Animal ownership can provide immeasurable therapeutic value to addiction recovery patients. Practically every pet owner has experienced the stress-relieving benefits of a life with their animal friends: the unconditional love they provide when it seems like you’re at odds with the entire world; the exercise benefits you both get from play-time; the constant companionship, etc. Seaside Palm Beach has blended pets and addiction treatment to develop a one-of-a-kind recovery program where animal lovers can lean on their non-human friends for strength and support.
How Does Seaside Palm Beach Combine Pets and Addiction Treatment?
This innovative therapy allows clients to have their pets with them during treatment to give them that same sense of warmth and comfort many pet owners experience when they see their animals at the end of a long and arduous day. Most patients who select this program are overwhelmed with joy at the prospect of being able to have their animals with them during this challenging process. The therapy works for most dependency problems-pets and drug rehab, as well as pets and alcohol rehab are proven combinations in helping clients who are animal lovers to recover. By the very nature of their presence during treatment, pets become part of the treatment themselves.
Benefits of Pet Companionship and Addiction Treatment
In addition to the immediate physical and emotional benefits, such as exercise, companionship, and unconditional loyalty, this program also affords patents warmth, familiarity, and a benign and comforting reminder of their life before rehab. By giving themselves the task of caring for something, patients can reacquaint themselves with the concepts of selflessness and nurturing. Integrating pets and addiction treatment goes beyond giving patients their own separate living space to maintain, and makes them responsible for a life other than their own.
The Proven Results of Combining Pets and Addiction Treatment
Numerous addiction studies suggest that spending time with a pet can be more beneficial than even opening up to a family member or loved one. This makes sense given how guarded patients with addictions or mental disorders tend to be. They find in their animal, a completely non-judgmental sounding board for their fears, complaints, reservations and troubles. Overall the combination of pets and addiction treatment has been dramatically underutilized, despite its numerous benefits and proven results. Animals have no hidden agenda related to your recovery and no manipulative inclinations; just the biological instinct to bond with their owners and offer support and connection that humans can find literally nowhere else. Not many residential treatment centers integrate pets and addiction treatment due to licensing issues and logistical difficulties. Seaside Palm Beach’s commitment to this program is just another example of our above-and-beyond approach to treatment.
