Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy that uses various mindfulness strategies, such as acceptance. The purpose of ACT isn’t to eliminate negative thoughts and feelings but rather to accept that they exist. ACT will teach you how to co-exist alongside these hardships by learning how to solve difficult problems and process challenging emotions through the recognition of personal values. This article will discuss what ACT is, how it works, and why it might be the right form of therapy for you during your treatment and recovery from addiction.
Negative Emotions Are Normal
If you have a hard time naming and taming your emotions, or you tend to reject your negative emotions altogether, ACT might be helpful for you. This form of therapy allows you to see things as they truly are. It contextualizes difficult situations and helps you to better understand why you respond to certain experiences the way that you do.
Culturally, you might feel as if your negative emotions are harmful to your health. However, negative emotions like anger, sadness, and stress are a normal part of the human experience. Instead of ignoring your emotions, pushing them to the side, or seeking a solution to feel better, ACT teaches you to fully accept things for the way they are without hesitation or avoidance. This allows you the opportunity to process your emotions as they surface, rather than holding on to them. Remember, despite how controlling our emotions may seem, they are only ever temporary.
The Importance of Knowing Your Values
Your values, or things that are most important to you, are vital to navigating difficult situations. When people act in such a way that aligns with their values, it makes them feel good about their actions. Focusing on your values allows you to respond to problems intentionally rather than falling back on a typical or conditioned reaction. Having awareness of your values can also help you assess why you feel the way you do about specific situations.
For example, if family is one of your core values, the actions that you have toward your family members should embrace that. If there’s strife within your family, you’ll likely feel it more deeply. If you value honesty, dishonesty and lies might cause you more pain. Awareness of your values puts your feelings in context. Then, when you feel compelled to act or respond, you can do so in a way that aligns with your values.
ACT Teaches Mindfulness
Rarely is it helpful to react to difficult situations or attempt to change negative feelings. Sometimes, it’s better to just recognize how you are feeling without judgment. Our culture teaches us that we need to always feel okay and if we don’t then that means that something is wrong. Feeling negative emotions isn’t wrong. It is something that should be embraced. Instead of working hard to change your emotions, ACT teaches you to recognize your emotion, accept it, and then eventually move on. Being mindful of your emotions and what you are currently feeling can help you stay stable. Emotions can easily get out of control, especially if you aren’t consciously aware of them. You won’t realize how you feel until it’s too late and you say or do something you later regret. When you’re aware of your emotions, you are better able to control them.
ACT Offers Perspective
When you consider how your values play into negative emotions or problems in life, you’re able to measure the importance of the issue you are dealing with. Acknowledging your values will help you figure out if the thing that’s bothering you is even worth a reaction. Some things just aren’t as big of a deal as they are initially made out to be. If the problem doesn’t conflict with your values, or it isn’t an enormous issue, then it should not overtake your emotions. You are allowed to feel angry, sad, or stressed, but then give yourself the chance to move on. Awareness of your emotions, and the reality of the situation, can help you gauge how you should react, allowing for better emotional control overall.
How ACT Can Help Addiction Treatment
Emotional instability can be a major contributor to substance use and addiction. Fortunately, ACT is a valuable resource to help you cope with difficult emotions. Instead of searching for temporary relief from a temporary feeling, you can learn to accept how you feel in the moment, as well as why you feel that way. Instead of running away from negative emotions, you can confront them head-on and accept that they exist, instead of letting them completely take over your actions and reactions.
ACT is valuable for addiction treatment because it helps individuals practice accountability for their own thoughts and feelings throughout the recovery process. When individuals have a deeper awareness of why they use substances, they can discover healthier coping mechanisms to replace their substance use and other addictive behaviors.
