Healing the whole. As modern science continues to study the evolution of drug addiction and its impact on the mind, we’ve come a long way from simply understanding that addiction hijacks the brain. In more recent years, we’ve also come to understand why alternative drug treatment is so essential in being able to address the mind, body, soul and spirit components of addiction healing.
For decades, conventional treatment focused on the physical and emotional components of drug abuse. Thankfully, as Pacific Standard Magazine reports in a piece on “A Struggle for the Soul of Addiction Treatment,” anyone who believes in progressive drug policy reform and in embracing a more humanistic system of care would agree that it’s essential to understand that there’s so much more to healing than just talk therapy and alleviating physical dependence.
Shifting Away From Believing You Are Fundamentally Bad
There’s long been a social model that anyone who uses drugs and alcohol in problematic ways is fundamentally bad. Unfortunately, this is supported by our larger culture, the criminal justice system and even the 12-step fellowship tradition.
“In the AA understanding, the core of alcoholism, the deep root of alcoholic behavior, lies in character,” write Dr. William Miller and Dr. Ernest Kurtz in “Models of Alcoholism Used in Treatment.” “‘Selfishness—self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles,’ reads a key passage of AA’s description of ‘How It Works.’”
A more meaningful approach to recovery starts with an alternative drug treatment that focuses on you as a whole person. We need to understand that rather than being “bad” in any way, drug addiction is actually a complex and meaningful behavior. People take substances for reasons that need to be respected and addressed before they’ll be willing to make any significant changes.
Why it’s Important to Heal Holistically From Addiction
Up until about 70 years ago, the terms “spirituality” and “religion” were almost synonymous. This is no longer the case today. Lance Dodes, M.D., author of The Heart of Addiction, says that in more recent times, “‘spirituality’ has been used to refer to a feeling or a belief in the oneness between an individual and the universe, being in touch with one’s soul or inner self, and even simply a sense of personal well-being.”
Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck has a theory about the connection between soul, trauma, and addiction that believes separating from source (God or universal love) is traumatic. It drives us to reconnect without understanding why or how, and because we don’t have a road map of how to get there or a plan for how to start the process, we’re forever searching.
Addiction then is simply humanity aiming to reconnect with source. Without that profound awareness of connection, we seek other avenues that bring us closer to a feeling of euphoria and transcendence.
Peck believes that compulsive or addictive people, as a group, are more sensitive, more intelligent and more creative than the general population, which is what makes them more susceptible to alcohol, drugs and other addictions.
Today, with the rising awareness around the quantum field and how we can truly create our best lives in these infinite possibilities, we can begin to connect to our divinity in ways that are healthy. And, it can start by embracing our humanity as the starting point of this mind, body and spirit connection, rather than trying to avoid all the emotions that come with being human.
If you’re ready to begin a journey that explores your personal possibilities and healing on all levels, call us at ((866)668-7987 or email us at [email protected] today.
He is the Founder, Administrator, Counselor at the Sanctuary at Sedona. He has a BA in Political Science and is currently Senior teaching staff at Four Winds Society, an international school of energy medicine. His credentials also include being an Ordained Minister; a Certified Shamanic Breathwork® Facilitator; a Founding Member Society for Shamanic Practitioners; a Member of Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology; a Member of the National Institute for Holistic Addiction Studies. [email protected]