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Individuals seeking treatment for substance abuse deserve to be treated as just that: individuals. As part of a holistic rehabilitation plan, a team will look to support the patient’s psychological, social, and physical needs. This integration of body, mind, and soul helps residents achieve long-term improvements.

A holistic program should include various alternative approaches, engaging the resident on every level to give them their best chance at recovery. That’s why Massage Therapy, an ancient technique tailored for modern needs, is such an asset in a holistic treatment plan. Massage Therapy, through a combination of compassionate touch and structured strokes, can provide amazing benefits for residents’ mental, social, and physical health.

Psychological Impacts: Massage Eases Anxiety & Depression

In one fascinating study, 82 adult patients in recovery for psychoactive drugs (including alcohol, cocaine, and opiates) received massage therapy as part of a treatment plan. The goal of the study was to ascertain if Massage Therapy could help alleviate symptoms of anxiety throughout the withdrawal process. Study participants either received chair massage or simple “relaxation control.”

Chair massage, tailored to each individual’s needs for specific pressure, offers relaxing techniques focused on the upper back, hands, and feet. The individual may remain clothed to their comfort level. At the end of the study, those who received chair massage reported significantly less anxiety.

Other studies have shown that Massage Therapy can cause a significant decrease in reported symptoms of anxiety and depression even among populations suffering from intense medical conditions. As part of a holistic protocol, Massage Therapy engages with the patient’s mental health, easing psychological distress with simple strokes and compassionate touch.

Spiritual and Social Well-Being: Body & Soul

In many situations, those recovering from addiction feel alienated from friends and family. Massage Therapy is one way to re-introduce the individual to caring social touch. So much research has been done in the field of sensory touch and deprivation. Again and again, studies have demonstrated that physical touch is a necessary component of a fulfilling and comforting social experience.

As part of a holistic treatment, Massage Therapy offers therapeutic physical touch in a controlled environment. Clients who receive caring touch from a professional not only can benefit from its stress-reducing aspects, but can benefit socially and spiritually from the caring gesture of physical contact.

In addition to its social aspect, Massage has been shown to offer spiritual benefits. In one amazing study, patients were given caring touch Massage Therapy as part of a protocol after traumatic incidents. Also known as therapeutic touch, this is a gentle type of Massage protocol that engages with the client’s comfort level.

In the study, this caring touch Massage allowed patients to understand how their body and soul were “scattered” by traumatic incidents. After receiving caring touch treatment, one patient said, “It gives a feeling of coming together…the soul gets back into the body again.”

This spiritual cohesion, brought on by compassionate touch, is of vital importance to those in recovery from substance addiction.

Physical Aspects of Massage: Getting Back in Touch with The Body

Pain is a common side effect for patients in recovery from addiction. One study showed that healing Massage Therapy “should be strongly recommended” as a way to improve symptoms of physical pain.

Many of these benefits are linked to a specific style called Swedish Massage, which uses long, flowing strokes (aided with oil or cream) to manipulate the soft tissue. This type of massage also offer a host of other physical benefits. It can increase range of motion, improve skin conditions by enhancing circulation, assuage neck and back pain, and decrease blood pressure.

In addition to decreasing pain and improving physical conditions, Massage offers a way for the patient to interact positively with his or her own body. Too often, in cases of addiction, the patient can begin to mistrust his or her own body and become disconnected from themselves on a physical level. Along with immersion in physical activities, it’s vital to foster a sense of comfort with one’s body and to recognize that the body can provide a source of pleasure that’s linked with positive and healthful activities.

There is no standard approach for addiction recovery that works perfectly for every person. That is why it’s vital to use a variety of carefully-chosen interventions to choose the best path of recovery for an individual. As part of a Non-12-Step Treatment Program, Massage Therapy delivered by a compassionate professional can help support the unique and changing emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual needs of the individual.

If you want to learn more about Prominence Treatment Center’s multi-faceted approach to holistic treatment, please contact us today.

When you’re struggling with addiction, one of the hardest things to do is break out of that downward spiral and seek treatment. You want to be better, but you’re not sure how to go about getting there. Not only that, there’s a lot of misinformation out there that convinces people that they’re better off doing it alone or that they don’t really need to seek treatment–when, in fact, it’s what they need most. If you’ve allowed yourself to believe these common myths, it’s time to shake off the addiction recovery fear and seek the treatment you need.

Myth #1: You Have to Hit Rock Bottom First

Many people believe that in order to set foot in a treatment facility, you have to have already hit rock bottom: that point where you’ve completely destroyed your life and are willing to do anything to get it back to normal. The reality, however, is that you don’t have to hit rock bottom in order to seek out treatment. You just need to know that you have a problem with addiction and that you need help. The trained counselors, therapists, and other staff members at your treatment facility will walk with you through the process and ensure that you get the help you need no matter where you are in your addiction journey.