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a psychotherapy approach that utilizes both behavioral and mindfulness strategies. ACT helps clients to recognize that negative emotions are normal and that having knowledge of personal values will motivate positive behavior. The mindfulness aspect of ACT emphasizes that emotions are always temporary and by accepting negative emotions, an individual can move on more quickly from the situation at hand. ACT is an effective treatment approach for treating SUD and addiction. Fortunately, Bella Monte Recovery Center is a treatment center that values and utilizes acceptance and commitment therapy. We believe that mindfulness strategies are necessary to help individuals cope with the challenging impacts of substance use and addiction. We offer several different treatment programs and therapies to help individualize client care. If you’re interested in learning more about ACT therapy or other therapy modalities that we offer, call Belle Monte today at (800) 974-1938.
Therapists use eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) to treat individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related issues. EMDR is a valuable tool for treating all forms of trauma, including those related to substance use disorder (SUD). Bella Monte Recovery Center uses EMDR to help clients process events, feelings, and thoughts that may be inhibiting recovery. EMDR can help you achieve significant emotional relief and remove mental roadblocks caused by traumatic events, stress, and anxiety.
What Happens in the First EMDR Session?
Most people notice a change in how they react to reprocessed memories within only a handful of sessions. To keep the process efficient, your therapist will gather information about you during the first session and answer questions about what to expect from EMDR. The initial session involves the following:
- Discussing what memories, thoughts, or feelings may be causing distress
- Making goals for the EMDR treatment
- Going over what to expect during treatment
- Choosing a form of bilateral stimulation (BLS)
- Discussing or practicing mindfulness and grounding techniques
You will learn more about your therapist and how EMDR works during the first session. The goal is to establish expectations and prepare you for EMDR.
What Are the Different Types of Bilateral Stimulation?
Bilateral stimulation is essential to the EMDR process, and there are multiple types to choose from, including audio and visual. Your therapist will review the different options to find which one you feel most comfortable using. According to Frontiers in Psychology, “A distinct characteristic of EMDR therapy is the use of alternating bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tactile, or audio), which appears to produce a physiological effect promoting accelerated reprocessing of dysfunctionally stored information related to the traumatic event.”
The therapist may verbally walk you through the process or give you an example of the different types of bilateral stimulation to familiarize you with the process. Standard forms of bilateral stimulation include:
- Eye movement challenging using a light bar, wand, or other items the client can visually track
- Tapping or self-tapping with hands, a paddle, or other items
- Auditory stimulation using headphones
Traumas are highly personal, and the therapist will collaborate with you to ensure the stimulation does not trigger overwhelming fear, anxiety, cravings, flashbacks, or intensive thoughts that might interfere with the process. The multiple options for bilateral stimulation make it easy to track the stimuli while you work through traumatic thoughts or memories.
Your therapist can enhance the benefits by customizing the type of bilateral stimulation to accommodate your preferences. For example, if you do not like being touched or have difficulty focusing when someone is sitting too close, you can use bilateral audio stimulation. Most people find it helpful to try out each type of stimulation to find what works best for them.
How Does EMDR Feel?
EMDR combines eye movement, verbal cues, or auditory stimulation with mindfulness and experiential techniques to reprocess traumatic and stressful memories. Each session involves going over specific traumas repeatedly to reprocess them. Each time the moment is relived, the negative emotions attached to it will decrease until the memory is fully processed. You may experience emotional stress and discomfort. The therapist will guide you through grounding and mindfulness techniques to keep you present and focused. The physical sensations experienced during and after sessions feel different for everyone. You might experience tingling in your chest and limbs or experience a highly relaxed meditative state.
What Happens During a Session?
A typical session takes around 45 minutes. During that time, the therapist walks you through verbally or mentally reliving the traumatic memories, thoughts, or feelings while simultaneously tracking the bilateral stimulation. Most people experience mild distress and some forms of hyperarousal during the first session. For a short period afterward, people often report feeling a bit strange.
