Going Deeper: The Therapeutic Value of Meditation for Addiction

Research investigating meditation as an adjunctive therapy in the context of addiction recovery has thus far revealed strong evidence of therapeutic value. A 2008 study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine found that alcoholics who participated in a 16-week meditation course following completion of intensive outpatient treatment were significantly less likely to relapse than those who did not practice meditation following the outpatient program. Furthermore, those who meditated reported lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress and nearly all reported that meditation was “very important” and a “useful relapse prevention tool”. Similar findings have been observed in addicts recovering from other types of substance abuse as well. One group of researchers found that recovering addicts who participated in a meditation course following residential or intensive outpatient treatment reported not only much lower rates of substance use, but “greater decreases in craving and increases in acceptance and acting with awareness” in the 4 months following treatment.

Why exactly meditation works to help addicts stay sober is not yet clear, but there may be a neurological basis for meditation’s transformative powers. Researchers from Harvard Medical School found that people who meditated daily for eight weeks “had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, and stress.” The team examined the brains of participants before and after the eight-week period using MRI scans and found that those who meditated developed increased hippocampal gray matter, enhancing learning, memory, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. By engaging the brain’s natural plasticity, meditation may modulate brain activity to create new neural pathways that support improved psychological stability and enhanced resistance to addiction.

The practice of meditation also appears to directly target one of the primary driving forces behind addiction: the desire to escape distress. Also known as experiential avoidance, you turn to substance use to find relief from emotions, thoughts, or experiences that cause discomfort, including the craving for the substance itself. Meditation has been shown to help improve distress tolerance by “promoting nonjudgmental acceptance of moment-to-moment thoughts and by interrupting the tendency to respond using maladaptive behaviors.” In other words, meditation increases your ability to sit with unpleasant experiences without panicking, emotionally disintegrating, or using drugs or alcohol.

Of course, the results are not instant; meditation is a practice that works over time to help you reach deeper levels of awareness and distress tolerance. It is a process of acclimation during which you learn how to be present in the current moment and experience yourself fully without running away. For addicts who instinctively reach for an escape hatch when confronted with the reality of themselves, this can initially be a difficult process. For many of us, resorting to substance use in times like these isn’t experienced as a question of want, but a matter of need; after years of conditioning, it can be impossible to imagine being able to cope without drugs or alcohol. Through meditation, you can unlearn destructive reflexes and realize your potential for change. Alex, a former heroin user who turned to meditation while in recovery says, “I nearly walked out three times during my first course. It was so painful to observe all the negativity I had stored away inside me.” But as he returned to class again and again, he discovered an inner strength he did not know he had. Today, he credits meditation with helping him stay clean. “Cravings do not affect me like they used to. If I have a craving, I just observe it and it passes.”