Holistic Healing for Addiction: Enlivening Body, Mind and Spirit to Remedy Depression, Anxiety and Self-Hate

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Harbor Village Recovery for making this book a possibility. The dedication of every individual staff member in our detoxification and rehabilitation programs make it possible for thousands of people struggling with substance use disorders to return to their lives and loved ones, free from the tethers of addiction. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work on this project that may give light, hope, and catalyze the recovery of all who pick up this book.

In earnest, I would like to take the time to mention, and thank, every person struggling with addiction for continuing to rail against the disease. It is because of you, and your families, that we will continue to fight against the travesties of the disease. We will push to revolutionize the stigma of addiction and find the answers to setting those beset by the disease forever free.

Thank you Professor Zackery Burks, you have continually inspired me to chase my ambitions, despite the odds of failure. Thank you for inspiring those around you to return to what we all ultimately seek: self-actualization.

Thank you, Dr. Pamela Marcus, for loving me when I could not love myself, and showing me how to reflect my inner light to the universe.

And of course, thank you mom and dad for always being my anchor in the storms of myself.

Preface

Addiction is perhaps the great equalizer we would wish away had we the ability; the disease afflicts all without regards to race, gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. In many cases, the disease comes espoused with mental illnesses and underlying traumas left unaddressed for a testament of years.  As someone who has struggled with many of the precursors of addiction (depression, low self-esteem, and unfortunate life experiences leading to the brambles of self-harm), I found myself on the precipice of remaining absolutely mad- should I have continued to be drawn by the intimate insanity inside without hope of release, save the bits of skin I would melt away. Yet I did find a way out, and in a non-traditional means: holistic healing.

Embracing holistic healing is less farfetched than it may have been a decade ago. I want to show you how embracing an alternative means of treatment, before, during, and after addiction recovery will help speed your path to sobriety, and enliven your spirit to experience life for all of the colors deadened by the dredges of addiction.

This book is the manifestation of knowledge nearly ten yeas accrued from personal study and how these measures lend themselves to treating the underlying causes of addiction, self-harm, and mental unrest. Many cognitive afflictions share similar symptoms and psychological expression (i.e.: depression). While it is true traditional therapy is necessary to treat chronic and budding substance use disorders, there are spiritual tactics which you may employ from home, speeding the recovery process, and allowing you to redefine who it is you want to be in this life.

Addiction cannot define you if you do not allow it. That is the premise of this book. In your hands (or more likely, on your screen) you hold the key to unlocking your life into the reality you wish it to be. Addiction cannot keep you prisoner if you relinquish its hold on you; addressing the anxieties welled up inside of you is key to freeing yourself to experience life for all the beauties it is meant to be.

If you are someone suffering from addiction, self-harm, or mental illness, this book is for you. It will show you how to employ holistic healing in your everyday life to achieve the aspirations you have always dreamed of, and how to live your life in peace, harmony, and guide you to the beginning steps of fulfilling self-actualization.

If you are a loved one of someone else who is struggling from addiction, this book is for you. Although it is beyond the scope of this book to define the intrinsic nature of addiction, this text will arm you with actionable solutions you can begin working with your loved ones to overcome the disease of addiction from the inside out.  Maybe you have tried therapy, or other means of reaching your loved one without success; this book is the bridge between traditional medical wellness and the venerable healing arts of Eastern medicine.

Holistic healing cannot usurp the place of rehabilitation treatment. Yet what it can do is induce change, open oneself to the possibility and willingness to go to treatment, and keep one on the path of recovery once finally traversing rehabilitation.  Holistic healing is more than a routine ritual, it is a perennial state of being which will unfetter your creative, intellectual, and inherent potential stifled by addiction.

You are the culmination of your choices, not the reflection of self-perceived failures. Addiction is not a choice- but there are means that will return you as the forbearer of your fate. This book will help you do that, from the inside out.

In comparison to other books on addiction recovery, this book takes an approach to mindful thinking, and addressing not addiction, but the causes of addiction. It is well known addiction is a means of self-medicating feelings of depression, anxiety, and inward ills. This book will help you silence and resolve the inner demons fomenting addiction.

Do not mistake this as a magic formula to fell the disease of addiction outright, but a roadmap that if you commit yourself to, will ultimately bring you the happiness of shedding your psychological and emotional pain, allowing you to pursue the passions you have always dreamed of.

