When an addict in the throes of substance abuse enters addiction treatment, they obviously expect the therapy to focus solely on their addiction. But while that seems a common sense assumption, it’s not always one based in the best science. For many addicts, addiction may be the foremost issue they face, but it may also mask other serious issues, particularly mental health problems that need addressing as well. That’s why it’s important to find a program dedicated to healing the whole person through integrative approaches to recovery.
Mental health is a sadly under-appreciated side of general health care for many people, and it can be especially important for those who are dealing with addiction and substance abuse problems, too.
For many patients, addiction can sometimes stem from mental health problems, whether the patient is self-medicating with addictive substances or fell into substance abuse due to other problems they encountered due to mental illness.
For others, addiction can exacerbate mental health problems, making them worse even as substance abuse takes its toll on the patient in other ways, as well. This makes it difficult to treat addiction and send the patient on their merry way, hoping they can overcome any other issues on their own.
Instead, patients dealing with such compounding problems need an integrative approach to treatment. Sometimes called holistic treatment, this approach focuses on overall health and well-being, treating the body as an interconnected thing rather than a series of discrete parts that can be treated piecemeal.
In practice, this means the patient will receive a mixture of treatment options and therapies designed to address not only one their addiction, but other concerns they may have, such as mental health disorders, trauma, stress or other problems that contribute to addiction and are, in turn, fed by addiction.
This can include alternative practices, such as acupuncture and art therapy, that don’t fall into a strictly clinical program, but have proven effective in studies, but also just general therapeutic sessions dedicated to addressing various issues separately and together.
At Good Landing Recovery, integrative approaches to health care and addiction treatment are an important tool in helping patients who come for a program to address the various issues they face in the midst of substance abuse. This holistic treatment gives each patient the proper care and attention they need to not only find a way out of addiction toward recovery, but find a way to maintain that recovery when they leave treatment.
Kicking a substance abuse habit and ending the cycle of addiction is hard enough without other problems compounding the addict’s health concerns and mental concerns. Yet this is the reality many patients face when entering treatment and the standard therapies can struggle to contain all a patient may encounter in their health journey through recovery.
An integrative approach to treatment gives patients a viable path to healing the whole person and finding a successful path toward recovery. Good Landing offers a variety of programs that can provide patients with this integrative approach for the best possible results. Give them a call today to get started.
