Massage therapy is one of the methods available to help you overcome addiction. However, most rehab facilities may not recommend it because it’s known to be a relatively unconventional method to take when undergoing recovery. Massages offer people several benefits that other recovery methods haven’t accomplished.
Most rehab facilities have started to recognize massage therapy as one of the holistic approaches to managing a drug addiction issue. Mostly, addiction can be accompanied by depression, stress, and mental illness, which can be addressed by talk therapy, counseling, and massage therapy.
The below article illustrates how massage therapy can help you overcome addiction.
1. Release Tension
One of the rehabilitation facilities that this site offers helps treat gambling addiction, alcohol addiction, and others. Massage therapy is considered to be a better way to overcome addiction. For a person who has turned to alcohol as pain therapy, massage can come in handy because the more you normalize massage, the sweeter the feeling gets. Massage allows restful sleep, resulting in a productive day with less tension.
Tension, stress, and chronic pain can slow the recovery process and sometimes contribute to a relapse. People who suffer from opioid addiction tend to be reluctant to use any medication because of mental fear. That’s why rehab facilities recommend massage therapy along with medication.
Massage therapy includes physical methods to help reduce pain, tension, and stress, reducing the level of drug cravings.
2. Boosts Detoxification
Are you wondering why athletes are always recommended for massages after the game? Well, it’s because massage therapy assists blood flow in the muscles and limbs and with a lactic acid flush from the forces. Massages aren’t only for the excellent feeling they generate in your body. The squeezing from the professional massages impacts your mental and body functionality.
Since massages have a powerful functionality in your body, they can help with the detoxification process by improving blood circulation and other valuable components, allowing more expulsion of waste products away from your body system.
Researchers have proven that people in massage programs are likely to stay sober for the most extended period compared to those who haven’t enrolled.
3. Enhance Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is one of the primary recovery levels to manage appropriately to overcome addiction. You need to understand the feeling of anger, boredom, frustration, and happiness to know how to react. Triggers are feelings, too, and as an addict, it might be difficult for you to manage them.
Massage therapy helps enhance self-awareness, including awareness of negative tensions that can easily trigger addiction. This enables you to develop strategies for controlling and avoiding places, people, and activities that can lead you to relapse.
Also, be careful when choosing a spa that’ll give you maximum guidance and massage therapy that’s effective for your problem. Most psychologists recommend a medical spa because they’re certain about its services.
4. Free Endorphins
Normal human beings should have natural endorphins released to their body to help with their body functionality. In detoxification mode, the body releases fewer endorphins than usual. Hence, the body requires little help to make the body release enough endorphins.
Researchers have proven that massage therapy happens to be one of the ways to increase the number of endorphins in the blood system. These chemicals help someone feel more of themselves, fastening the addiction recovery if you engage more in massage therapies.
5. Overcome Fear Of Touch
Massage therapy helps you or your loved one overcome the fear of touch if they’ve encountered physical abuse in the past. Not all contacts are associated with good intentions. Others might be harmful, negative, and with bad choices. Therapy, therefore, encourages the brain to be more positive with touches slowly.
Researchers have shown that a victim of physical abuse undermines trust, safety, control, confidence, and experience of the feeling of touch from another gender. Massage is a therapeutic way to overcome fear and meet the above needs.
6. Reduces Anxiety Withdrawals
Usually, withdrawals bring a certain feeling of anxiety regardless of the abused substance. One can vomit, sweat, experience muscle aches, and have seizures if they encounter an anxiety attack. These effects are why most people avoid detoxing or quit abusing drugs because they’ll have to worry about physical, mental, and emotional consequences.
But one thing about massage therapy is that it helps reduce anxiety, making your mind relax and reducing body aches, irritability, and hallucinations. That’s why psychologists recommend massage therapy for stress and anxiety.
Conclusion
Massage therapy can help with the recovery process, but it can’t cure addiction completely, not on its own. One needs to be committed and ready to recover. The victim requires guidance to help manage the addiction. If you’re not yet convinced, check on the above points on how massage therapy enables you to overcome addiction.
