Mindfulness Meditation & Addiction

Navigating through withdrawal can be challenging, and it’s pretty normal for addicts to wrestle with feelings of guilt or embarrassment over their addiction. Through meditation, you learn to give yourself a break, acknowledging that the path to sobriety is a gradual process demanding patience and addiction meditation time. Meditation can remind you that battling addiction is a shared journey, not an individual struggle, and plenty of people have beaten it with the right help and tools. My belief is that few addicts and alcoholics have the initial discipline required to use meditation to its full potential.

• These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking.
• Contact a treatment provider today to learn how meditation treatment and medications can set you free from addiction.
• A John F. Kennedy study revealed a 65% boost in the minds of participants during meditation.
• Mindfulness practice can enhance the performance of the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that regulates planning and thinking.
• The overall goal of meditation is to synchronize the mind and body for improved mental well-being and an enhanced quality of life.
• Peer pressure or feelings of euphoria may also contribute to the development of addictions.

This article is based on scientific evidence, written by experts and fact checked by experts. Alternatively, consider setting your alarm a few minutes early to take advantage of quiet time in the morning. This may help you develop a consistent habit and allow you to start the day positively. If you want to start meditating, try choosing a form of meditation based on what you want to get out of it.

How Can Meditation Therapy Help Treat Substance Abuse?

All meditation involves being mindful (or present in the moment), but mindfulness meditation emphasizes this. In mindfulness meditation, the person works to build his or her awareness of the current situation. There are countless reasons to take up the practice, but make sure you’re customizing it to your own needs. If a part of your meditation practice doesn’t feel good to you, you can always change it or stop. You, above everyone else, have the answers as to whether or not meditation is good for you.

For recovering addicts who are used to partying and having a wild time, sobriety may seem a bit dull. Meditation practice can give them a new source of joy—pleasure in living in the moment and appreciating the simplest of delights. In spiritual meditation, the focus is on using silence to find your connection with God or the universe. People often use essential oils, such as sage and frankincense, to heighten the experience. The ideal length and frequency of your practice will take shape as you get deeper into meditation. “Physically, people find they have improved mood, they sleep better and better memory and concentration.”

Gut Health’s Role in Addiction Recovery: The Gut-Brain Connection in Rehab

In a mechanistic theoretical account of mindfulness as a treatment for addiction, Garland, Froeliger, & Howard conceptualized MBIs as means of mental training designed to exercise a number of neurocognitive processes that become dysregulated during the process of addiction [22]. Coming full circle, MBIs are some of the newest additions to the armamentarium of addictions treatment. It is perhaps no coincidence that the rise of MBIs has been co-incident with advances in the neuroscience of substance use disorders.