Addiction Recovery… a symbiosis with Health and Fitness?
Addiction Recovery… a symbiosis with Health and Fitness?
On the surface and principal glance, the notion of health and fitness to someone at any stage of addiction can indeed seem like something far off to be attained or aspired to, ‘post recovery’. Perhaps on the radar as something to conquer once one has conquered the already mountainous task of one’s first stages of abstinence.
I beg to reframe this, I admonish the former to free one of the arduous trudge of a fitness and recovery ‘to do list’ and juxtapose the pondering that it in lieu can be something that has the key to rediscovering, ‘oneself along the way… as such I pose it as; a catalyst for one’s concurrent to do list, an energy fountain, a lynchpin to self-efficacy.
At a time in one’s life when one has nothing left in the tank, when the day itself can too often seem like a workout why would one add to the load? But bear with me. There exists the postulate that one only feels drained when pouring in to the wrong energy source; namely in this instance, addiction. So how does fitness help with this? Fitness returns energy symbiotically, it super charges hormones and it empowers one with the analogous fortitude that consistency prevails. Instead of pouring in one’s effort to, ‘attain’ fitness as a material construct to obtain, contrarily, fitness pours in to the participant. It facilitates the time, space, focus and ‘presence’ to escape the world and just be one with yourself… to give you your power… to redefine your milieu… and to build you; literally and metaphorically.
Sounds serene, but is this credulous in real time? I present one of many exemplifications; a review of 43 studies involving 3,135 participants, 75% reported decreased substance use when physical activity was added to treatment. In tandem was circa 28% reduction in depressive symptoms.
So, in summary; exercise appears to help addiction recovery through an entourage of mechanisms: reducing cravings, improving mood and reducing depression/anxiety, reducing withdrawal symptoms, increasing treatment adherence and engagement, and providing a healthy alternative routine and coping strategy. Notwithstanding the underlying ineffable benefits inextricably linked with improving physical health, fitness, recovery and long-term robustness across the spectrum.
My take home; give yourself the chance to be present with yourself in an environment in which you can feel your most powerful- be it having lifted a personal best and relishing your physical strength, or be it having run a new route and bathing in your happy-hormone release… whatever your go-to is, and no matter how idiosyncratic, let it adorn you with moments to pause in your own divine nature, uniqueness and freedom from anything with which you wish to shed, sweat out, or release from your true being.
Be it empirical or qualitative… anecdotal or omnipotent - the evidence remains unequivocal.
With strength,
Camille
Founder, CGCoaching
