

Knowing Your Demons

Knowledge is power. While Western rehabilitation does include some psychological support, it also operates in a fashion that is becoming an increasingly familiar trait of Western medicine. Your treatment in this atmosphere is something that is being done to you, not something in which you are an active and willing partner. Holistic therapy utilizes the education of addiction as a primary tool to help patients heal themselves.

This allows each individual to know how their addiction works, what particular trigger situations are most powerful for them, and how they may tailor their lives to reduce stressors that reinforce the patterns of their addiction. The other half of knowing your addiction is knowing what freedom from it feels like and how to nurture that freedom.

Is It Faith-Based?

This is a loaded question. Since holistic rehabilitation focuses on treating addiction in every aspect of an individual’s life, psychological and spiritual lenses of interpretation are also important. While there are many pharmacological elements employed, they are homeopathic—safe, natural, and most importantly not habit-forming. Since you are an active participant in your own healing, it’s crucial that your spiritual needs also be addressed. At its most basic level, rehabilitation requires a desire to be whole and the belief that you can attain that goal.

If your source of personal resolve is one of a particular spiritual discipline, this will be utilized to help you in every way. But if you are not an adherent to any specific belief system, using symbols, metaphors, or tenets of any system may be counterproductive in your therapy. Rather, the use of various philosophical stances and logically based concepts of self-empowerment may prove more effective for you. Is holistic rehabilitation faith-based? Only insofar as it will help the individual free himself or herself from addiction.

The human being is a complex, interactive system. No single aspect of any one of us must be privileged above the others or examined in isolation either from the other facets of that individual or from the recursive and dynamic interaction with the world and other human beings. Holistic drug rehab seeks to explore these complex interrelationships, tailor a life path that is healthy and fulfilling for each person, and provide both homeopathic relief and assistance in overcoming substance addictions. It doesn’t treat the symptom but seeks to understand and remove the underlying causes. Whole beings require more than the partial solutions offered by Western rehabilitation practices because your life must and should improve as it progresses.