The specific sensations vary from person to person and can feel similar to meditation or mindfulness exercises. You may feel very aware of your body, especially extremities like arms, hands, and fingers. Some individuals feel relaxed and experience a “buzz” or numbness that lasts for a short period and slowly wears off. Usually, these effects stop after several sessions once the mind and body acclimate to the EMDR process.
Is It Difficult to Relive Painful Memories for EMDR Sessions?
Reprocessing pain associated with traumatic memories can be challenging, and some might find the idea frightening. However, taking action and overcoming that fear by successfully going through EMDR therapy is one way to increase self-efficacy and self-confidence. The pain, anxiety, shame, and regret associated with traumatic memories will decrease each time you use EMDR. Some people notice positive changes after the first session. Although it can be difficult to relive memories at first, it becomes easier over time.
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is a therapeutic tool that can help you process traumatic memories in a way that provides lasting relief from the symptoms of disorders like PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder. Using EMDR to treat aspects of substance use disorder and co-occurring conditions can improve your outcome even if you do not have noticeable trauma-related symptoms. The rehabilitation programs at Bella Monte Recovery Center require all clients to undergo trauma therapy, including EMDR sessions. Treating the side effects of underlying traumas can reduce your risk of relapse during continuing care and long-term recovery. EMDR is a part of the personalized holistic care we provide to clients undergoing rehabilitation. You can overcome trauma and regain control of your life using tools like EMDR. To learn more about the services and treatments we offer at Bella Monte Recovery, contact us today by calling (800) 974-1938.
Mindfulness is the act of slowing down and being present, noticing your feelings, and paying attention to your internal world. This approach will help you regulate anxiety or depression, avoid relapse, and feel comfortable in your own skin.
Why Are People So Stressed Out Nowadays?
Being mindful is harder today than it’s arguably ever been, but why? In some ways, the answer is a little ironic. Our distant ancestors experienced stress because of life-threatening danger from predators, starvation, and disease. Anxiety, for them, was a survival mechanism that helped them stay alert and wary of external threats.
Today, that survival instinct still lives on in our minds. Plenty of people encounter life-threatening forms of danger, and there’s undoubtedly no downplaying the violence and oppression that many people deal with on a daily basis. However, for the most part, the survival mechanism of anxiety has adapted itself to situations where people’s lives are not actually at stake.
How Mindfulness Can Help You Reduce Stress
Although mindfulness as we know it grew out of Buddhist meditation practices, it is not particular to any religion and is practiced all over the world. Essentially, mindfulness is the practice of slowing down and being fully present with thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.
Our busy lives are full of doing, though mindfulness concentrates on being. The point is to empty the mind of all unnecessary clutter and focus on the present moment. Some forms of mindfulness practices may include:
- Meditation
- Breathwork
- Movement-oriented calming strategies
Yet, even though mindfulness can help you concentrate on the present moment, it does not seek to make you more attached to it. The beauty of this approach is that it allows you to be both aware and unattached. You can concentrate on what’s around you without investing too much emotion in it. The more separation you have from your emotions, the harder it is to be stressed. You can control what you choose to become stressed or not stressed about.
Mindfulness Is Science-Supported
Mindfulness is scientifically proven to reduce stress levels, and it helps to change brain activity in regions of the nervous system associated with attention and emotional regulation. When you direct your awareness to your thoughts, feelings, or breath, your body’s internal stress response lowers. You can respond to what’s going on around you thoughtfully instead of reacting instinctively. It can help you stay calm in stressful situations and avoid making rash decisions such as using substances to cope.
How Mindfulness Can Help With Addiction
Not only does mindfulness help with anxiety, but it also helps with addiction. One of the great benefits of mindfulness is that by slowing down and quieting all the chatter in your brain, you will start to notice things about yourself that you have never noticed before. In particular, you will notice your stress reactions as they happen, which can help you connect your triggers and your addictive behaviors.
