Wellness Applications in Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention

In my book The Wellness-Recovery Connection (2004), I define wellness as “The dynamic process of taking charge of your health and programming yourself to attain optimal health and well-being.” I elaborate on a number of practical applications of basic wellness principles in strengthening recovery from addiction, including:

Nutritional foundations for recovery
Fitness and recovery
Stress management and meditation
Developing a strong social support system
Cultivating a positive sense of central purpose
Spirituality and overall life satisfaction
Conquering nicotine addiction (a leading cause of death among people in recovery)

In practice, the concepts of wellness and recovery from addiction are highly complementary. Both concepts are centered on motivating people to take full responsibility for embracing wholesome and healthy pathways in their journeys through life. This entails assigning a high priority to adopting a healthy mindset and nourishing, life-affirming behaviors while avoiding falling into the traps of alcoholism, drug addiction, and other chronic, self-destructive behaviors.

Applications in Preventing Substance Abuse

The wholesome mindset and behaviors associated with a wellness lifestyle can serve as a powerful “inoculation” in safeguarding against succumbing to alcoholism and/or drug addiction and other self-destructive patterns of behavior. Examples that immediately come to mind include:

Embracing a healthy set of attitudes and behaviors that support “treating the body as a temple.” These include consciously engaging in wise, nutritious food choices, together with undertaking pleasurable forms of exercise that may include hiking, aerobic walking, weight training, and participation in sports
Cultivating healthy relationships that embody a mutual exchange of friendship, shared values and interests, compassionate understanding, and support
Committing ourselves to pursuing a strong sense of central purpose and enthusiasm for life

The years spent in middle school and high school constitute a dangerous period during which millions of young people succumb to substance abuse and other dangerous practices. During these critical years, young people most definitely need mentorship from concerned adults.

Historically that function has been provided by concerned parents, schools, religious institutions, and other social institutions concerned with promoting positive values and lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, I believe our society is experiencing a crisis in the realm of moral values, exacerbated by the blatantly unethical behavior exemplified by many prominent leaders in our communities, businesses, and, as of this writing, our national government as well. Our nation’s youth are definitely in need of positive role modeling by caring adults.

Sadly, over the past several decades our schools have substantially cut back in needed offerings in the realms of health, physical education, and the arts (McCoy, 2018; McDonald, 2016). Teachers are overwhelmed by problems that far too many children coming from highly dysfunctional families bring with them into the classroom. On top of this, school-based counseling staff are spread extremely thin, if available at all (Fuschillo, 2018).

In the context of this discouraging environment, school teachers need to be encouraged to model life-affirming values and behaviors to their students, while taking care of themselves to avoid burnout. Classes in English and social studies can provide fertile ground for engaging students in constructive dialogues promoting solutions to the daunting challenges facing our nation and our entire planet.

In the realm of health education, effectively addressing the growing epidemic of vaping, particularly among teenagers, should be given a high priority in our schools. According to the FDA, use of vaping products by teens has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Federal officials report that “more than four million American teenagers vape regularly” (Ducharme, 2019), and estimates based on the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey indicate that more than 525,000 teenagers vape almost every day. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that “use among eighth graders more than doubled in 2018 to 10 percent,” and the Department warns that eighth graders who vape are ten times more likely to eventually turn to cigarettes than their nonvaping peers (Ducharme, 2019).

Indeed, many experts “fear that vaping is creating lifelong nicotine addicts” (Ducharme, 2019). Dr. Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, states that, “[The marketers of vaping products are] bringing kids who are at low risk of smoking into the margin . . . A lot of those kids then transition to regular cigarettes” (Ducharme, 2019). According to an article on teen vaping in Time’s September 2019 issue, while smoking by teenagers has declined dramatically in recent decades, “with youth nicotine use ticking up because of vaping, history seems in danger of repeating itself” (Ducharme, 2019).

If the HHS has not already done so, they should immediately develop and disseminate guidelines to assist both public- and private-school teachers in countering the myth shared by many teens that vaping is a fun and harmless alternative to smoking (Devitt, 2019)—teachers should effectively educate their students that vaping is indeed a dangerous, life-threatening habit that can produce disastrous results.

