Anatomy Of A Holistic Detox

(and How to Create Your Own Holistic Recovery Program)nnFreedom from dependency starts with understanding that alcohol, drugs, or any type of addictive behavior is not the problem. They are merely substances that people use to help them cope with their real problems, anything from hypoglycemia or a sluggish thyroid to brainwave pattern imbalances or deep emotional pain. Once the underlying problems are discovered and cured, the need for drugs and alcohol will disappear—along with the craving.nnIf you have an alcohol or drug problem, it is crucial to find and heal the real cause of your dependency so you can achieve permanent recovery. It takes a carefully selected support team to help you uncover and treat the specific reasons you are depending on addictive substances or behaviors to cope with your life.nnYou can put together your own personalized program to achieve total recovery and optimum health by enlisting the right team of specialized doctors, therapists, and health practitioners. They will help you work with your body, your mind, your emotions, and your spirit to stimulate your body’s self-healing potential, guide and protect you as you delve into areas that have been hidden from you but that hold the keys to your freedom and assist you to prevent relapse as you regain your passion for life.nnJane came to Passages, the alcohol and addiction cure center I co-founded with my son Pax, to recover from alcohol dependency. She was thirty-five and married. She was drinking two to three bottles of wine daily, beginning at sunset and continuing until she passed out for the night. Initial interviews revealed that Jane had been bulimic (an eating disorder). After detoxing from alcohol, she began having panic attacks during the evening sessions, followed by severe nightmares in the middle of the night.nnOver the course of treatment, we learned that from ages eight through eleven Jane had been molested by her stepfather and had never told a soul. The goal of treatment was to resolve the anxiety, guilt, and shame that she had been numbing with alcohol. Her particular treatment program consisted of regular sessions with a number of healing professionals. She saw a medical doctor, who ran laboratory tests to diagnose any physiological causes of her bulimia as well as any other maladies that might be present, and had treatments from an acupuncturist to improve her vitality and diagnose any areas of imbalance in her organs and other body systems. Jane also took part in sessions with a psychologist to discuss the abuse and receive empathy and care; sessions with her mother facilitated by a marriage and family therapist to deal with confusing feelings of rage at her mother for not protecting her; and sessions with the hypnotherapist to rebuild a more positive inner sense of self, free of guilt and shame (the hypnotherapist was also helpful in causing the repressed memories to surface). In addition, she was trained in the techniques of yoga and meditation to facilitate inner calm, consulted with a nutritionist to facilitate more realistic and healthy attitudes towards food and diet, had weekly physical training to facilitate healthy body awareness and self-care, and met weekly with a chemical dependency counselor to learn about the dynamics of alcohol dependency and learn alcohol-free methods for dealing with anxiety and fear. Jane and her husband also had marital sessions with the psychologist and the marriage-and-family therapist to build stronger marital communication and to educate her spouse that the issue of childhood trauma was the condition underlying and causing the alcohol dependency. And lastly, she attended several group therapy sessions per week, where she could share with others who were nonjudgmental (many of whom had similar experiences). This facilitated her assertion skills and boundary-setting skills and helped relieve her guilt and shame about her childhood experiences. Each one of these therapies and treatments, most of them one-on-one sessions, reinforced Jane’s healing in different but mutually supportive ways.nnWhile Passages is arguably the most comprehensive healing program anywhere, you can create your own effective healing program right where you are beginning with a medical doctor and a therapist. You can include other professionals as your problem is uncovered. I wrote The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure to help guide people through this process of creating their own program.nnWhen choosing practitioners, remember you do not want to be treated by someone who believes that a cure is impossible or that addiction and alcoholism are diseases and that you’re afflicted with one or both of them. Their hopeless words deprive you of two of the main ingredients of healing: hope and enthusiasm.nnIn addition, your support team should first and foremost seek to identify your chemical imbalance and discover what is causing it. They must have the intention to get to the core of why you are out of balance and what you are self-medicating. nnA few weeks away from alcohol and drugs and your withdrawal symptoms will disappear. What remains, and what is more difficult to heal, are the problems that drove you to drugs and alcohol in the first place. Unless you heal those, they will lead you back to the drugs and alcohol and addictive behavior over and over again.nnn