Addiction is a disease that destroys your body’s health. You sacrifice your wellbeing for the high. When you’re in therapy to regain sobriety, therapists try to help you reverse some of the damage. One modality is fitness therapy.
Why Fitness Therapy is as Important as Behavioral Treatments
Behavioral therapy helps you to find out why you started to use drugs or alcohol. Possible treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. You pinpoint areas of dysfunction and develop life skills to change them. Typically, this means substituting healthy behaviors for the destructive ones.
Rebuilding your physiological health with fitness therapy is integral to making these changes. If your body feels weak, it’s difficult to be hopeful about the future. When you don’t feel good on a daily basis, it’s hard to envision a productive life of sobriety. While behavioral therapy works on your psychological health, treatments for increasing fitness support physical wellbeing.
What Does Fitness Therapy Look Like?
As with all other therapeutic approaches, there’s not one size that fits all. Fitness is something that a therapist customizes to your current needs and abilities. Some people can run and workout hard. Others need to start with walking.
High-quality facilities provide you with access to a personal trainer. This professional assesses your needs and drafts an exercise routine that is suitable for your fitness level. The expert also helps you with goal setting. What fitness goal would you like to reach during your stay at the facility?
A well-maintained gym enables you to make use of space and late-model machines to build strength and endurance. As you get stronger, you have the opportunity to join fitness-based group therapy activities. You might interact with peers on a ropes course as an activity, for example. The goal of the coursework is team-building as well as fitness-enhancing.
Integrating a Return to Good Health with Holistic Care Methods
Good-quality rehab facilities rely on evidence-based modalities when helping you overcome addiction. Therapists know that the treatments they use help people break the hold that addiction has on them. One part of this treatment model includes holistic care. Examples of therapeutic approaches of this type include:
- Art therapy, which enable you to express yourself non-verbally
- Neurofeedback to gain insight into brain activity and the workings of your nervous system
Nutritional counseling is another essential modality. It’s not enough to receive excellent meals and healthy snacks while living at the rehab center. When you shift to transitional living or move out on your own, you need to replicate the meals. However, what’s healthy for you may not be ideal for someone else.
A dietician works with you to discover the best nutritional options for you. Based on your overall health and goals, you may benefit from a particular type of diet. Learning what food choices to make early on in treatment helps you to build a new lifestyle. It also prepares you for shopping independently.
Heading for a Healthy Lifestyle
Living sober is a new beginning. It goes hand in hand with changes in your circle of friends and daily activities. Nutrition and exercise contribute to the changes you’re making. Moreover, remember that exercise assists with the natural release of dopamine, the body’s feel-good neurotransmitter.
When you’re ready to quit using, you need help. At the Santé Center for Healing, therapists use fitness therapy and evidence-based modalities to help you. Call 866-238-3154 today to schedule an appointment.