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Transcendental Meditation shown to reduce alcohol addiction

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14 June 2018

An important study on Transcendental Meditation and alcohol addiction prevention was published in the April issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

The Peter G. Dodge Foundation funded the clinical trial which was conducted by the substance abuse research specialists at the Friends Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Dr. Gryczynski of the Institute stated: ''The overarching purpose of this pilot study was really to determine the feasibility of integrating TM into alcohol use disorder treatment. And that's something that we demonstrated very well. . . . I see meditation in general, and TM specifically, as having great promise in relapse prevention.''

Celestine, one of the subjects, has been sober for six months—she learned TM five months ago. Celestine said, ''Now when I wake up in the morning, I feel happy; I feel blessed. The one regret I do have is that I wish I had started [TM] earlier, just so I could have had that much more of my life back.''

Not one subject in the study who learned TM and meditated regularly twice daily engaged in heavy drinking after being discharged from the facility, whereas 47 percent of the non-TM subjects did. Those participants who practiced the TM technique regularly exhibited the greatest results in terms of reduction in alcohol craving, in perceived stress, and in psychological distress.

Even in small quantities, alcohol affects women differently than men, and women are at greater risk than men for developing alcohol-related problems. Fewer women than men drink, but women who drink heavily equal or exceed men in the number of resulting problems. The death rate for women alcoholics due to related accidents, emotional problems and disease is 50 to 100% higher than for male alcoholics.

Read more of our blog post on TM, women and alcoholism. An excerpt follows:

''When the mind transcends [goes beyond] active levels of thinking during the TM technique, it settles to a state of calm restful alertness, a state of spontaneous inner happiness which fulfills the mind and improves brain function. At the same time, the deep rest that takes place physically restores physiological balance. As a result, alcoholics who learn the TM technique discover that their urge to drink becomes less spontaneously.''

Copyright © 2018 Transcendental Meditation for Women

See related articles:
∙ A natural way to treat both fatigue and addiction: Transcendental Meditation fulfils the 'dire need for rest and restoration'
∙ Profile: Transcendental Meditation, the 'missing piece of the recovery puzzle'

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