***Holistic Addiction Treatment–Do your beliefs sabotage your recovery?

What role do your beliefs play in your ability to completely recover? Do your beliefs disempower you? A belief is a perception, conviction, or opinion that you hold about yourself, a situation, event, or others. Beliefs are not necessarily true or fact-based, however, they are something we hold internally within your soul and spirit as a truth. Beliefs can be extremely complex, but when it comes to defining our behavior, our beliefs can drive us to make assumptions, react quickly, and make precise decisions at both a conscious and subconscious level. Holistic addiction treatment offers addicts hope as energy medicine healing modalities, including energy psychology, can change internal negative beliefs and eliminate self-destructive sabotaging behaviors.

People most commonly associate beliefs with religion, culture and family values. However, our beliefs lie at the core of every action we take every day, from the toothpaste we use, the food we eat, and our failure or success in life. Our beliefs transcend deeply into the core of our being. Our beliefs define who we are, how we see the world and impact every aspect of our lives - positive or negative. Essentially, what we believe about ourselves comes true. People with addictive behavior typically have deep rooted negative beliefs about themselves which are often paired with stress, depression, fear, anxiety, rejection, and issues with self-acceptance. The importance of understanding the significance of our beliefs is illustrated by the fact that the brain processes 1,000,000 times more information in the subconscious mind than in the conscious mind. All of our beliefs are stored in the conscious mind and invisible to us; we do not think about them.

Interaction within our family, society, friends all played an important role in the early development of our beliefs. For example, a child who is consistently told they are dumb and worthless by a parent, teacher, or other role model will most likely embody that belief into their being as an adult. The child will grow up to believe they are dumb and worthless making self-acceptance more difficult. This perceived negative belief about themselves can transcend into every aspect of their life resulting in self-destructive behavior unless they learn to change how they see themselves.

As we age, we modify our beliefs based upon our experiences and interaction with others. The addict who may have originally been influenced by their friends to try drugs as a means of fitting in subsequently becomes an addict to fill the void they feel in their life which also validates any negative beliefs they hold about themselves.
Life is filled with happiness, joy, disappointment, sadness, grief to name just a few of the emotions we may feel on a daily basis. There is no way to always live in a positive environment and avoid negative situations one hundred percent of the time. We can, however, choose how we cope; choose how we respond to negative situations and interactions without becoming self-destructive. We choose what we believe about ourselves. Most importantly, we can change what we believe about ourselves.

Journey beyond the Belief

Many traditional therapeutic strategies including counseling focus at the level of the mind and the body. Traditional therapies have been valuable in helping people understand their problems, identify negative beliefs and self-perceptions; identify patterns of self-destructive behavior. Identifying patterns of negative beliefs and perceptions; will power and emotional commitment are not enough to ensure sustainable recovery. Holistic addiction treatment offers a comprehensive approach to treating addiction and the most viable opportunity for addicts to recover.

Holistic addiction treatment combines both traditional therapies and alternative healing modalities to cohesively bring the entire person’s mind, body, soul, and spirit into alignment. Holistic addiction treatment addresses the root cause of the addictive behavior, restores balance to our entire being, and re-informs our mind, body, soul, and spirit with new beliefs and positive self-perceptions. One alternative healing method utilized in progressive holistic addiction treatment is energy psychology.

Energy psychology “is based upon the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture, although instead of using needles to stimulate a change in the way you think and feel, energy psychology uses a simple tapping method of two fingers on specific points of your body.”1 While the use of energy psychology can be traced back over 5,000 years, energy psychology first gained acknowledgement within the United States in the 1960’s by a chiropractor George Goodheart. This energy medicine healing modality also received more awareness in the 1980s through the works of psychiatrist John Diamond and psychologist Roger Callan, and in the 1990s by Fred Gallo and Gary Craig. Through the studies completed by these clinicians and their high level of success in treating emotional and psychological related issues such as anxieties, phobias, painful memories, substance abuse and other addictive behaviors, energy psychology treatments are now more widely utilized in holistic addiction treatment.
The discovery that influencing a person’s mental health by tapping on their acupoints to treat emotional and psychological problems in such a simple way is an astronomical breakthrough in helping people with addictive behaviors. Most importantly holistic addiction treatment and energy psychology address energetic imbalances that prevent people from accomplishing their goals. Energy imbalances are at the root of self-sabotaging behaviors. “Energy psychology provides you with the keys to unlock psychological issues by helping you understand and use the power of your own energy system”. Holistic addiction treatment offers addicts hope. Through energy psychology and other alternative healing modalities addicts have the ability to change their internal beliefs, eliminate their self-sabotaging behaviors and achieve their goal – to walk the path of the recovered.

Gallo, Fred P., Vincenzi, Harry (2008). Energy Tapping Second Edition. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.