Introduction

Johann Hari says the opposite of addiction is connection. [i] For years we have dedicated all of our financial, emotional, and physical resources to thwart addiction with barbed fetters. We have persecuted and maimed the social perception of what addiction is, and is not. In doing so, we have created a society which is overly reliant on the institution of singularity in treatment and detainment- of embracing animosity, and branding addiction as a willful choice. All research tells us otherwise. Addiction is a physical and psychological state imposed on us by genetic disposition, environmental stimuli, and an inability to be present in existence. Addiction is a manifestation of inner turmoil and travesty. It is the fruition of society instructing us to never share our emotions, to man or woman up, and to remain entirely self-sufficient, lest you be accused of being clingy or needy.

Addiction is the cause of lives ignored, in need of love and light; addiction exists because of lack of purpose; of the inability to find a measure of hope; addiction thrives in environments of judgement, self-doubt, and persecution; addiction festers in self-odium, sometimes self-taught; addiction is the culmination of loneliness- of the deficit of emotional fulfillment, physical wellness, and spiritual affinity in even measures. Addiction cannot be expressed, nor branded with half-hearted attempts to raze mental disorders or physical disposition to the systematic bodily institution of dependence, it must be embraced for the entirety of its reality- streaking far beyond our tangible planes: to indwelling heartbreak long left writhing in the escape of addictive substances of choice.

This explanation of the disease is not limited to those who permit themselves to traipse the waters of holistic recovery- but a description of the full bodied wraith of addiction; of loss; of abandonment; of the inability to connect with universal love and the consciousness of all. Addiction is the unwillful abandonment of life. Addiction is the admittance, and acquiescence to the cruelty of the human continuum.

Yet there is light.

There exists light in all things. There is always hope in leagues of despair. Even if you have read it in every recovery book, every pamphlet, heard it spoken by every well-intentioned passerby, and you have never believed it, believe it now. Because there is always hope. In every state of recovery- including the suspension before recovery, there are energies working to bring you to the ultimate fruition of your true self. Every tribulation you have lived through, every brush with death, and every moment you have spent hulled up in the expanse of yourself to dull the pain of life- has prepared you to ascend to the inner stirrings of your soul. 

You must not believe in the universal spirit, nor must you submit to any spiritual dogma, to benefit from this book. All required of you is an open mind. Your heart, we will open together.  Holistic Healing for Drug & Alcohol Addiction is the aggregation of study into the metaphysical arts. This book is the prescription for my own soul, the remedies which gave my life purpose after I lost everything to the fragments of my own spirit. When the nothingness enveloped me, and I was convinced I would not make it out alive- when therapy alone could not make me whole, I realized I had to find solace within myself. But I did not know how. More questions than decided answers remain, yet these curatives I have found to resurrect the dwelling inside of me.

How to Use This Book

Explore every inch, every margin in whichever manner you please. Each chapter can serve as a mini course in a selected New Age, holistic healing art. When read as appearing, each course reverberates to the next, offering ideal cohesion and progression of ideas and principals. Either way is correct, simply enjoy the experience, ask questions, deviate to your own patterns of thought, and always, remain vigilant. Know there are more fascinations in the realm of our existence to save you from the darkness. Understand you have the power over it. The keys reside within you.

Holistic Healing

What Is Holistic Healing?

Holistic healing is the practice of harmonizing the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual planes of yourself. The mystic arts are the equalizers for those suffering from physical and mental unrest, because to practice holistic healing the only catalyst needed is you. Accessible to all willing to remain open, embracing the philosophies and principals of holistic arts, is to take responsibility for the energy you project into the world.

Holistic healing emphasizes the unity of body, mind, and spirit. Although we are bombarded by the concept in the revitalization of new age, and holistic healing practices, many forgo to impart the essential principals which make the marriage of these principals tangible. It is not enough to participate ritualistically and expect change to occur, almost through osmosis. For holistic healing to be truly effective, one must embrace the psychological aspect of the practices.

The power to change is inside of you. What we assume to be effective on the outside, whether it is by means of therapy, crystal healing, or meditation, are simply catalysts to mobilize the indwelling of your spirit to take action against the haunts running amuck underneath the surface. It is not the mere presence of an outside force which induces change, it is the shift of your personal attitudes and feelings towards the situation at hand.

Addiction cannot be eliminated from merely superficial or outward resolution (such as the attendance of therapy with the absence of conflict resolution). The disease is only abated when the mind is mended, or given an alternative means of expression. Addiction is the symptom of a problem, it is not the problem. Although this may seem counterintuitive, to truly treat addiction we must first address the causes of it.

