How meditation helps addictions
Insightful mindfulness meditation helps those with addictions and recovering alcoholics understand what drives cravings and how to deal with the discomfort those cravings cause.
Studies have shown that those with addictions who study mindfulness meditation are more effective in preventing relapses than those who never experience mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation, when done properly, can significantly improve addiction treatment outcomes.
Why mindfulness meditation works
- In mindfulness meditation, the concept is simple: to live in present-moment awareness, observing feelings and thoughts and then letting them go without judgment or reaction. It is not a religious practice, but a spiritual one that can bring peace and focus into the lives of those who practice at least 20 minutes daily. Meditators also find the practice:
• promotes relaxation
• increases energy
• helps develop positive human traits, such as compassion, love, patience, generosity and forgiveness.
Mindfulness and science
Several studies have found that mindfulness and meditation-based approaches for treating substance use disorders can be effective when used in lieu of or in addition to traditional “treatment as usual” approaches.
In a 2009 Substance Abuse study, a team of University of Washington researchers, led by addiction specialist Sarah Bowen, PhD, conducted the first randomized-controlled trial evaluating mindfulness-based relapse prevention for substance use disorders compared to treatment as usual (12-step group therapy).
Of the participating 168 adults with substance use disorders who had recently completed intensive inpatient or outpatient treatment, they found significantly lower rates of substance use and cravings in the mindfulness group as compared to the treatment as usual group when assessed four months later.
In two recent studies led by Katie Witkiewitz, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, scientists found that mindfulness was more effective than a “gold standard” relapse-prevention program at reducing substance abuse for up to one year following treatment.
Why does meditation work?
According to Witkiewitz, mindfulness specifically addresses the cravings and negative state of mind that are major triggers for relapse. Instead of automatically reacting to thoughts, addicts learn to become more aware of those thoughts and respond.
“Individuals struggling with addiction and alcohol use disorders often live on auto-pilot and use drugs and alcohol as an immediate reaction to distress or craving,” Witkiewitz says. “Meditation teaches awareness of direct experience and provides the ability to ‘stay with’ distress or craving, without reacting.”
Witkiewitz has found that practicing mindfulness can literally change the brain, affecting specific areas that can be linked to specific behaviors. For instance, engaging in mindfulness can increase awareness of the present moment, improve attention, increase self-awareness, help people develop and implement new ways of approaching discomfort, and reduce reactivity to substance cues, among others.
How we work
Pathway to Mindfulness has a host of exercises we do with our clients, so when the urge to stray hits, they have a toolbox of remedies to help them stay sober or drug-free.
Specifically we teach basic breath meditation, body awareness, brief meditations that can be used when cravings hit, as well as changing the critical inner voice and loving-kindness meditation and forgiveness training.