Practicing Mindfulness Benefits Addiction Recovery
Before going directly into the benefit of how the practice of mindfulness will benefit those in addiction recovery and even more specifically those with opioid addiction (Opioid Use Disorder), it is important to understand the overall benefits. The practice of mindfulness is of benefit to every person who wants to decrease stress in their life and just live a more peaceful and happy life. Please refer to the prior blog on this site titled “What is Mindfulness? How Can this Practice Assist with Addiction” to learn more about mindfulness and the core principles of this practice. First, let us talk about the history of the practice of mindfulness.
In current practice of Western Medicine, the assistance of mindfulness is one of the major interventions taught in the field of Positive Psychology. This branch of psychology places focuses on building character strengths and behaviors which will allow a person to build a life full of purpose and meaning. A concept here is to move past just surviving in life to flourishing in life, which as mentioned earlier is why the practice of mindfulness is of benefit to everyone. Mindfulness is an ancient practice but only recently brough into the field of psychology, when Positive Psychology was first founded by Martin Seligman in 1998. Despite this recent addition into more Western Medicine, the practice of mindfulness has likely been around for over 4,000 years.
The practice of mindfulness started in the East and has some of the earlier roots in Buddhism and Hinduism. It is reported by many that the earliest practices of mindfulness originated in the Indus Valley, which is now Pakistan, more than 4,000 years ago. This practice was then adopted by many Easter religions over the past thousands of years. With the growth of yoga in the West is when the practice of mindfulness started to be adopted in countries like the United States. It was at this time the practice of mindfulness started being accepted by more secular groups in the West and seeing the practice expand to more individuals.
Now you can see that mindfulness has been practiced for thousands of years and across the world. Obviously if there was no benefit to this practice it would cease to grow and be accepted as the base principles of new divisions of science like that of Positive Psychology. So, how can this be more specific to those in addiction treatment? On top of just improving a person’s life there are many things in someone in substance abuse recovery that can even more greatly grow with the addition of mindfulness. Many individuals entering into substance abuse treatment are not happy with how their life has recently been, or has been for years, as well as the current state of their life. All of this causes current distress in life and negative views on life. As well as these, views of the past and present can provide a dark or pessimistic outlook on the future. This is where the practice of mindfulness comes into play greatly for those in recovery, from any addiction, not just opioid addiction.
While in addiction treatment and recovery, it is important to know where you are realistically at in the process of recovery. This is important as to not have any false beliefs, such as it is ok to be around those actively using, or other triggers, as this can lead towards relapse and potentially a fatal overdose. Mindfulness assists individuals in increasing their self-awareness which will in turn allow the person to have that realistic view of where they are currently at in life. Being self-aware is crucial as to not downplay the sensitivity to relapse a person will have, especially in the earlier parts of recovery. And when a person is looking to start recovery even being self-aware that the thoughts of entering an addiction treatment program are major steps forward. As explained in the Transtheoretical Model or Stages of Change Model in regard to substance abuse, shows that Contemplation Stage is the second stage in the process of recovery. Therefore, even having knowledge of where you are and being happy with even those initial steps can help someone make it farther in their recovery. Later blog(s) will be written here discussing the Transtheoretical Model or Stages of Change Model in relation to substance abuse treatment and recovery. The advantages of mindfulness and having increased self-awareness does not stop here.
Another major advantage of having heightened self-awareness during recovery from substance abuse is that this will assist in the reduction of cravings and impulsive behaviors. Impulsive behaviors come from having impulsive thoughts, which being more in the present and self-aware will allow a person to see these thoughts as just what they are and stop them from turning into impulsive behaviors. Cravings are the same as if these are just thoughts, but if allowed to continue can lead someone to relapse. With cravings the mindfulness principle of beginner’s mind will be of assistance. Using beginner’s mind principle, a person will not be looking at the past experiences and ideas which would fuel the craving into usage of the substance with rationalizing the usage. Then with practice the person will be able to be more aware of the situations, places, people, and things that are bringing up the thoughts associated with the cravings and take power back over them in life. This is the best method of not just eliminating cravings but to ultimately take back control of areas of life that have been negatively impacted by substance abuse.
For impulsive thoughts it is with increased self-awareness that a person can keep the impulsive thoughts as just thoughts and stop them from turning into impulsive behaviors. Impulsive thoughts are going to happen, to most people, but knowing when to and not to act on them is very important. Even more important for those in addiction treatment, as some, if not most, of those impulsive thoughts could lead to relapse. With increased self-awareness people are able to know the thoughts for what they are, which in turn will diffuse the thoughts and prevent them from turning into destructive behaviors. Emotional regulation is always useful in assisting in cravings and impulse control, which emotional regulation is improved by the practice of mindfulness.
Having better emotional regulation in life is a great thing whether a person is dealing with addiction treatment or not, it is a healthier way to live life. With higher levels of emotional regulation an individual’s overall level of daily stress will diminish. Not that there is any cure to eliminating stress in life, but there are ways to decrease how it affects us day to day. Stress is often a trigger for people in recovery and when triggered those people may result in using substances as their coping skill. As more mindfulness is practiced and emotional regulation increases, the ability of letting go of the past increases as well as slowing down the concerns over future changes, ultimately decreasing those daily stressors in life.
The last area the practice of mindfulness will assist in with addiction recovery is that of assisting with the development of better coping skills. One coping skill is similar to that earlier mentioned with emotional regulation, cravings, and impulse control, and that is bringing the person’s attention to the current point in time and without any judgment. Stress reduction as previously mentioned eliminates the need to cope, but then frees up the ability for learned coping skills to work in other areas of the person’s life. Related to the practice of mindfulness are the areas of meditation, breathing exercises, mindful observation, and guided imagery which are all coping skills which can assist with cravings. These other coping skills will be discussed in length in future blogs, so please come back to read more as these will be published in the future.