Understanding Addiction as an Internal Stress Response
An internal stress response drives addiction, and chronic stress is proven to heighten the risk of substance abuse and relapse. When you are overwhelmed and unable to relax, you are more likely to turn to drug use, drinking, and other numbing activities. Mindfulness allows you to step back and recognize the situations that make you want to “numb out” and turn to substance use.
For instance, you may become tempted to stop by the liquor store after a bad day of work. Mindfulness can help you become aware of this temptation as it occurs to you in real-time. This way, when you have a bad day of work, you will know ahead of time that you are more likely to relapse.
In other words, mindfulness allows you to plan ahead, adjusting your behavior before your cravings feel too powerful to resist. For this reason, the approach is an integral part of any relapse prevention plan.
Getting Support Through Mindfulness Treatment
If you or a loved one are dealing with anxiety, depression, addiction, or any other mental health issues, it’s vital to seek treatment. You may become tempted to fight through your problems alone, but on your own, you are more likely to seek out coping habits that do more harm than good.
With mindfulness, you can recognize these negative coping habits and understand where they stem. You can deepen your self-awareness, reduce stress, and overcome your need to rely on unhelpful solutions. In doing so, you will begin to create healthier habits to help you cope with challenging situations.
No matter how hopeless you feel, it is possible to avoid relapsing and overcome the pain of addiction. By cultivating a mindfulness routine, you can recognize your triggers and stressors and manage them more effectively. At Bella Monte Recovery Center in Desert Hot Springs, California, we take a compassionate, evidence-based approach to the therapeutic journey. Through mindfulness-based stress reduction, we are confident that we can help you strengthen your relapse prevention plan. Our goal is to help you increase your awareness of your thoughts and feelings, allowing for new insights about what triggers your addiction and what you can do to stop it. Don’t wait to get the support you need. If you want to break the grip that addiction has on your life and embrace a brighter, substance-free future, we encourage you to connect with us. To begin your journey of healing and empowerment, call us today at (800) 974-2108.
Methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth, has become a growing problem and a dangerous drug. Due to its highly addictive nature and the toll it takes on your body, getting treatment is paramount. This article discusses what crystal meth is, how it affects your body, and the steps you can take to get help for yourself or a loved one.
What Is Crystal Meth?
Crystal meth is a highly addictive stimulant. It’s synthetic and is chemically similar to amphetamines, which can be used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Doctors sometimes prescribe methamphetamine to treat obesity and ADHD, but it’s mostly known as a drug that’s manufactured and sold illegally. Crystal meth affects the body by giving the user a euphoric feeling from an increase of dopamine in their brain. Meth can be snorted, swallowed, smoked, or injected.
How Crystal Meth Affects Your Body
Both short-term and long-term use of crystal meth can have severe physical effects. As a stimulant, meth causes a racing heart, increased respiration, and higher body temperatures. An increased heart rate can raise your blood pressure and potentially damage small blood vessels in the brain, leading to a stroke. If a person uses too much, a higher body temperature can lead to hypothermia. If a person overdoses, they might experience convulsions, cardiovascular collapse, or even death.
Those who use meth might experience severe itching, leading to skin sores. If a person uses meth through injection, they run the risk of scarred or collapsed veins. Crystal meth can also cause a person to have a very limited appetite, leading to extreme weight loss. Insomnia is also reported by those who take meth. People sometimes binge crystal meth and go days without eating or sleeping. Another physical risk is how meth affects your mouth and teeth. Using crystal meth can result in severe dental problems, causing teeth to rot.
Using crystal meth can open you up to potentially contracting numerous diseases. Injecting meth raises the risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis because of needle sharing. Meth can also worsen the progression of AIDS/HIV and potentially lead to tuberculosis, pneumonia as well as kidney and liver disease.
How Crystal Meth Affects Your Brain
Taking crystal meth can cause numerous dangerous mental side effects and long-term cognitive problems. When a person uses meth, they tend to have extreme emotions. They might feel overly excited, but that can easily switch to agitation and paranoia. People who take meth constantly feel on edge. In extreme cases, their behavior can escalate to violence. Meth often causes hallucinations, which can become dangerous when paired with delusions and paranoia that can also come with taking crystal meth.
