Mental health is a vital component of your overall health and not taking proper care of your mental fortitude can lead to dealing with a number of issues including anxiety and substance abuse. Unfortunately, these problems will often work in tandem to make each other worse. In fact, people dealing with both substance abuse and mental health disorder are described as having co-occurring disorders or dual diagnoses.
While these problems can be debilitating and cause major issues, there are ways that you can overcome these problems. Obviously going to an addiction treatment facility, like The Hope House, can be a solution for those who are dealing with serious issues; however, there are also things that you can do personally to help improve your situation. For instance, meditation is known to have benefits for both mental health and substance abuse that may go a long way toward helping solve your issue.
The Power of Meditation
When it comes to working to overcome mental health obstacles and problems such as anxiety, meditation is a key exercise that can provide you with solace once you have committed to making it a part of your daily routine.
Meditation has been shown to help with a number of different health problems including:
- Chronic pain
- Depression
- Anxiety
- High blood pressure and more
Along with these health problems, meditation can also be a powerful stress reliever. According to some sources, meditation can produce an extreme sense of relaxation and help put the mind at ease. During meditative practices you focus your energy and your thoughts to reduce brain clutter and the feeling of a crowded mind.
Meditation has also been shown to help with other, more overlooked health-related problems.
Meditation for Addiction Treatment
Along with using meditation to help with problems such as anxiety or even depression, meditation is something being used in more and more addiction treatment centers across the globe as the begin to recognize the benefits.
Mindfulness practices like meditation have been shown to be helpful for those in recovery and has even shown to reduce rates of relapse in those who have substance abuse problems, such as cocaine addiction.
Tips for Practicing Meditation
If you’ve made it this far, you may be wondering how you even start meditation. There are tons of resources across the internet on steps to start meditating, to help you get started, you can follow these simple steps:
- Find a comfortable position seated or lying down
- Breathe in and out slowly
- Focus your entire attention on your inhales and exhales
- As you gain control of your focus, begin to think about other parts of the body starting from the top of your head to the tips of your toes
- Recognize where you feel tense and work to relax those body parts as you think about them
- Return to your breath
Following these steps will help you go a long way toward improving various aspects of your health and getting started on your meditative journey.
Along with these steps, here are a few tips to help you along the way:
- Let your mind wander – While thinking about your breath or body it is common for the mind to wander, don’t be upset, this is natural. Just remember to return to your breathing once you notice that it has begun to wander.
- Be consistent – It is easy to say that you will make this change, try it one time, and never do it again. If you want to see major positive results from this, it is important to be consistent. Find a time during the day that works best for you and stick to it!
- Don’t let others dissuade you – There is a stigma against mental health and some people may treat you poorly if they realize that you are struggling. Don’t let these people get to you, your mental health is important and nothing to be scoffed at.
Whatever the case is, if you are dealing with some sort of mental health or substance abuse problem, it is vital that you seek out treatment to help.
About the Author
Joe Gilmore is a creator on behalf of The Hope House, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center dedicated to helping people achieve long-term sobriety.
