Can body therapy provide addict help in overcoming addiction. Alternative health practitioners who use massage, acupuncture, chiropody, dance and exercise as a means of improving the health of the body often recommend body therapy as a remedy for addiction. People who suffer from any type of compulsive disorder, such as drug or alcohol addiction often find that they feel “better” as a result of body therapy.
People feel better and gain relief from feelings of stress when they involve themselves in any kind of body therapy. The reason is quite simple. The treatment and the intimate contact, with another person, will bring a release of emotional tension. Not only does the body feel more relaxed and free, the mind will feel less “driven” by chemicals released in the body when we feel under pressure. People suffering from symptoms of depression will find that their mood improves as a result of body therapy.
If people are feeling excessively depressed, or over anxious, rhythmic, relaxing body therapy helps to bring relief. Using oils and fragrances with body therapy, and music can enhance the overall effects – bringing a deeper sense of relaxation, making people feel more at peace.
Body therapy is a form of positive intervention into the cycle of addiction. Anything that has a capacity to “break” into the dynamic of addiction will provide addict help. Body therapy gives an addict some temporary respite from the tension they feel inside. Body therapy relaxes both mind and body – providing a window of opportunity for an addict to consider taking responsibility to recover from his addiction.
Important in terms of addict help is the personal contact and relationship that comes with body therapy. It is the greatest paradox of our time that while we have improved the technology required for mass and personal communication, many people feel lonely and out of touch with other people.
Many of our traditional contacts with other people in the community have become sacrificed and lost in favor of automated transactions that speed up the cash flow, and don’t encourage human interaction. The only people who seem to have any time on their hands are those retired, unemployed or sick. Many of these are unhappy due to lack of good health or money. People in the workforce could be sick or unhappy but they don’t have time to think. Addiction to prescription drugs is one means of coping.
Body therapy provides a time and place outside of our normal routine – it is a glimpse of a more natural lifestyle full of health and relaxation, real connection with nature and with other people. Living harmoniously with nature and with other people is the way life is meant to be lived.
Body therapy provides relief, but it cannot go all of the way in recovery from addiction. People with addictive responses feel more acutely the pressures that we all face. The choice of addictive response is very much a forced choice. People become addicted to behaviors or substances as a means of easy relief from intense internal pressures and tensions. We need to unravel the knots in our ways of thinking, as much as the tensions in our bodies in order to overcome addiction.
Holistic addict help is best achieved with a gentle combination of interpersonal counseling and body therapy. The synergy created by working with body and mind cannot be underestimated. Using body therapy in combination with holistic detox and counseling can give addicts help and bring about recovery from emotional tension and addiction.
Author: National Addiction Resources
America's Best Treatment Directory
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