Can Mindfulness Help With Addiction Recovery?

As adaptive cognitive control is restored through mindfulness exercises, MBIs may increase functional connectivity between these top-down prefrontal networks and bottom-up limbic-striatal brain circuitry involved in reward processing and motivated behavior [22]. Increased connectivity between top-down and bottom-up brain networks implicated in addiction (e.g., frontostriatal circuitry) may provide the physiological substrate through which mindfulness de-automatizes addictive behavior. Figure 1 depicts hypothesized neural functional mechanisms of MBIs for addiction.

My experience with mind-body therapies for addiction

• This type of meditation helps you to achieve clarity and stillness as it calms the mind, reduces stress, and provides a deeper relaxation.
• The phrase «just like me» is sometimes used in mindfulness meditations to promote compassion.
• Meditation also helps to expand a person’s perspective, allowing them to assess their thoughts and feelings from multiple angles.
• The most prominent MBIs (i.e., MBRP, MORE, mindfulness training for smokers) for addiction were modeled after the first generation of mindfulness-based therapies like MBSR and MBCT in terms of their structure and format.

One study compared mindfulness-based meditation programs and found that people who meditated stayed asleep longer and had improved insomnia severity, compared with those who had an unmedicated control condition (39). One study found that employees who used a mindfulness meditation app for 8 weeks experienced improved feelings of well-being and decreased distress and job strain, compared with those in a control group (11). Many people struggling with substance abuse deal with psychological agony that disrupts their sense of inner peace. Instead of finding natural ways to relieve their suffering, they turn to alcohol or drugs. Mindfulness can help calm such distress by teaching you to find and maintain internal peace. Body scans, mindful walking, and outdoor exercise, along with yoga, mindful breathing, and the 5 senses exercise, are mindfulness techniques that can help boost your inner calm.

Behavioral Research to Improve Medication-Based Treatment

At The Recovery Village, we offer a comprehensive addiction treatment program that includes holistic treatment options, including mindfulness meditation, recreational therapies, self-care activities, aftercare services and relapse prevention programs. Meditation is a valuable part of these services for interested clients. Contact The Recovery Village to learn about admissions, treatment options and how our programs can help you begin living a substance-free life.

Support for Me and My Family

This deliberate introspection fosters a clearer understanding of one’s inner workings, unveiling patterns and facilitating personal growth. By embracing a non-judgmental stance, meditation creates a space for self-acceptance, laying the groundwork for a compassionate exploration of strengths and areas for improvement. This transformative practice becomes a journey of self-discovery, providing tools for navigating life with clarity and kindness.

A meta-analysis of 22 studies on this form of meditation demonstrated its ability to increase peoples’ compassion toward themselves and others (30). For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared with those in a control group (22). Habitual meditation can help reduce meditation for addiction recovery anxiety and improve stress reactivity and coping skills. What’s more, some research suggests that a variety of mindfulness and meditation exercises may reduce anxiety levels (9). People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance.

• Pre-pandemic studies indicated that more than 85% of individuals relapse and return to drug use within one year of treatment.
• Having compassion for yourself can help you move past any guilt or shame you may feel as a result of your addiction challenges.
• This practice can act as a grounding technique, helping to center thoughts and emotions, particularly during moments of temptation or stress.
• Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span.
• Fortunately, there are now several scientifically-based mind-body medicine options for people in recovery.

To stay clean and sober addicts have to examine their past, recognize their mistakes, look into their character, and lead a better life. Changing one’s life is not easy, often painful, even though the changes are for the better. By training the mind to focus in one place and stay in the moment, meditation helps the recovering person relax and move forward.

Family and Children’s Programs

MBIs, in brief and extended formats, may be uniquely suited to this therapeutic context, and in time, may become mainstays of addiction treatment. In sum, MM may promote self-awareness and self-regulation of drug-use action schemas, cue-reactivity, substance-seeking behaviors, and substance consumption. By developing trait mindfulness over the course of participating in an MBI, an individual with a SUD may become more aware of how automatic substance use responses operate in daily life.

What Are the Benefits of Meditation?

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), noted, «These emotions increase the risk for relapse, and unfortunately, circumstances since the pandemic has made peer support, for instance in 12-step meetings and similar groups, much more difficult.» Stillness opens our hearts and minds to the vast potential within us as we move through addiction treatment and into recovery. The phrase «just like me» is sometimes used in mindfulness meditations to promote compassion.