Last Updated on May 9, 2017 by Morris Green

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying that addicts aren’t addicted to substances, they’re addicted to escaping reality. While the premise of this statement is thought provoking, addiction is a real medical condition that can involve physical and psychological elements. Finding the best recovery path is dependent on the person and pinpointing what works best for them. Meditation has proven to be a useful technique for many during and beyond substance use recovery.

According to Psychology Today, one of the first steps in successfully overcoming addiction is to discover its cause. For the individual that is addicted, it’s finding out why they decided to use in the first place from the search for relief from anxiety and depression to fear, pessimism, or a physical cause in need of a reprieve. Make no mistake, alcoholism and drug addiction are complex conditions. You can best navigate them by working with a trained and qualified substance abuse counselor.

What Is Meditation?

Meditation dates back thousands of years. According to Wikipedia, it’s the practice of training the mind to induce a mode of consciousness with the goal of some benefit to the mind and body. Rooting back to religious context, meditation was often seen as a means of seeking enlightenment by focusing the mind. The earliest references are found in the Hindu Vedas of Nepal and India.

Modern day meditation has become difficult to define due to a broad an inclusive meaning that can denote anything from cultural to spiritual connotations. For the purpose of meditation in relation to substance use recovery, we are going to defer to Walsh & Shapiro’s 2006 definition:

Meditation refers to a family of self-regulation practices that focus on training attention, and awareness…to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster[ing] general mental well-being and development and/or specific capacities such as calm, clarity, and concentration.

If using meditation practices during and after addiction recovery appeal to you, you might consider launching a study into meditation. Not only is it a good use of your time, but the greater your understanding of the technique’s practices, the more tools you can wield to banish addictive substance use successfully.

Meditation Does Not Replace Addiction Treatment

What’s the difference between addiction treatment and meditation? Is there one? Simply put, yes.

Addiction treatments are most often evidence based. Over time, they have evolved from 12-step programs to evidence-based treatment plans. They involve a counseling approach designed to pinpoint the cause of an addictive habit, and they focus on changing how a patient thinks instead of just applying a Band-Aid to mask the symptoms.

Is Yoga a Form of Meditation?

Yoga is not meditation, but it is a spiritual, mental, and physical discipline that includes the use of meditation. Yoga has become predominately seen as a form of physical fitness, and it can be used as an intense physical workout. Meditation is often used as a cooldown or a way of focusing the mind and body after rigorous exercise.

Physical activity and exercise is highly recommended as a means of avoiding relapse and filling the time an addicted individual used to spend using their substance of choice. Research findings are growing in numbers and they support the theory of meditation helping people with alcoholism and drug addiction when incorporated into a physical exercise routine. A yoga class that includes meditation is a great combination technique for anyone looking to improve mental and physical wellness, particularly recovering addicts.

5 Ways to Use Meditation during Substance Abuse Recovery

How can you use meditation to green light your recovery and stay sober and/or clean? Here are five ways to kick start the technique:

1. Mindfulness Meditation: This technique focuses on the awareness that promotes calm. For many, the use of addictive substances is an overreaction to stressors. Mindfulness meditation focuses on being fully present – aware of where you are and what you’re doing – and not overreacting or becoming overwhelmed by what’s going on around you. You can learn more about it and grab a free five practice guide at mindful.org.
2. Yoga and Meditation: We’ve already scratched the surface of using yoga and meditation in combination. You can learn more about the combo and its success for people in recovery from addiction in Tommy Rosen’s article published via The Huffington Post. He recommends connecting with the Recovery 2.0 Conference for more information.
3. Concentration Meditation: The goal of concentration meditation is to focus on a single point to improve concentration. You refocus if your concentration wavers and allow random thoughts to simply dissipate, paying them no mind. Breathing exercises and repeating a single word or mantra are sometimes leveraged in combination with staring at a candle flame, counting beads on a mala, or listening to a repetitive gong. You can modify as needed based on circumstances and environment, but the point is to focus the mind. A session may take as little as a few minutes or as long as a few hours depending on your level of skill. Some have used concentration meditation as a means of coping during withdrawal or when cravings that threaten relapse creep up.
4. Basic Meditation: One of the perks to meditation is that you can practice it almost anytime and anywhere if you know basic techniques. We recommend finding a good book that you can take with you in digital or paperback form. Here are 15 meditation books curated by The Huffington Post to get you started.
5. Local Resources: If you’re interested in some local meditation support, do a search for meditation classes in your area. Keep in mind that you should vet any potential service providers to ensure they are not fly-by-night scams. Read reviews and ask anyone who’s attended a local class for more information on the company and instructor(s) alongside their honest feedback. Some meditation instructors use incense or burn substances during their classes. Inquire thoroughly if you run into this to avoid potential contact with an addictive substance, and should any aspect of a class remind you of your previous environment while drinking or doing drugs, proceed with caution and discuss it in-depth with your substance abuse counselor.