Author: VKM

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Women on Drugs

Women on Drugs: The Most Common

One of the reasons we at Villa Kali Ma promote gender-specific treatment is that women and men are different in the ways we go about abusing drugs.

We’re not so different that we don’t have anything in common – all addictions are the same type of beast, in the end, and our shared humanity trumps our differences and experiences.

We are different enough along our gender lines, though, that it makes sense to consider seeking treatment and support among our gender. Gender-specific treatment is especially recommended for women, who have an easier time feeling safe enough to do the work necessary to recover in female-only environments. This may have something to do with the high incidence of sexual abuse and sexual assault-related traumatization being a key origination point of addiction for women.

Particularly for women, it can be important to provide a protected space to understand the female experience when it comes to drugs, alcohol, and addiction. To explore a little more about women and our addictions, let’s talk more about the drugs women use most commonly.

What are the most commonly abused drugs by women?

The typical pattern for women is that we are less likely than men to use street drugs in the first place. We are more likely to use and develop addiction to drugs that are considered to be more socially acceptable, such as prescriptions and alcohol.

This tendency to stay within the bounds of the law, at least when starting in our addiction path, is in keeping with socialized female behavior in general, as we are in large part less likely to break the law or step outside social mores.

Broadly speaking it is also more expected for men to act out, in ways that are messy and visible to society, while women are still largely expected to be quiet and docile. The differing expectations about how men and women behave, what is tolerated and what isn’t – men can be angry, women can’t, women can be vulnerable, men can’t, etc – have impacts on how we approach substances.

The substances women abuse most commonly are prescription opiates, prescription sedatives, stimulants (both prescription and street versions), and alcohol.

Opiates (Percocet, Vicodin, OxyContin)

The infamous opioid class of painkillers, responsible for the meteoric rise in overdose deaths since their introduction to the market as a supposedly addiction-free painkiller, is more commonly prescribed to women than to men. Women are more likely to suffer from chronic pain conditions and therefore are more vulnerable to this situation.

Opiates, including OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet, are exceptionally addictive, resulting in physical addiction after as little as two days of use.

According to a review of the literature on gender and opioid use disorder, published in 2020, the number of deaths by synthetic opioids among women is skyrocketing, increasing at more than twice the rate for men.


Sedatives (Valium, Xanax, Klonopin)

The tranquilizer, or sedative class of prescription drugs, also called depressants, are commonly prescribed to ease symptoms of anxiety and sleep problems.

Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin are examples of this class of drugs. They are exceedingly addictive, and while they are only approved to be administered for short-term use, the reality is that they are very often abused. Like opiates, this class of prescriptions can create physical addiction symptoms like craving and withdrawal within days.

Like opiates, these prescription drugs are prescribed more often to women than to men. The conditions these drugs are primarily prescribed for are also more prevalent among women than men. Women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders, and in each specific type of anxiety disorder, more women than men receive that diagnosis.


Stimulants (Adderall, Cocaine, Methamphetamine)

Women are more likely than men to become addicted to methamphetamines, whether prescription (Adderall, Ritalin, and other ADHD-associated prescriptions) or street (speed or crystal meth).

Although men and women are equally likely to try methamphetamines, women are more likely than men to become addicted. Women are considered to be more vulnerable than men to becoming addicted to cocaine, as well, which is also a stimulant class drug.

Overall it appears that the danger represented by these drugs, including physiological craving, withdrawals, and atrophy to body systems, is higher for women.


Alcohol

Not to be forgotten, alcohol is a popular choice of substance among women, and a source of epidemic levels of substance addiction. Due to alcohol’s widespread availability, legality, and social acceptability, more women are exposed to alcohol than any other substance.

Despite its legal and social status, alcohol represents many dangers to women, which are similar to the above-described prescription drugs. Alcohol is addictive and toxic to the body. Women are more likely to develop addiction to alcohol than men are.

Putting it All Together: Women and Drugs

Women and men experience drugs and addiction differently, for social and biological reasons both. Our motivations for using are somewhat different, and our bodies metabolize substances differently, too (due to differing water levels, hormones, and more.)

In many ways you can say that women are more vulnerable than men are to the snares of addiction – although we’re less likely to try street drugs out, we’re more likely to be prescribed addictive drugs at the doctor’s office, as we’re more likely to be diagnosed with the conditions those drugs are supposed to treat.

We’re more likely to experience psychoactive effects in response to smaller amounts of the same substance, and we develop physiological addiction (cravings, tolerance, and withdrawal) more rapidly than men.

Villa Kali Ma can assist women with drug addiction

Villa Kali Ma is fully devoted to helping women wake up from the nightmare of addiction. We have a full spectrum of care available, to address every level of need that women have in a context that works best for the situation.

