An important part of the recovery process is learning how to reduce stress. Stress is the physical and emotional reaction to difficulty and hardship in someone's life. It can come from anywhere, such as problems at work, attempting to manage a household, or messy environments. Someone can become stressed by societal pressures that make it difficult to find moments of relaxation. Stress is a normal part of life, but when there's too much, it can cause mental health problems.
When someone enters a treatment program, they are already stressed. They may worry about their health, how they might react to treatment, and if they truly can change for the better. Learning to reduce stress is vital to helping someone find the rest they need to continue their treatment. If a person cannot rest, they cannot continue to fight with the vigor they need to overcome their addiction or mental health disorder.
Mental health care facilities like Pathways Wellness Center offer treatments designed to reduce stress in their clients. Learning how to healthily cope with and manage stress is a life skill their clients can rely on long after treatment. One such treatment is known as breathwork therapy – also known simply as breathwork.
Breathwork, sometimes referred to as integrative breathwork or therapeutic breathwork, is a type of holistic treatment. The goal is to teach someone breathing techniques to reduce stress, induce relaxation, aid in meditation techniques, and give physical and emotional release. This is done by utilizing deep breathing that comes from the diaphragm, known as diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing.
Controlling breathing in this way reduces blood pressure and is often used for those struggling with anxiety and panic disorders. It teaches someone how to breathe properly when experiencing heightened fear and panic, which helps to mitigate the symptoms. Breathworks also helps those with depression by invigorating the body with oxygen. It's a meditative tool that a person can focus on instead of harmful thoughts.
Breathwork is primarily used to reduce stress by fully relaxing the body. When people are stressed, it can make them feel like they are wound up – much like a spring ready to go off with the slightest provocation. Breathworks helps by giving someone a conscious way to control their physical response to stress, relax their mind, and invigorate their spirit.
Another part of breathwork is learning how to let go of stress and strong emotions by breathing. You breathe out these negative feelings and breathe in positive ones. It can become a healthy way to cope with those who are sensitive to stress, giving them an outlet in which to let their stressed feelings go.
However, breathwork is not for everyone. Because it uses deep breathing techniques, it can be dangerous to those who have recently gotten surgery or have a physical injury to their torso and abdomen. It's best to wait until you are healed and cleared by a doctor before utilizing deep breathing techniques. Those with cardiovascular disease should consult with a doctor first before beginning breathwork therapy.
Stress is a physical and emotional response to life's hardships and difficulties. Usually, stress will go away once the hardship has passed. However, if this hardship comes from a toxic situation, mental health disorder, or addiction, it cannot go away on its own.
In these cases, someone must get treatment to help them treat the source of their stress. Sometimes, someone may have hardships that have passed, but still feel stressed. Stress is not the same as anxiety, though they may share similar symptoms at the surface. These symptoms include:
It's time to find a way to reduce stress if these symptoms interfere with your daily life and prevent you from doing normal tasks. Beginning to self-isolate or avoid the world could be because of too much stress. If you are experiencing a general reduction of life quality with persistent symptoms of stress, it's time to get help.
Learning how to reduce stress is a skill that must be taught. The best way to learn these skills is by contacting your local mental health care facility. Places like Pathways Wellness Center have several therapies and treatments available to reduce stress and help clients relax. Being able to rest properly without feeling stressed is important in the treatment of addiction and its co-occurring mental health disorders.
However, you don't have to struggle with addiction or a mental health disorder to get treatment for stress. Calling your local mental health care facility is a great way to start. Nearly all offer some form of psychotherapy, which helps train people in making healthy life changes.
No stress is too small, so don't feel as though you don't need or deserve treatment. It's easy to dismiss people's problems sometimes, but they are real problems, and stress does impact people's health if allowed to go on for too long. Everyone, regardless of who they are, is worthy of compassionate and quality care for their mental health. That includes yourself and your loved ones.
As we go about our daily lives, we are constantly bombarded by stress. Stress is the response to a difficult situation in our lives that can cause physical and psychological symptoms. However, there are ways to cope with stress that are healthy and require only a few minutes of your time. One of these methods is known as breathwork therapy. Here at Pathways Wellness Center in Glendora, California, we are proud to offer breathwork as one of our holistic approaches to addiction and mental health treatment. Breathwork helps our clients find the relaxation they need to focus on not only healing but on their recovery as well. If you or a loved one is struggling, call today at (888) 771-0966.
