It’s a simple fact that few people would use drugs if they knew what drug use would eventually do to them. It can start out innocently enough with curiosity about what drugs are like. Maybe it’ll be a lot of fun, right? Drugs can feel amazing at first, but they rapidly start to deteriorate every facet of your life. Before you know what’s happening, your life is falling apart and you don’t know what to do.
There is something you can do, however. Drug rehab is the ultimate solution to getting any person off of drugs and back to living a healthy life. There are several components to successful drug rehabilitation, though, and some parts are actions you can take at home right away. If you’re already using drugs and want to quit, or if you know someone else who needs help quitting drugs, taking a look at your physical fitness could do a lot of good. Exercise and healthy living aren’t just a good idea, they are vital components to eradicating drug addiction.
How Exercise can Replace a High
The reason that drugs are so addicting is twofold. First, they create an incredible high – a feeling so amazing that the user wants to go back and get high over and over again. This is usually an escape from whatever he is feeling in his regular life. If he is bored or depressed, drugs can help artificially make those feelings go away. The other part that makes addiction so powerful is the incredibly painful withdrawal symptoms that most addicts go through when they try to quit.
There may not be a lot that you can do about the withdrawal symptoms by yourself. You’ll have to get through them, but there are professionals at drug rehab centers that can help ease the process. What you can do right at home is to start exercising right away.
Exercise already helps the body in many ways. It keeps your muscles toned, and it helps you keep your level of body fat at a healthy level. Your likelihood of getting many different diseases is dramatically lowered when you are physically active on a regular basis. Researchers have recently discovered, though, that exercise has an additional mental benefit that can help addicts to quit.
These researchers have found that there is a sort of mental high that comes just from exercising. This may be one of the reasons that some athletes seem to get hooked on working out. They actually can start to feel addicted to the improved energy and general well-being that comes with exercising their bodies.
The research also showed that when addicts start exercising regularly, they actually become less likely to continue using drugs. It may be that they are switching from an unhealthy addiction to a healthy one, but an addiction to working out and keeping your body in shape is better than an addiction to destroying it.
National Physical Fitness Month
There is no better time of year to start getting outside and exercising than right now. May is National Physical Fitness Month. It’s a time of year when the whole country can observe whether or not we’re doing our best to keep our bodies fit through exercise. Narconon Arrowhead will be working all month to promote physical fitness and to let everyone know how it can help prevent drug addiction and aid in treating addiction. It’s time to get outside and start exercising.
References:
ChicagoTribune.com: Exercise – Alternative reward for those battling addiction http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-06-12/health/sc-health-0612-fitness-fight-addiction-with-exerci-20130612_1_todd-crandell-drug-addiction-reward
Healthfinder.gov: National Physical Fitness and Sports Month http://healthfinder.gov/NHO/MayToolkit.aspx