We compassionately and effectively treat co-occurring mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, as well as the underlying root traumatization that nearly always accompanies addiction, especially in women.

If you’re struggling with substances yourself, or worried about a woman in your life, check out our many holistic, integrative programs that combine the best of Western medicine with the world’s most time-honored and healing traditions.

References:

https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/substance-use-in-women/sex-gender-differences-in-substance-use

Categories
Iop vs Php

IOP vs PHP

Addiction treatment is offered at different levels of care, to address different degrees of addiction.

The more severe an addiction is the higher the level of care needed to treat it. The level of care reflects how much direct intervention by medical professionals and other kinds of addiction specialists is needed for a person to stop compulsively ingesting the substance. In some cases, patients need to be in an inpatient setting for treatment to be possible, and in some cases, it’s ok to handle the case in outpatient.

The level of care a person needs generally depends on what substance they’ve been using, how much they’ve been using, and how long they’ve been using it. The longer we’ve been using, and the more we’ve been using, the more likely we are to need a medically supervised and very structured setting to receive our treatment.

Partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) and intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) are two different levels of care that lie on this spectrum of care.

What are the differences between IOP vs PHP for women?

Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHPs) are highly structured environments for people who need a very high level of support and supervision at this stage of their recovery.

As the name implies, it is a step below full hospitalization and has many features of a hospital setting without being in a hospital, such as medical staff, a lot of structure, and a contained environment.

Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) are less structured, more flexible environments that are appropriate for people who have completed higher levels of care and are being “stepped down” gradually to a greater level of independence. IOPs are also appropriate for people whose addictions didn’t progress far enough to warrant higher levels of care.

What is PHP for women?

Partial Hospitalization Programs provide women with a comprehensive treatment program that is intensive and highly structured but allows for living at home or in special housing such as sober living (a transitional, safe housing option for people re-entering the community after residential treatment).

Participants in a PHP program receive their treatment at a dedicated day facility and are typically required to participate in several hours of therapy, activities, education, coping skills training, and group therapy daily.

The high level of participation and structure reflects the necessary supervision and frequency of therapeutic intervention that women struggling with addiction need, to remain sober and to do the healing work necessary to stay sober once they complete treatment.

PHPs offer a package of different therapeutic interventions, including individual psychotherapy with a counselor, therapy groups with peers, coping skills training groups, education about the disease of addiction, family therapy, and milieu activities like gardening, cooking, and arts and crafts. PHPs have psychiatric and medical supervision at the facility.

PHPs commonly offer evidence-based therapeutic models like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) that have been shown to efficiently train psychological skills that help people stay sober.

In holistic PHPs like the one we offer at Villa Kali Ma, many adjunct modalities like expressive arts therapy, yoga, meditation, massage, and options to explore personal spirituality are woven into the core program.

Another aspect that distinguishes Villa Kali Ma is our provision of cutting-edge treatments that specifically address the role of traumatization, such as EMDR, Parts Work, and Somatic Experiencing.

What is an IOP for women?

Intensive Outpatient Programs, or IOPs, are also very structured but require fewer daily hours of participation.

IOPs are similar to PHPs in their essence, and cover many of the same bases (psychiatric care, individual therapy, group work, skills training, and peer activities), but are suited for people who are ready to experience more flexibility and independence because they can do so without relapsing into their addiction again.

The purpose of IOPs is to make it possible to attend treatment while also beginning to transition back into ordinary life, for example through returning to work or family duties.

IOPs are intended as a bridging option, for gradually and carefully decreasing the level of supervision and intensity, structure, and frequency of therapeutic intervention.

This way participants can slowly adjust to less structure, and practice applying their new skills, attitudes, and behaviors at home and work, outside of the treatment setting. IOP can be likened to a stage of taking training wheels off, while still under supervision and care.

Because of the focus on returning to the community, IOPs typically orient towards the graduation process and preparing for life after treatment. Relapse prevention planning represents a key component of any good treatment program, and naturally takes more focus the closer a person is to finishing treatment.

What is the effectiveness of IOP and PHP for women?

After residential treatment, PHP is the best option for treating addiction because of the high level of structure, supervision, and intensity of care.

The rigorous schedule of therapeutic work and a protected environment are generally necessary for a bad case of addiction to be reversed.

In general, the worse the addiction, the more treatment is necessary to heal it. PHPs are associated with better chances of longer-term recovery compared with lower levels of care because they provide the most comprehensive treatment in the most effective amount of time.

IOPs are also successful, but usually only when participants have either already completed higher levels of care (PHP or residential), or when addiction is less severe, requiring less treatment to heal.