Myth #2: Rehab is the Cure to Addiction

Once you set foot through the doors of a rehab facility, do your time, and commit to making changes, you’re cured, right? Unfortunately, for most addictions, it’s not that simple–and one slip can cause you to backslide quickly once you return to the real world. While addiction can be treated and managed, it’s important that you work through the underlying issues causing the addiction and commit to continuing treatment once you leave the facility.

Myth #3: You Have to Want to Be There

You know that you have a problem, but you aren’t sure that you actually want to do anything about it. Maybe well-meaning friends or family members are encouraging you to check into a treatment facility, but you’re struggling to decide whether or not you even want to be there. Fortunately, the trained staff at your center knows all about people who are struggling with their addictions and their decisions, and they will work with you to ensure that you’re able to break down those walls and start to reclaim your life in spite of your difficulty getting started.

Myth #4: Addiction is a Choice

You know you’re addicted, but you can stop any time, right? Unfortunately, overcoming addiction isn’t always as simple as exercising enough willpower to get past a few cravings. There are many factors–both physical and psychological–that can contribute to addiction. Working through recovery at a qualified treatment facility is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you’ve really kicked drug or alcohol addiction in the teeth, rather than continuing to struggle through it on your own.

Myth #5: Addiction is a Lifelong Struggle

Once you fall down the path to addiction, it’s going to be something you have to deal with for the rest of your life. Why bother? The truth, however, is more complicated. While many people may struggle for years to release the hold of addiction and get clean, others will find that following treatment, they’re able to resume a normal, successful life. Working with a treatment facility is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you’ll be able to meet those goals and embrace your recovery fully.

If you’re struggling with addiction, it’s time to make a change. At Prominence Treatment, we’ll give you the tools to rise above addiction and work through your problems so that you can live the life you thought you had lost. Contact us today to learn more about our treatment programs and how they can transform your life for the better.

When you’re on the journey to recovery from addiction, you want to be sure that you’re taking the treatment steps that are right for you, and that includes a recovery that incorporates your gender. While some things are the same regardless of your gender, it’s also true that your gender can impact your addictive tendencies and impact your recovery. Understanding how this works can help you, or a loved one, on the road to recovery.

Alcohol Addiction in Women

Even casual drinkers know that your ability to process and metabolize alcohol depends heavily on your weight. Since women tend to be lighter than men, their tolerance is considerably lower. There are, however, several other factors also cause women to become intoxicated at a lower level of alcohol consumption than men. These include:

• Lower body percentage of water, which leads to faster intoxication
• Faster brain atrophy following alcohol consumption
• Lower concentrations of an enzyme that metabolizes alcohol

Menstrual Cycles and Addiction

Because women experience significant hormone highs and lows along with their menstrual cycles, it’s important to understand that those hormones can significantly impact the addiction journey. Women may experience a more significant impact of addictive drugs and other substances during the pre-ovulation phase of their menstrual cycle. During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, which follows ovulation, they may not experience the same high they do prior to ovulation. Unfortunately, this can make addiction more difficult to control, since addicts may increase their consumption in an effort to get the high they’re looking for.

Gender and the Likelihood of Substance Abuse

Men are more likely than women to abuse illegal substances in general. That doesn’t mean, however, that women aren’t equally impacted by addiction. Women who experiment with these substances are just as likely to end up dependent on them as men are. Women are also one of the fastest-growing segments of the population in addiction. Gender also helps to divide the types of substances that are most often abused: women tend to be given more access to prescription painkillers and other medications, while men are more likely to abuse marijuana in areas where it isn’t legal. Stimulants are equally likely to be abused by individuals of either gender. It is also noted that women tend to increase the symptoms of addiction faster than men.

Women are also more likely than men to hide their addiction from friends and family members, increasing their addiction instead of getting the help they need. They may spend more hours at home alone or with children. Alcohol addiction, in particular, can be hidden with a string of “martini play dates” and other social opportunities to indulge. Unfortunately, as these events increase in frequency, addiction continues to grow.

How Gender Impacts Recovery

Unfortunately, recovery from addiction can also be impacted by gender. Women are more likely to struggle with relapse following the addiction process. They struggle more with cravings and are more likely to have to return to treatment. This is due in part to the fact that women often wait longer to seek the help they need following addiction. Worried about being separated from their families or more embarrassed than men by their addiction, women may put off seeking treatment or even refuse it altogether. They will also continue to suffer menstrual cycle-related concerns with cravings throughout the recovery process.