During and after taking crystal meth, a person’s ability to think clearly is impacted. People on meth might feel confused or disoriented. They might have difficulty understanding what’s happening or have short-term and long-term memory issues. These problems can affect them even after the effects have worn off. Meth can change a person’s brain structure, affecting how their brain produces dopamine. Once a person stops using meth, their brain structure may go back to normal after a while. Sometimes, it can take a year or more for their brain to return to normal, while some parts of the brain may never fully recover.
How to Get Help
If you or a loved one is struggling with an addiction to meth, it is vital to get the treatment necessary for recovery. A life free of addiction is possible with the help of the proper detox and treatment program for your needs. Understanding the nature of drug dependence and addiction explained can be a crucial step in addressing the issue effectively. Educating yourself about the biological and psychological factors involved can empower you and your loved ones to make informed decisions about treatment options. Remember, seeking help is a sign of strength, and a supportive community can make all the difference on the road to recovery.
Enter Into Medically Assisted Detox
Most rehabilitation or treatment centers require clients to go through detox. After detox, those who enter treatment can start completely drug-free and focus solely on treatment and healing. The detoxification process can be physically and mentally difficult, and this is especially true for crystal meth because of how addictive it is and how severe the withdrawal symptoms are. Symptoms of withdrawal include:
- Dehydration
- Weight gain
- Headaches
- Intense cravings
- Muscle pain
- Muscle spasms
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Chills
What to Expect in Treatment
After a person completes detox, they’ll need to enter residential treatment. Currently, there isn’t a government-approved medication that can treat addiction to meth. The common course is through behavioral therapies, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), where they can address the things that trigger use and participate in physical rehabilitation.
Meth addiction destroys the body, which is why physical rehabilitation in treatment is so important. Healing from meth addiction involves improving sleep, nutrition, and physical fitness, as those are most affected.
Crystal meth addiction is serious. Since the drug is highly addictive, it can be easy for your life to become taken over by this drug. There are plenty of physical and mental risks and it’s important to get help for this addiction right away. Thankfully, there is help available. While detox will be difficult, quitting meth for good can give you a second chance at life. In treatment, you can reclaim your life and begin to heal. If you have a crystal meth addiction, it’s important to get the help you need before it’s too late. While some of the risks of meth are long-lasting, there are many that improve after quitting, although it can take some time. It’s possible to get better. If you’re interested in learning how Bella Monte can help, call us today at (800) 974-1938 to learn about our crystal meth program.
When the majority of people think of trauma, they think of sexual assault and military combat, but the actual scope of trauma is much more far-reaching. A traumatic experience is an event that is too overwhelming for your brain to handle. Examples include childhood neglect, a bad breakup, grief, loss, and suffering from a chronic illness.
The Connection Between Trauma and Addiction
Trauma causes your nervous system to become dysregulated and makes you feel stuck in the past, as if your painful experience is still happening long after it’s done. Put simply, your brain cannot make a traumatic memory feel like a memory, blurring the line between past and present. When something comes along that reminds you of your trauma, your body goes into a stress reaction, and you may experience hyperarousal, muscle tension, or panic attacks. All of these are symptoms of PTSD.
Due to how overwhelming trauma can be, it’s natural to turn to “numbing” behaviors that help you disconnect from your feelings. This is how the cycle of addiction often starts. To escape the emotional pain that trauma caused, you may turn to drinking, drugs, gambling, pornography, and other habits. These behaviors provide relief for the chronic stress and hyperarousal that trauma causes, temporarily calming a dysregulated nervous system.
In the long run, however, addiction only adds to the pain of trauma. Addictive behaviors may distract you from traumatic memories, but they cannot heal them since they do not address the root cause of your pain. They offer a quick fix but not long-lasting relief.