What is aftercare after IOP and PHP for women?

Aftercare is an intense follow-up treatment program for alumni that is less intense, for staying in contact and making sure treatment has been successful.

Aftercare programs usually offer groups, activities, and some individual check-in sessions for staying in connection with treatment staff and sober peers. Aftercare programs provide support, accountability, practical help, and advice for topics that come up in the life of a newly sober person. Aftercare is an important part of relapse prevention and helps people stay on track and remember their tools.

Even after the conclusion of aftercare, it is highly recommended to actively involve oneself in cultivating recovery ongoingly, through daily participation in 12-step programs like AA or NA (Narcotics Anonymous). Through the rise of online meetings, daily connection with recovering peers has become more and more feasible (while the benefits of in-person meetings are many as well).

Villa Kali Ma offers PHP and IOP for women

Villa Kali Ma offers a full spectrum of treatment for women suffering from addiction, addressing all levels of care that can be needed, from medically supervised detox to residential treatment, to PHP, down to IOP.

Categories
Sobriety

10 Tips for A Sober Summer

Ready for a sober summer? Us too!

How to avoid alcohol during summer events

No getting around it, alcohol is served everywhere, all the time. Summer is no exception. For the sober-committed among us, this upcoming 2024 season of pool parties, weddings, and BBQs is likely to present several opportunities for self-sabotage.

But not to worry, we know it’s coming and we can prepare. The addict within will use the same old strategy it always does, which is to try to get us to forget the danger and fall asleep at the wheel so that it can take over again.

But we won’t let it. We’ve worked too hard and come too far. And the addict is not the boss of us. We are in charge.

We will have bright, clear, healthy, awake, aware, heart-connected summers. Yes, we will. Here are 10 tips from us over here at Villa Kali Ma!

10 Tips for a Sober Summer

1. Set Your Intentions Strong and Clear

Write out an unambiguous, strong statement of your intentions for this summer. Something like this:

I, [your name], intend to have a 100% sober summer, this summer of 2024. I do not consent or agree to any form of relapse, slip, or other form of self-harm or self-sabotage.

I am committed to sobriety because…[your reasons].

A strong intention with a strong why goes a long way. This is the royal decree that you, as the queen of your spirit and body, set for yourself.

Make no mistake, the part within which has tried to harm you in the past (the addiction, the self-sabotage, whatever it is), will interpret any fuzziness, vagueness, or lack of clarity as permission to return. Make it clear that you are 100% all in for sobriety, and that you are not in any way interested in revisiting your painful, miserable past for one last hurrah.


2. Design Your Summer

Take a little time to imagine what your ideal version of this summer would even be if you could have what you wanted. What would fill you up, nourish your soul, light your fire?

What do you need? What do you long for? What could life bring you, that would make up for the imagined missed fun of drinking and using? What would make a sober summer feel less like a goody-two-shoes thing, but a magnificent reward, a deeply connective chapter of your life?

Free write on the topic of your ideal sober summer.

If I could have a beautiful sober summer that magically matches my soul’s deepest longings, my unmet needs, the things I secretly wish for, this is what would happen…


3. Make a Realistic Plan

Imagine you were going to build a house on a piece of property, yourself. What would you do? You would probably research, talk to other people who have done it, arrange for help from people who know what they’re doing, and make a serious, thorough plan.

Do the same for your sober summer. Research and plan it out, as realistically as you can, thinking of all the things that can go wrong and all the things that could be awesome.

Using your “ideal summer” free write from question 2, ask yourself what you can do, practically, to give yourself at least some of those feelings and experiences.

Maybe you can’t have all of it, but there is always something we can do to get into the energy of it. Use your ideal summer blueprint as inspiration, and see what you can practically and realistically implement.

Shoot for the moon, be willing to land among the stars if you don’t get to the moon, and also do the prep work to make sure your rocket doesn’t explode.


4. Commit to do the Work

Be ready to work to fight for your sober summer. This may mean different kinds of effort: the work of setting boundaries, managing expectations with family, and communicating.

Prepare yourself and commit yourself to double down on attending meetings, working with a sponsor, going to therapy, and continuing to learn. As they say in 12 Steps, it works… if you work it.

Those of us with addiction patterning sometimes avoid hard work, not because we’re lazy but because we’re scared – of disappointment, failure, feelings – whatever it is that has taught us to fear our effort.

But when we invest energy in ourselves, that effort is rewarded a thousandfold by the benevolent forces of healing that are on our side.

The more we commit to the work of recovery, the more rewards come flowing to us in expected and unexpected ways. The self-worth that blooms internally when we fight for ourselves has to be experienced to be believed.


