They've been minimized and they've been marginalized, but the fact
is holistic therapies—including acupuncture, homeopathy, massage
therapy, aromatherapy, yoga, nutrition therapy, and dozens more—have
been gaining greater mainstream acceptance. According to a 1993 survey
published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in 1991, about 21
million Americans made 425 million visits to practitioners of these types
of alternative medicine; that's more than the estimated 388 million
visits we made to all primary care physicians that year. Now a holistic
approach where an individual's situation and particular way of coping is
addressed—and going cold turkey may not be necessary—is slowly
beginning to influence the way people with addictions are treated.
Holistic therapies are helping to bridge the gap between conventional,
exclusively abstinence-oriented approaches and the newer, more
controversial harm-reduction philosophy.
When addressing an addiction, all holistic techniques begin with
the same basic philosophy: people develop addictions to correct an
"imbalance" within them. Addicts become stuck, unaware, and unable to
deal with their thoughts, feelings, and actions. They may drink, take
drugs, or eat to excess to disassociate from their deficiency. Holistic
therapies work to restore balance by connecting mind and body. They take
away some of the underlying causes of abuse by helping people become
aware of and take responsibility for the way they think, feel, and
act.
The goal of many holistic therapies is to restore the body to its
naturally healthy state. The best treatments are not offered in
isolation; they're carried out with psychotherapy or group
therapy—especially when it's open to the holistic view of treating the
entire person, not just the addiction—and other holistic
therapies.
Holistic philosophy overlaps with the harm-reduction approach to
addiction, which evolved out of a desire to slow the
spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis among injection drug users by dispensing
clean needles. People running syringe exchanges realized they had an
opportunity to provide additional services to drug users. Now a number of
harm-reduction centers—offering programs including acupuncture, massage
therapy, and substance use counseling; referrals to detoxification and
treatment facilities; and caseworkers to help with housing, food stamps,
and medical care have sprung up in cities like New York, Chicago,
Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Oakland.
Run by current and former drug users, for current and former drug users,
these centers don't demand that clients remain abstinent. From experience
they know that no one can be forced into dealing with a problem, and that
people who are treated with respect and who are educated about their
choices can and often do elect to help themselves.
Holistic therapies do have their skeptics, of course. There's
concern that these therapies haven't been properly studied or regulated.
"As a general rule, holistic therapies are most helpful when they're used
in conjunction with—not in place of—other treatments," says Barrie R.
Cassileth, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, who has written
extensively on alternative therapies and cancer treatment. Cassileth sees
the need for methodologically sound, rigorous clinical tests before any
claims about the capabilities of holistic treatments can be made. Frank
Gawin, M.D., scientific director of a laboratory examining addictions at
the University of California Los Angeles, agrees. He's currently involved
in a six-city study—the largest involving an alternative therapy—to
determine the effectiveness of acupuncture on cocaine addiction. Dr.
Gawin believes that holistic therapies should continue to be practiced
while studies are underway, so long as people receive psychotherapy and
are fully informed that these treatments have not been proven effective.
"There are no magic bullets," Cassileth concludes. "People ought to be
wary of those who say they have one."
MASSAGE
It's too simplistic to say an addiction can be massaged away, but
the power of this hands-on therapy is being tested on people dealing with
anorexia, bulimia, smoking, and other addictions, with impressive
results. The mind-body connection is all-important in massage, says
Elliot Greene, M.A., past president of the American Massage Therapy
Association. Greene says people with addictions can become trapped in a
cycle of avoiding their problems and disassociating from their bodies.
The experience of massage where someone touches, respects, and cares for
a person's body—can break that cycle, helping addicts reconnect
physically and center themselves emotionally. The effect is a newly
empowered person more able to talk about and come to terms with an
addiction.
Massage may also have a powerful chemical impact on the body. By
massaging the soft tissue, therapists release tension and get energy
moving. The loosening of tight muscles sends the body a signal to cut
down production of stress hormones, such as cortisol. This neurological
response has a calming effect on body and mind. In addition, massage
moves lymph through the body, assisting the body's natural cleansing
process.