It is never enough to point fingers at addiction and rest blame at its feet, we must continually endeavor to uncover why it has been allowed to manifest, and combat scourges found without hesitation. Holistic healing gives us the ability to travel inwards and explore, identify, confront, and begin to heal the causes of substance use disorders. Similarly to cognitive behavioral therapy, the pinnacle of addiction treatment, holistic healing, practiced with full cognitive engagement and emotional sensitivity, will allow you to re-wire your mind to express yourself in alternative means, and to banish the crutches of addiction altogether.

The urgency of treating addiction stems from the medical state of emergency the condition precipitates. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH) asserts more than 16,000 overdoses in 2013 resulted from opiate prescription drug abuse alone. [ii] Substance use disorders left untreated cause permanent physical and psychological damage. Addiction spurs immediacy, as the consequences of the disorder are dire, creating a second tier of dread unique to substance abuse. It is within this spectrum of thought the underlying causes of the disease can be cast aside in favor of merely treating the outward signs of the disease: overdose, the development of medical conditions, psychological deterioration, and lifestyle degradation (homelessness, divorce, etc.). The dangers of succumbing to the mortality of addiction force us to skim the surface of recovery for immediate liberation. But it is not enough alone.

Holistic healing allows you, and your loved ones, to take arms against the brambles of addiction from the core of your existence, and purge the psychological, emotional, and mental throes of the disease. It is less concerned with the physical aspects of the disorder- yet despite this, the physical body is an integral part of the healing process. But not in the context we would normally expect. Instead of the body serving as the vessel to carry us along in life, holistic healing reminds us to revere each limb as our connection to our inner selves. Without understanding and balancing the physical body, one cannot achieve harmony, nor truly master the fate of himself. Alternative medicine reminds us to employ the use of our entire selves to entreat true change, cementing the tactics of its practice into the physical realm, and not merely in the intangible sphere of the mind. 

Holistic healing caresses each minute instance of the human existence, and seeks to harmonize each disjointed segment into fluidity. It is believed when one aspect of the self is out of balance, it foments the creation of physical sickness. Holistic medicine enables us to remain mindful in our thinking, actions, and outward experiences- prompting us to make decisions bringing us inward peace, happiness, and fulfillment. The practice is not merely a sampling of using meditation to be calm within the moment, it is embracing alternative means of remaining well for a lifetime; to be governed by the teachings and philosophies which will always tether your behaviors to humility, humanity, and honor- of yourself, and the collective consciousness around you.

Does Holistic Healing Have Any Scientific Merits?

One of the hurdles holistic healing often comes up against is the insufficiency of scientific evidence of its effectiveness. In the scope of the entire spectrum of holistic healing, which includes a medley of means not covered within the expanse of this book, it would be unfair to measure the effectiveness of meditation to say, Feng Shui, without giving each practice its due exploration. Which is to say, discrediting the entire institution of holistic healing as hogwash not only offends the scientist process, it neglects to employ it at all.

Conversely, the practices which have been explored, and have been found to be either effective or not, may be measured in this sense, to an extent. In regards of the means of holistic healing covered in this book, crystal healing, Feng Shui, chakra healing, affirmations, and so on, the science is mixed, as are the practices. It is beyond the scope of this introductory book, which is not meant to serve as a guide to discuss the scientific ramifications of each endeavor, to look to the proven, scientific soundness of each practice.

Studies conducted by The Touchstone Process (a means of deriving, from peer review, whether or not scientific studies are merited), have validated Reiki Healing, a type of vibrational medicine (similar to both crystal and chakra healing discussed in this book), as positively impacting both the biological and psychological spectrums in humans. The Columbia University of Health Sciences and New York-Presbyterian Hospital both found through blind studies, genuine Reiki healing resulted in the lowering of base line vital signs, as compared to Reiki healers who did not practice true reiki techniques. [iii] Both medical institutions recommended more encompassing research to quantify the measurable biological effects of Reiki.

Innumerable hospitals around the nation are implementing holistic healing in conjunction with traditional modern medicine to improve the quality of life for patients. The American Hospital Association President and CEO, Rich Umbdenstock, released a press release in 2008 maintaining,

Complementary and alternative medicine has shown great promise in supporting and stimulating healing. It is one of the many tools hospitals look to as they continue to create optimal healing environments for the patients they serve. [iv]

In the same public announcement, Sita Ananth, lead researcher, is quoted by Health Forum,

"Today’s patients have better access to health