5. Generate Hubs of Positivity

Become a hub of positivity, knowing that what you do for yourself and others is amplified and helps many more people than you could know, through the subtle energetic fabric that connects us all.

Create and share experiences you wish someone could give to you. If you wish someone would throw you a sober party where you play board games and make handmade pumpkin ravioli – girl, throw that party.


6. Find your Sober Family

When we first get sober, the addict within tells us there will never be any social connection, love, or belonging ever again.

It’s not true. We can have plenty of friends, the types of friends who love us as we are, get what we’re about, and treat us with kindness and regard.

These people exist, but we may have to search a little to find them. One way to find them is to start going to different environments. Go to sober events. Try things you wouldn’t normally try. Be on the lookout for your people. See who shows up for you, when you show up for you. Have patience, it can take a while. But keep looking!

If this is an old hat for you, use this summer to reconnect and nourish the heart connections you have.


7. Garden and Spend Time in Nature

Let Mother Nature heal you. Spend some time gardening, hiking, walking, camping, biking, surfing – whatever you can do to get out into her embrace. Nature knows how to heal a sick spirit, and how to make you remember that you belong to life. Nature is a way to connect with the source.


8. Exercise

The body needs to move. When we exercise, the body gets happy. When the body gets happy, so do we. Exercise! Play with new ways of moving. Learn to tango, go to a rock climbing gym, kayak, or do yoga teacher training. Ask your body what it wants to do, and listen to the answer.


9. Complete a Creative Project

Undertake a creative project for your summer. Print out your favorite photographs from this year and make a collage. Collect recipes from your family and make them into a recipe book to share with them. Take a pottery class. Using your creativity, especially in a short-term, project-oriented way, gives us structure, purpose, and something to do with our hands.


10. Tell the Truth

The truth is healing and sets us free. Find ways to strengthen it this summer, asking yourself, “What is my truth?”.

In your journal, in Twelve Step meetings, with your therapist, with your recovery peers, or among safe friends, practice sharing your truth. Start small, and build up to as much honesty as you need to feel its soul medicine. Authenticity cures the alienation of conditional belonging and banishes addiction to the hinterland.

Villa Kali Ma can help women stay sober during the summer and all season long!

Here at Villa Kali Ma, sobriety is our jam. Since the earliest days, we have been helping women recover and learn how to live in this world, sane and sober. Come check out our many programs that help women thrive.

Categories
Mental Health Treatment

The Connection Between Summer and Mental Health

Summer is a beautiful season, a time associated with the strength of the sun. Summer is literal and symbolic. Summer is a zenith, a high point in the natural growth cycle of the year.

In astrology, the sun symbolizes the self, the unique identity that each of us has. The months when the sun shines strongest can be a time of feeling our own truer natures to shine the strongest, as well.

From the mental health point of view, summer can be a time of strengthening ourselves, taking advantage of fortuitous alignments in nature and the tilt of the planet, to help ourselves feel connected and anchored into what matters most in our world.

What is it that matters most to you, the sun star you are? And how can you shine strong, in service of that, this summer?

How does summer affect mental health?

The power and radiance of the sun bring life to the planet. The sun also brings energization, warmth, and sparkle to our bodies, and our subjective, most personal experiences of life.

In summer, the boost in exposure to the sun brings increases in our vitamin D levels, which help with immunity, mood, and sleep. The presence of the sun promotes melatonin production as well, which is linked to well-being in multiple ways.

In the summer, we often socialize more and are more likely to let ourselves relax. The abundance of available activities and opportunities for connection is a positive thing. Beaches, frisbee, hikes, swimming in lakes, vacations – all of these belong to the sweeter side of life.

Summer is a good time to soak it up. Soak up the healing, harmonizing influences of sunshine and its many health and mood-enhancing benefits. It is also a good time to enjoy ourselves, recognize the good side of life, and value the temporary, albeit cyclical, experience of being at the top of the Ferris wheel of the year.

From a mental health point of view, summer is a time to enjoy ourselves, nature, and other people, and to allow ourselves to experience goodness.

How to form good mental health habits?

Summer is a great time to set and form healthy habits that we can then sustain and hold steady when the season changes around us. We can take advantage of the many factors helping us feel soft, easygoing, and energized, to set up habits and rhythms that support our truest and highest intentions.

Here are some ideas for good mental health habits to form this summer.

Creative Play. Creative play is enormously healing for mind, body, and spirit. The combination of personal meaning, fun, cathartic emotional release, and self-discovery makes it a super-practice for any woman on a healing path.

