Holistic Addiction Recovery?
Recovery? Powerful. Affective. Guaranteed.
The world of addiction recovery has gone through so many transformations over the past 100 years. And for the most part, many of these transformations have been incredibly beneficial to addicts of any form of addiction. As we learn more about different practices, different techniques, we can all expand our “toolbox“, to make sure we’re giving our clients and the general population the most effective tools necessary to become sober for life.
In the world of holistic addiction recovery, which we created a program on over 30 years ago, we have taken everything that has to do with the individual client: the mind, diet, exercise, supplementation, spiritual work, essential oils, relapse prevention tips and so much more!
And then we take the best of every program that’s ever been created and put it into one powerful system, you will find it incredibly effective and a guaranteed way to stay sober for life.
We do offer a guarantee with our program: if you do everything we ask you to do, and the sequence we ask you to do it, we guarantee our program will help you become sober and recover for life. That guarantee has been in effect ever since we started working in the world of addiction recovery, and we’ve never had to refund even one client! And why is that? Because they do the work.
Let’s start with the most important principles of a holistic addiction recovery program:
Number One. Sobriety, recovery for life. We believe this is the only way to begin, is to make a complete commitment for the rest of our lives after we realize that our addiction has created chaos and drama over the past many months for many years.
And we understand our program is different. We know there aren’t a lot of addiction recovery programs that ask the clients to commit to sobriety for life, but we don’t see it any other way. It’s the same thing in a marriage. You wouldn’t expect that your partner would be thrilled if you told them you wanted to get married one day at a time, would you?
Of course not. The same with addiction recovery. The holistic addiction recovery program demands that we put 100% effort, 100% commitment and when you do that? The work is guaranteed, to work.
Number Two. The mind. This is such a huge expansive area of addiction recovery that we could probably make a book out of the information necessary but let’s start with this one thing: emotional regulation.
In our work of over 42 years, we see that emotional regulation is the key to sobriety and recovery for life. With emotional regulation we are able to hesitate before we act, to hesitate before we relapse, and use the 1000 tools available in order to gain control of our emotional response to the world.
As most of us know, one of the greatest reasons that we begin an addiction of any type and carry it on in life is because we do not have the tools to deal with stress, divorce, death, birth, celebrations, job losses, and more! And because we don’t have the emotional regulating tools to deal with life events like these, many of us can stay addicted for life.
But once you learn these tools, recovery becomes so much easier! Then we need to look at the forgiveness of ourselves for what we’ve done over the years of our addiction as well as forgiveness of others.
In our holistic addiction recovery program, we go deeper into the power of the subconscious mind versus the conscious mind, which is critical to long-term recovery.
Number Three. Diet. I’m going to make this super short. Eat really clean, lean proteins a ton of water and vegetables, a moderate amount of fruit, and complex carbohydrates like brown rice. We encourage everyone in our program to get on a program of eating every 3 to 4 hours which keeps blood sugar levels normalized, decreasing the chance of someone relapsing because they’re hungry, or tired. With the correct dietary program, our blood sugar levels stay normalized throughout the day, increasing our own energy levels and decreasing the chance of relapse.
Number Four. Exercise is crucial, absolutely crucial. As we increase the amount of time we spend on exercise we boost self-confidence and self-esteem, and we also release massive endorphins in the brain, absolutely crucial to try to reclaim brain chemistry after months or years of addiction.
The form of exercise doesn’t matter, the time of day you do it doesn’t matter, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say the length of time that you do it doesn’t matter either… The key is to get going! No excuses. Find a buddy to exercise with. Or a dog. Whatever it takes, this is crucial, and too many programs leave exercise as a side note when it should be part of the main course.
Number Five. Supplementation for brain chemistry. We all know that after months and years of addiction, our brain chemistry is way off base. I remember when I was in a treatment center many many years ago, the medical Director in a one-on-one meeting, told me it would be 2 to 4 years before my brain chemistry returns to normal.
And she was right, unfortunately! But then I found this most amazing gift by a retired pharmacist, who explained to me the power of using amino acid supplementation to help reclaim brain chemistry functioning after addiction.
What a lifesaver! It is incredible how the amino acids I’m going to mention can have such a powerful effect in helping us to recover, and start to feel “normal“ again.
Remember this: if you’re on any type of mood stabilizers, antidepressants, sleep medication‘s or anti-anxiety medication, make sure you talk to your doctor before adding any amino acid supplements at all.
DL PA. Extremely effective on the dopamine system, very safe, talk to a healthcare professional about the amount that they believe you should begin with.
Our clients usually find within 3 to 7 days a boost of their mood, and there are no negative side effects that we have ever heard of, as long as you don’t combine them with pharmaceutical drugs.
Tyrosine. Another critical amino acid for the dopamine system, we all know that the dopamine system gets beat to heck with our ongoing addictions, tyrosine is great for enhancing focus and mental energy.
Glutamine. Powerful as a supplement to decrease cravings for sugar, alcohol, and more.
Tryptophan. Now this works a little differently. It positively affects the serotonin levels in the body, leading to a more relaxed feeling after taking the supplement.
Years ago tryptophan was banned by the FDA, but that ban has been lifted, and once again check with your healthcare professional before you begin any amino acid supplementation.
Number Six. Meditation/spirituality. We believe in our holistic addiction program that meditation, mental relaxation techniques, and spiritual practices can be such a huge benefit to everyone regardless of what your drug of choice or activity of choice was it turned into an addiction.