In summary, as a wellness advocate I wholeheartedly believe in the potential value of wellness-oriented education in preventing substance abuse. Teachers and other educators need all the help they can get in getting the message across effectively, and other concerned adults are urged to step in and lend a hand in providing life-affirming mentorship for our nation’s youth.

Applications in Intervention and Early Recovery

An effective intervention, orchestrated by a skilled intervention specialist, is conducted with the goal of breaking through alcoholics’ and addicts’ denial and resistance as well as setting the stage for a successful recovery experience. I personally believe that educating clients about the benefits of a wellness-oriented approach to recovery can help counteract the tendency of many alcoholics and/or addicts to become overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and negative expectations once they finally realize they are dealing with a serious illness. Recovery requires a highly motivated adherence to a compassionate, yet highly structured approach to treatment.

I firmly believe that emphasizing the wellness-oriented aspects of recovery can be of tangible benefit in motivating clients to approach treatment with a positive orientation. A growing number of interventionists utilize wellness-oriented literature in fostering a positive orientation to the multifaceted process of recovery.

As addiction professionals, we are aware that, in addition to helping clients navigate acute withdrawal and become grounded in the first three Steps of a Twelve Step program—I use the Twelve Step model for the sake of illustration here—during primary treatment, an effective treatment approach must also include a well-structured continuing care and follow-through component. These elements are essential to promoting continued growth in recovery and in safeguarding against relapse.

Unquestionably, utilizing deep breathing and other stress-relieving mechanisms; beginning the transition to healthier eating habits; developing a “positive addiction” (Glasser, 1976) to exercise; and adopting sound sleep hygiene practices—along with other health-conducive behaviors—can yield positive results in navigating the troublesome periods of acute withdrawal and early recovery.

The late, noted, relapse prevention authority Terence T. Gorski pioneered the concept of postacute withdrawal, an extremely vulnerable stage of recovery which typically runs anywhere from six months to up to two years following detoxification. In particular, Gorski underscored the critical importance of health-conducive lifestyle changes in preventing relapse to drinking and drugging, particularly in reference to the postacute withdrawal process associated with the early stages of recovery. In his words, “[The recovering person] can learn to manage the symptoms of postacute withdrawal through a program of education, stress management, diet, exercise, relaxation, and life-management skills training” (Gorski & Miller, 1982).

In summary, exploiting the positive synergy involved in the complementary processes of wellness and recovery can yield substantial benefits in the realms of intervention and early recovery. I welcome readers’ comments concerning the thoughts presented in this column and can be reached at the e-mail address in my biography below.

References

Devitt, M. (2019). Survey: One in five young Americans thinks vaping is harmless. Retrieved from https://www.aafp.org/news/health-of-the-public/20191023ascovapesurvey.html
Ducharme, J. (2019). How Juul hooked kids and ignited a public health crisis. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/5680988/juul-vaping-health-crisis/
Fuschillo, A. (2018). The troubling student-to-counselor ratio that doesn’t add up. Retrieved from https://www.ced.org/blog/entry/the-troubling-student-to-counselor-ratio-that-doesnt-add-up
Glasser, W. (1976). Positive addiction. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Gorski, T. T., & Miller, M. (1982). Counseling for relapse prevention. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House.
McCoy, M. K. (2018). Schools cut back on physical education as childhood obesity remains high. Retrieved from https://www.wpr.org/schools-cut-back-physical-education-childhood-obesity-remains-high
McDonald, J. (2016). Funding for schools’ art programs ending? Retrieved from https://www.kmsd.edu/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=312&ModuleInstanceID=1237&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=3316&PageID=383
Newport, J. (2004). The wellness-recovery connection: Charting your pathway to optimal health while recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.

John Newport, PhD

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John Newport, PhD, is an addiction specialist, writer, and speaker living in Tucson, Arizona. He is the author of The Wellness-Recovery Connection: Charting Your Pathway to Optimal Health While Recovering from Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (2004). He is available for workshops, conference presentations, and staff trainings on all aspects of wellness and recovery, as well as for personal wellness and recovery coaching by phone. He can be reached at [email protected].