How EMDR Can Help You Heal From Trauma and Get to the Root of Your Addiction
One of the most effective methods for treating trauma is EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). The beauty of EMDR is that it gets straight to the source of your emotional pain and addresses the root cause of your addiction. It seeks to minimize the impact of traumatic memories on you, reducing your need for drugs, alcohol, and other quick fixes and unhealthy dependencies.
EMDR differs from standard talk therapy in that it doesn’t require you to go into detail about your trauma. It is minimally invasive. After all, talking about trauma can be re-traumatizing in and of itself since it forces you to dwell on what happened to you. With EMDR, you can share as much or as little of your story as you want. This approach is more concerned with images, feelings, and sensations than words.
At its core, the process of EMDR is very similar to a REM sleep cycle. During REM, the brain unconsciously processes memories and stores them in their proper place. EMDR works with unprocessed memories, but unlike REM sleep, it helps you process them while you are conscious and awake. The approach uses a series of gentle stimulation techniques to desensitize the pain you feel when you recall traumatic events. In other words, EMDR helps you take the edge off of your pain, allowing you to remember what happened without feeling distressed.
How does all of this connect to addiction? Trauma makes you want to escape your feelings — EMDR helps you overcome this need to escape. It can help you feel more at home in your body and experience less of a need to “numb out” through drugs, drinking, and other habits. After all, addiction is characterized by an intense emotional craving that starts in the body. By treating the pain stored in the body, you can heal the emotional wounds fueling your habit.
How EMDR Works
While its name may sound rather complicated, EMDR follows a very straightforward protocol. It has you perform a series of bilateral stimulation exercises — such as tapping your knees or moving your eyes back and forth — as you recall distressing images or events. Doing so engages both the left and right sides of your brain, the “feeling” side and the “thinking” side. This allows the brain to move memories out of the feeling side and into the thinking side, reducing the emotional overwhelm of trauma. As a result, you can look back on your trauma calmly, rationally, and without a sense of alarm.
However, EMDR therapy involves much more than just bilateral stimulation. A considerable part of the process is about grounding and de-stressing. After all, sometimes recalling painful events can make you feel anxious or depressed. That’s why it’s essential to develop coping skills that you can use to center yourself during sessions. You and your therapist can work together to develop strategies for staying grounded, such as meditation, breathwork, and other mindfulness-based activities. What these skills are depends on what works best for you individually.
Living with trauma can be challenging. While addiction may provide temporary relief, it cannot keep the pain of trauma from returning. To experience lasting healing in your life, we encourage you to seek help. At Bella Monte Recovery Center in Desert Hot Springs, California, we provide a life-changing approach to trauma, addiction, and recovery. We have therapists who are well-trained in EMDR and can help you break the chains of addiction, allowing you to move beyond the pain of the past and embrace a brighter future. Even if you’re not sure there is trauma in your life, EMDR specialists can help you figure out what’s at the heart of your addiction, uncover any emotional wounds, and become more connected to yourself. To get started on the path to wellness and achieve a fresh start in life, reach out to Bella Monte Recovery Center today at (800) 974-1938. Healing starts with Bella Monte.
A person doesn’t wake up one day and decide to get addicted to drugs or alcohol. What may have started out as something fun and recreational no longer becomes a choice. Addiction is a disease that completely controls and attempts to destroy individuals’ lives. In the same way that diseases that manifest physically have causes, so do diseases that manifest emotionally or mentally.
You might be wondering what leads people to substances in the first place. Using substances, more often than not, begins as a survival tactic to combat traumatic times or memories of past traumatic experiences. Substance abuse and compulsive behaviors often start as a way to cope with underlying pain caused by trauma.
