Left untreated, mental health and substance use disorders worsen and can make it difficult, if not impossible, to live a normal life. Experiential therapy activities are common tools during treatment. Experiential therapy in Portland, Oregon, uses methods of expression, such as dancing, in order to help you share your thoughts and feelings.
Mental Health Concerns & Substance Use Disorder
Substance use and mental health disorders are among the most common health problems experienced in the United States. Both conditions are also chronic and incurable, making treatment especially important so that you can learn how to manage and cope with symptoms throughout your life. Mental health and substance misuse disorders have no known causes, although the incidence of both increases when you have family members who suffer from addiction or mental health problems.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care is an approach to treating people with substance use disorder who use substances as a way to numb the pain of unhealed trauma. Discussing trauma in a safe space doesn’t eliminate it, but it helps the trauma become manageable. Our support services at Crestview are designed to help people consider the impact of trauma on their thinking and behavior. Trauma-informed care is based on five principles:
- Safety
- Choice
- Collaboration
- Trustworthiness
- Empowerment
At Crestview, we put these principles into practice during every phase of treatment.
What Are Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders?
Mental health disorders cause significant changes to your thinking patterns, emotions, and behaviors. Conditions like depression and anxiety cause intense symptoms that don’t go away without treatment. While everybody experiences negative emotions, most negative emotions alleviate in a short amount of time. When you have a mental health disorder like depression, you feel extreme sadness for an extended period of time. Depression can last for weeks, or even months, before subsiding. It may include the following concerns:
- Feelings of worthlessness
- Unexplainable sadness and despair
- Often feeling hopeless
Mental health disorders can impact your personality and behavior, such as causing you to isolate yourself from others or engage in dangerous behaviors. Many mental health disorders cause neurotransmitter imbalances. For example, depression can result from your brain’s inability to release an adequate amount of serotonin.
Addiction & Mental Health Are Connected
Substance use disorders are a type of mental health disorder that causes you to compulsively seek out and use drugs and alcohol. You can experience troubling consequences or want to stop using and continue to abuse drugs or alcohol. As mental health disorders, substance use disorders are chronic and require life-long management. Some of the most commonly abused substances that lead to addiction include:
- Alcohol
- Prescription painkillers
- Benzodiazepines like Xanax
- Illicit opiates like heroin
- Amphetamine and methamphetamine
If you are experiencing depression, bipolar disorder, or another mental health condition, it is time to reach out for help. Crestview Recovery Center provides mental health treatment services in Portland, Oregon. Our trained staff is available to give you the care necessary so that you can navigate your depression and take control of your life. Our approach to mental health treatment empowers people struggling with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder to live the life they want.
How Are Mental Health Disorders and Addiction Treated?
Mental health and substance use disorders utilize evidence-based and holistic treatments and offer both inpatient and outpatient treatment options. A key part of recovery involves learning how to identify and change negative thinking patterns, emotions and behaviors.
Inpatient programs offer the highest level of care and typically last for up to 28 days. Long-term residential programs, which may include transition housing, can last for more than 90 days. Outpatient treatment allows you to return home each night and continue working or going to school. Treatment programs typically offer options:
- Relapse prevention education
- Individual therapy program
- Family and marital counseling
- Medication management program
- Aftercare planning program
- Education about healthy coping strategies
Experiential therapy Portland Oregon offers provides expressive and emotional-based treatments that can help you learn how to recover.
What Are Experiential Therapy Activities?
Experiential therapy activities focus on providing a creative way for you to share your thoughts and feelings. These activities are a more hands-on treatment approach than talking-based therapy, often implementing things like art, music, and drama. Experiential therapy activities can include:
- Journaling and creative writing activities
- Dance movement therapy
- Art therapy programs, such as painting or sculpting
- Music therapy program
- Plays, skits, and drama
Experiential therapy is combined with other evidence-based treatments, such as talking-based therapy. Nature and animal therapy are also common experiential therapy activities utilized during mental health and substance use treatment.
Finding Help for Depression & Addiction
If you or a loved one is attempting to overcome a mental health or substance use disorder, reaching out for help is the best way to begin your recovery journey. Contact us today at 866.262.0531 to find out more about how our experiential therapy activities can help you achieve recovery.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
