Drug addiction is a powerful challenge both for the addicts and their relatives, friends, colleagues and even neighbors. Moreover, it is a tangible problem for society in general, which is forced to respond to it so that this negative phenomenon does not spread to more and more people. That is why there are many supporters of radical treatment methods. They insist on active medicinal procedures and specific restrictive measures against addicts.
However, there are other approaches to healing drug addiction. Proponents of soft methods say that the root of addiction is in the mental sphere. And if a person, with the help of psychotherapists, narcologists and other specialists, manages to find it, then the effect will be powerful and sustainable. One of the tools for achieving this is art therapy.
From Darkness to Light: How Art Therapy Brings Addict Problems to Consciousness
Ignorance is one of the significant challenges that a drug addict has to deal with. Many cannot indicate what exactly prompted them to take drugs. And even if they point to some factor, it can only be superficial and hide the true reasons.
For example, a person may believe that family quarrels pushed them to take drugs. But these quarrels are not the cause but a manifestation of other, deeper problems that gave rise to these conflicts.
Others may say that they came to taking drugs because of financial collapse and debt problems. Not knowing that there were legit loans at FCLOANS, a person became desperate and looked for ways to relieve mental stress. But this is not the real cause, since the root lies in what led a person to financial ruin and why they were unable to ensure financial prosperity for themselves and their family.
Therefore, finding the cause is one of the first tasks that a drug addict must solve with the help of a specialist. Art therapy allows them to penetrate into the deeper layers of the subconscious and can indicate the root of the problem.
Art Therapy in Understanding the Causes of Addiction
Human thinking is limitless and narrow at the same time. When comprehending their lives, a person forms a narrow interpretative frame. Often, it prevents them from finding the right solution in difficult situations or, conversely, in situations of new opportunities. Art therapy is a method that allows a person to turn off these narrow thinking frames and penetrate into the deeper layers of the psyche. This becomes possible by focusing on creative tasks from various fields of art:
- Painting
- Modeling
- Music
- Dance, etc.
By opening up to creativity, the addict is not only filled with healthy energy but also begins to see or feel what led them to negative mental states.
Examples of Art Therapy Methods
One of the difficulties drug addicts have in developing new behavior patterns is that the drugs grab their attention. They don’t know how to find an alternative that could drive drugs out of their lives. The art therapy exercises can help solve this problem:
- Ask the person to draw a picture of how they see their addiction. Pay attention to the images and colors in which they depict it. If these are bright and beautiful images, then they are in captivity of drugs, and one of the first tasks of a specialist is to prove the harm of drugs. If these are negative images, it is necessary to maintain the addict’s confidence that they can cope with this addiction.
- Then ask them to draw the activities they enjoy in their life. Also, pay attention to how excited the addict will be when portraying them.
- As a final step, ask them to draw a picture of what they would put in place of drugs if it were possible to remove them from their life. This image is key for this exercise. With its help, it will be possible to drive drugs out of a person’s life.
Some will draw a picture of a happy family life, others — of hiking in the mountains or flying on a spaceship. All these are unrealized dreams that have enormous positive power if a person starts to realize them. And they can have a much greater effect on restoring a normal, healthy life for a drug addict than just drug treatment. With the latter, a person does not receive support that will help to change their previous way of life. And art therapy provides both such support and a new dream.