Defining Trauma
Trauma is an event or series of circumstances that have lasting effects on your mental, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual well-being. Traumatic events can completely change how you see yourself and how you view the world around you. When trying to keep trauma-related memories out of your mind becomes a daily struggle, you may develop unhealthy coping skills in a time of desperation. Too often, trauma leads to excessive substance abuse, serving as an escape from the emotions caused by that trauma.
The Connection Between Trauma and Addiction
Sometimes when people experience trauma, they get stuck in a never-ending cycle and pattern of behavior, leaving them unable to process what has happened. When you’re dealing with traumatic experiences and are unable to process these events and the intense feelings that come with them, it is common to turn to substances in an attempt to numb the unresolved pain you are experiencing.
While trauma does increase the risk of developing tendencies to excessively abuse substances, it is essential to note that trauma doesn’t only affect addiction, but addiction also affects trauma. Substance abuse increases the likelihood of being re-traumatized by engaging in high-risk behaviors. In order to break these patterns and create and maintain a sober life, it is crucial to process past traumas that may be influencing patterns of substance abuse and compulsive behavior.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a proven treatment method used to safely unfold defenses and discover what is festering under the surface. It is a way to make the unconscious conscious, allowing for a powerful healing process and a strong encounter with the true self. EMDR has been extensively researched as an effective psychotherapy method proven to help people face their past traumas and recover from distressing life experiences and emotions.
EMDR doesn’t require talking in-depth about the issues at hand. Instead of focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the given issue, EMDR therapy allows the brain to resume its natural healing process without being blocked by trauma responses. It is designed to help you reprocess traumatic memories in the brain in order to allow your brain to heal and take the shape it existed in prior to traumatic experiences.
How EMDR Is Used to Treat Addiction
Trauma is a common cause of excessive substance abuse, and by treating the underlying trauma that is causing addiction, the brain is able to heal naturally. The goal of EMDR in addiction treatment is to relieve distress, reformulate negative beliefs, and reduce physiological arousal, allowing individuals who are struggling with substance abuse to stop relying on substances to forget or block out past traumas.
In other words, EMDR aims to reprocess how traumatic memories are stored and alleviate the intense emotions associated with that traumatic experience. EMDR is a way to treat the root causes of an addiction, which also lessens the risk of relapse in the future. This treatment method stems entirely from the belief that someone suffering from addiction will have less compulsion to use substances once the underlying trauma is addressed and treated.
By approaching individuals’ substance abuse tendencies from a trauma-informed perspective, treatment naturally becomes more individualized, focusing on the specific contributing factors of each person’s addiction. Another way in which EMDR has proven to be effective is that it reconnects individuals who appear to be disengaged and disconnected with themselves and with others. This connection is essential in the process of becoming and staying sober.
Finding the Right Treatment for You
Sometimes, finding the right addiction treatment facility is less about finding the right location and more about finding the right treatment. If you believe you or a loved one may be struggling with substance abuse caused by underlying trauma, EMDR may be an effective form of treatment for you. This therapeutic approach can help individuals process and integrate traumatic experiences, reducing the emotional distress that often underlies addiction. Many rehabilitation centers now offer EMDR therapy for addiction recovery, recognizing its potential to facilitate lasting healing. By addressing the root causes of substance use, clients can build a healthier foundation for their recovery journey.
If you are struggling with the effects of trauma and it has led you to addiction, EMDR may be an effective treatment method for you. EMDR can help you reprocess your trauma, so it no longer affects you in the same way. Bella Monte Recovery Center in Desert Hot Springs, California, believes that the issue isn’t the substance itself but the underlying pain that causes the perpetual cycle leading you back to substances time and time again. Here at Bella Monte Recovery Center, we believe that the client who presents as disengaged or disconnected may actually be a client suffering from early damage that led to substance abuse as a way of surviving. Our program focuses heavily on treating the trauma that is causing destructive patterns of behavior in order to live a happy and sober life. Give yourself the chance to receive the healing you deserve. To learn more about treating trauma and addiction, call (800) 974-1938 today.
