Can Mindfulness-based Intervention Replace Traditional Addiction Treatment?

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 8.5 million people in America suffered from substance use disorder and a mental health disorder. Chances of co-occurrence of these disorders are high as addiction impacts both the human body and brain.

For many people, addiction is what their body experiences, suffers, and goes through with. And quite rightly, withdrawal symptoms of addiction are mostly related to the human body. To cope with the visible withdrawal symptoms of addiction, different medicines are prescribed by doctors. These medicines provide short-term relief and enable the body to fight against toxic chemicals accumulated due to substance abuse.

But according to psychiatrists, the primary impact of addiction is on human mental health - it affects the brain reward system, pushes for relapse, and creates a craving for particular substances. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says that all drugs taken in excess have in common direct activation of the brain reward system.

So is medication-assisted treatment( MAT) not enough to treat addiction problems? Can mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) replace MAT? In this article, Let's learn about it

Mindfulness-based intervention for addiction

A brief overview of mindfulness therapy:

The mindfulness-based intervention was first used and incorporated in the 20th century. The first program on this technique, called mindfulness-based stress reduction(MBSR), was developed by Kabat-Zinn. Later, Segal and colleagues started using mindfulness in psychiatry by introducing mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapy(CBT) in which they combined CBT and Dialectical behavior therapy( DBT) with mindfulness techniques. Since then, the use of mindfulness science and practices have been increasing day by day.

What exactly is mindfulness?

For lifelong sobriety, changing the ideas of patients is vital. Mindfulness-based intervention plays its role here as the technique replaces the harmful or destructive mindset that pushes a person to fall into an addiction trap with a healthier and productive one. Practicing mindfulness means a person develops effective relationships with thoughts, and patients develop valuable techniques to disengage themselves from ideas that could create relapse.

How does mindfulness help with addiction?

How exactly mindfulness-based interventions help with addiction? To understand this, one has to understand the early stages of addiction. Either one uses cocaine for recreational purposes or gets dependent on alcohol to feel high; all starts from destructive thoughts that contaminate your brain. Mindfulness-based intervention helps people separate the overwhelming negative thoughts, bodily sensations, and emotions. It gives people a sense of relief and calmness and thus removes the chances of using drugs, as most people use drugs and alcohol to gain some inner peace.

Mindfulness can help people live in the present, forget about other thoughts and productively respond to events happening around them.

Another way mindfulness can help people having substance use disorder is by shaping and reinventing their focus. People fall into an addiction cycle when they focus on things they shouldn't. Mindfulness intervention helps people notice things present in nature, and the unmatched beauty of the world allows them to reinvent their focus.

Do you know what exactly triggers you to drink alcohol, take drugs, and remain in the addiction cycle? Mindfulness-based intervention can help you understand that. It quips people with enough willpower to distance themselves from alcohol or drug use.

Moreover, MBI helps people:

• Reconstruct the reward system of human brain
• Self control over habits, emotions and thinking
• Reduce the stress reactivity and increase stress recovery
• Lessen subjective cravings

What is expected in Mindfulness-based intervention for addiction?

Behavior-changing therapies that include Dialectical behavioral therapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy are combined with different mindfulness practices in the mindfulness-based intervention programs. These programs are primarily group-based and can continue for eight weekly 2-3 hours sessions. These sessions cultivate durable changes in human behavior through mindful breathing, body scan meditations, and other value-added techniques.

Participants are given in-session practical exercises and assigned some therapeutic assignments to understand the craving for patterns or destructive thoughts.

Chocolate exercise:

It is said that one should fight with fear to overcome and cope with it. Chocolate exercise is one of the mindfulness exercises to help people cope with their cravings for drugs in everyday life. In this exercise, participants are asked to hold the piece of chocolate close to their lips and nose. Then they are instructed to understand the urge to eat the chocolate and how this desire will be diminished with time. Through this exercise, people learn they can cope with their addiction, too, with time if they control their cravings in the same manner.

Medication-assisted treatment for addiction

Medication-assisted treatment is one of the ways to help patients cope with the withdrawal symptoms and overcome the addiction problem. Addiction-associated cravings can also be cured through medicines used in the treatments.

Suboxone, Subutex, Methadone, Naltrexone, and Buprenorphine are the most common medications used in MAT programs.

These prescriptions have shortcomings- they are addictive too. So they must be used under clinical supervision.

Medication-assisted treatment or mindfulness-based intervention?

Understanding the advantages of both medication-assisted treatment and mindfulness-based intervention will help you understand that combining these two programs is best to gain the best and long-lasting results,

As the MAT program is best for coping with withdrawal and cravings, MBI can help patients commit to lifelong sobriety as later more focused on changing the behavior patterns and relieving the focus of patients.

The ideal solution for addiction is to combine both MAT and MBI. Addiction treatment centers need to include mindfulness-based intervention in therapy recovery programs.