(In our new book, “Helping Americans Heal: The ultimate guide to healing during these challenging times “, we give you additional tools for recovery, relationships, emotional regulation, insomnia, stress management and so much more. Available right now at http://www.amazon.com)
We have seen through multiple studies that daily meditation, even beginning with 3 to 5 minutes a day, can have a powerful effect on mood regulation, a decrease in craving of addictions, a decrease in blood pressure that is high and so many more benefits.
Many of our clients use a form of meditation or relaxation technique as a way to help them wind down from the day and fall asleep more easily.
(You can actually use our meditation/relaxation audio on YouTube, just going google “David Essel meditation“, and you’ll find a 44 minute guided relaxation meditation program to help you stay recovered for life.)
Spiritual practices could include a gratitude journal, forgiveness journal, maybe a return to prayer, you might even consider a return to your church, synagogue, or temple of choice.
Spiritual practices offer so many opportunities for the mind to become calm, which also boosts our self-esteem and confidence.
Number Seven. Group help and one on one help. In our holistic addiction recovery program, we are a firm believer in the importance of one on one work with a professional counselor, therapist, psychiatrist, or master life coach that has training specifically in addiction recovery.
Well over 30 years ago, we did a lot of group work with addiction which has benefits we will list below.
We have found that allowing someone to bring everything to the table, one on one with a professional gives them a better chance for long-term recovery! Many people shut down at some level when they’re in groups, not willing to be 100% vulnerable and 100% honest, but in our holistic addiction recovery program, we encourage that the only way to heal is with 110% honesty.
From a group work perspective, I love this: walking into any addiction recovery meeting shows immense vulnerability and humility. These are crucial traits to have in the world recovery!
For the addict, anything that makes you uncomfortable, anything that makes you humble, anything that makes you vulnerable is a key step to long-term work.
Number eight. 100% essential oils. This is a surprise to many people when I’m working with them, and all of a sudden we start talking about the use of essential oils for relaxation or even energy.
A number of years ago I helped a woman who was addicted to opiates, nicotine, and alcohol, quite a combination. As we moved her through the opiate recovery and then the alcohol recovery the biggest block for her was trying to get rid of the nicotine.
And the only thing that worked? Was the essential oil of lavender. Every time she had a craving for a cigarette, she took out a small bottle of the essential oil of lavender and took 10, slow, deep, inhalation breaths through her nose. Within 60 seconds of the craving was gone!
As she continued to record the diminishing craving for nicotine she saw that some days it was gone in 60 seconds and some days it was gone in two or three minutes, but as long as she continues with the inhalation of essential oil of lavender, the craving completely disappeared. Powerful.
And what about essential oil for energy? Lemongrass is probably my number one favorite. A lot of times during withdrawal and recovery, we can drag butt, we can become tired and be listless throughout the day.
Studies have shown that a regular inhalation, once again 10, slow breathes, can actually increase focus and energy through the use of the essential oil of lemongrass.
The great thing I can tell you about holistic addiction recovery programs as you read this article is that they are filled with 1 million tools to help the person stay sober for life! My only goal? Is to help all of my clients get into sobriety and recovery for life.
Number Nine. Relapse prevention. Of course, we go over all the information with our clients about the pink cloud, because they get too confident sometimes early in recovery.
Some may start to drop some of these tools so we make sure that they know this is simply the effect of the pink cloud and we need to work through it. Overconfidence is very common, unless you have someone holding your feet to the fire, a relapse could easily come with someone who’s overconfident early in the recovery program.
To prevent relapse, we’re going to have discussions with our clients about peer pressure, the type of people they’re currently hanging out with, and if there needs to be a change in regards to the people they surround themselves with, of course, we will talk about how to do that in a very sane way.
Sometimes it’s just diminishing the amount of time we spend with certain people, other times it’s actually letting go of the friendship or relationship.
We also believe a huge tool in relapse prevention that we teach all of our clients is cognitive behavioral therapy, if you’re unaware of it you can go to YouTube and just Google “David Essel, cognitive behavioral therapy“, and you’ll find several videos explaining the process and how it works.
We also teach other programs like the Sedona Method, very powerful in helping people take advantage of their own discipline and willpower, via a series of questions that comes with the Sedona Method.
As you can see by this, the holistic addiction recovery approach is incredibly detailed, and we didn’t even get into the great amount of information that’s available for anyone that wants to go down this route.
I have never believed that once you’re an alcoholic you’re an alcoholic for life. I have never believed that once you’re an addict you’re an addict for life. In my own personal case of overcoming a 30-year addiction to alcohol and cocaine, it has been so many years I’ve forgotten how long, and I have not had a craving even when my mom died this year, there was not one time I ever thought about relapse.
And for the thousands of clients we’ve worked with over the past 42 years, the setting is the same for them as well: if they do everything we ask them to do, they will recover and be sober for life.
If you need more information on this powerful program, just visit https://www.davidessel.com
Sobriety has given me and all of my previous clients a life we could never imagine was possible. The chaos is gone. The drama is gone. Life remains in one of the most beautiful ways you could ever experience it.
Let’s go. Today. Not tomorrow, right now!“
Grab David’s new book, “Helping Americans Heal: The ultimate guide to healing during these challenging times” at www.amazon.com
David Essel‘s work is highly endorsed by individuals like the late Wayne Dyer, and celebrity Jenny McCarthy says, “David Essel is the new leader of the positive thinking movement.“
His work as a counselor and minister has been verified, by so many organizations like Psychology Today, Therapy Tribe, Theravive, and marriage.com has verified David is one of the top counselors and relationship experts in the world.
To work with him one on one, or to find out more about his holistic addiction recovery programs please visit DavidEssel.com