Assessing gender concerns during the recovery process is critical to ensuring that women, in particular, receive the treatment they need when they’re on the road to recovery. Women may need more support during the recovery process, and they may struggle longer to fight off cravings and return to their normal lives. By deepening the understanding of how gender impacts recovery, many facilities will find that it’s easier to help women in this critical journey.

Opiates are a dangerous drug, and yet, many people can’t seem to stay away from them. Heroin is often associated with overdose cases in the news, and is seen in users of all ages. While the trend seemed to steer away from heroin for several years, it appears to be back and more popular than ever.

The Rise of Heroin

According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2016, there were around three times as many users in the United States in 2014 as in 2003. Heroin deaths have gone up five times what they were in 2000. Heroin is the deadliest drug in use around the world, says the report.

One of the reasons for the increase is the fact that prescription drugs are becoming increasingly harder to get. Many of the medications being prescribed too often were opioids like OxyContin. As doctors decrease the number of prescriptions they are giving out, the number of people turning to heroin increases. However, prescription drug abuse has increased with the numbers of people taking painkillers for nonmedical use going up from 1.8 percent in the early 2000s to 4.1 percent in 2012-2013.

Who is Using Heroin

The image of a heroin user once was a young person around college age who would be strung out in a back alley somewhere. They may be poor, even homeless. Even high school kids would try heroin at a party only to become drop-outs when they became addicted. Heroin addicts were mainly males in the past.

The person now using heroin might look quite different. The largest increase is with women and those who are making higher incomes. Many addicts have taken prescription medications, transitioning to heroin when they could no longer access them.

While the face of heroin may be changing and people in all walks of life are becoming addicted, it’s a drug that is still dangerous and many times deadly. Treatment is necessary for an addict to overcome the addiction and lead a normal life.

Sometimes, you wouldn’t be who you were meant to be if you do not go through difficult situations. This certainly was the case with Khalil Rafati who relapsed nine times before finally succeeding to quit drugs. Khalil sold drugs along the streets and eventually became an addict himself.

One day, he created a superfood smoothie, the Wolverine. Since then, Khalil has been selling smoothies. Today he is a multi-millionaire.  But his journey to the top wasn’t a bed of roses. So how did it happen?

Initially, Khalil’s smoothie was designed to be an energy drink for people recuperating from drug abuse like himself. With time, it became the signature drink for his now very successful juice bar chain, Sunlife Organics.

Khalil Rafati underwent quite some challenges. He attempted quitting drugs up to nine times before he finally made it. After that success, he decided to do something that will be beneficial for himself and others undergoing his situation. From there, he has become a millionaire.

Had Khalil not stood firm and made an effort each time he relapsed, he probably wouldn’t have come up with the energy drink that has made him so rich and popular today. And Khalil does not hesitate to share his story. He doesn’t shy away from telling the world how grateful he is for being free from drug addiction. On Instagram, he shared a photo beneath which he wrote, “By the Grace of God I am here. Being sober has turned my life into such an incredible miracle.”

Rafati’s story should actually serve as inspiration for you if you are a drug addict today. The lesson to learn from the story is that you too can make something out of yourself even if the world thinks you are completely useless. All you need is determination to get out of that difficult addiction situation. With some effort, you can make it. And when you do, think of something you can do to make your life useful. You just could be the next Khalil Rafati.

It is no news that addiction is one big problem Americans struggle with today. What we may not know is that it affects many more people than it seems. And now, experts are warning that very few people actually get the help they need to deal with their addiction.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 23.5 million people aged 12 and above had a drug or alcohol abuse problem in 2009. Unfortunately, only 2.6 million people actually received treatment.

You may be tempted to think that people with these problems do not get help because there are not enough treatment centers, or medical experts to handle to load. That is very far from the reality. Experts say stigma is one of the most important causes of this problem. People are so scared of what others will say about their addiction that they will rather not show up for treatment.

A study by researchers from Johns Hopkins showed that stigma causes people to hide, deny or neglect their addiction even when they know they need help. In 2014 according to the CDC, about 47,000 people died of drug overdose. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism meanwhile, notes that 88,000 people die every year as a result of alcohol abuse. These staggering figures would probably be reduced, if stigma didn’t have such a devastating effect on drug and alcohol addicts.

The good news, though, is that experts know the solution to this problem of stigma. They recommend that addicts be treated with empathy and respect. They discourage regarding addiction as a disease, or calling an addict a “victim.” The experts also note that we shun blaming people for their addiction. They advise that Americans learn more facts about addiction so that they can identify it as a common problem with the ability to affect just anyone. If this happens, people will know that they too can be susceptible to addiction and will rather not stigmatize others.