If you have been thinking about returning to a creative practice or trying something new, summer is a great time to do it. Not only do the longer sunlight hours mean you’ll have more energy for it, but the whole seasonal environment supports “shining” in every sense of the word.

Nature. Summer is the easiest time of year to get outside more. The nourishment that nature brings to the spirit comes in many forms. There are physiological rewards as the body interacts with the natural world – benefits from exposure to full spectrum light, the many medicinal scents that abound in the plant world, and even sound healing from saturation in organic acoustics.

The microbiome is healed through physical contact with soil, and our ions are balanced through earthing, among many other positive effects.

To the soul and spirit, nature is a panacea – the harmony, poetics, and symbolism of the natural kingdom help us to understand ourselves and our place in the world better than anything else.

Exercise. Due to the increase in daylight and energy, summer is a fortuitous time to get into a good pattern of exercise. This year you may want to ask from within your body, what kind of movement is right for you.

Are you a dancer, a runner, a team player, a fighter? What makes you feel strong nimble and fluid in your body? How could you support your body with the type of movement it’s asking for?

Food. Summer is a time when we may naturally feel comfortable eating less or eating lighter and fresher. Maybe it’s time for a detox diet, cleanse, or fast. Maybe we want to change how we consume, eat more mindfully, or try out new recipes.

Spirituality. Summer connects us with the sun and the incredible, magnificent power of the mysterious life force energy that powers and sustains every one of us. Summer can be a great time to remember what it is that we have reverence, gratitude, and love for. Form some spiritual habits this summer. Start or evolve a practice of meditation and prayer, whatever that means to you.

What are some mental health benefits of the summer season?

Here are some of the blessings that summer brings to our psychological well-being.

Work Less

In the summer, we gravitate towards working less. Whether it’s a holdover from our years in the school system, because we have kids of our own, or simply because we like to get outside, most of us reconnect with the world outside of work during these magical months. Working less is enormously positive for our mental health.


More Time with Family and Friends

In summer we host and go to gatherings with friends and family, receive visits and visit others, and in general, feel more like we have the energy and enthusiasm to connect with people.
Isolation is a strong factor in creating poor mental health, and finding ways to connect with other humans, especially (but not only) those we feel safe with, helps us at the creaturely, biological level to remember and feel that we are part of a larger tribe of humans.


More sunshine

Sunshine brings us Vitamin D, an important ingredient for the body to thrive. Vitamin D is connected to immunity, improved mineral absorption, strong bones and teeth, and mood regulation.


More physical activity

We get more physical activity in the summer, whether because we’re going on adventures and trips or because we seize a day of beautiful weather to get outside and move.

 

Physical exercise is the number one natural antidepressant, anti-anxiety, sleep aid, nervous system regulator, and immunity booster.

What are some self-care tips women can engage in to feel good during the summer?

Self-care practices are for all year round, even in summer. Here are some tips for summertime self-care.

  1. Make sure you get some alone time. Sometimes it’s harder in summer to remember that we still need quiet time alone with ourselves. We do!
  2. Take your reflection practices outside. If it feels like a shame to be inside, think about whether you could do your morning journaling, meditation, mindful breakfast, or yoga practice outside. Rather than skip self-care routines, make summer versions of them.
  3. Make sure you get enough sleep. It can be harder in the summer to get enough rest because of the natural energization. Support yourself by limiting screen time and letting your body tell you when it’s ready to go to bed. It might be earlier than you’re used to. Take naps if you can!
  4. Keep going to meetings and therapy. It can be very tempting in the summer to let “hard stuff” like 12-step meetings or cbt therapy go by the wayside. Stay actively involved in your healing and recovery, knowing that the better you take care of yourself, the more wonderful your summer will be.
  5. Eat clean and hydrate. Sometimes we forget the basics in summer because we’re feeling good already. Nevertheless, the body still needs to be pampered and cared for, by taking the cleanest, clearest ingredients we can.
  6. Practice positivity. Take the opportunity to ask yourself questions that will help you practice positivity as a life philosophy. If you’re feeling good, dwell on that. What excites me, what do I love? What am I grateful for? What fills me with bubbles? What makes me feel big and warm and bright?

Villa Kali Ma can assist women with mental health

We here at Villa Kali Ma are a team of healers devoted to helping women discover deep health from within, at all levels and layers of being.

We’ve explored women’s health and happiness from every angle, from the spiritual to the relational, from the psychological to the physiological, from the neurological to the nutritional.

If you’re struggling with a mental health problem, trauma, or addiction, those are our specialties! We’d love to help you find out who you really are, and who you can be once freed to shine as brightly and radiantly as you are meant to.

Check out our many programs for women and give us a call if you’re curious!

Categories
Ptsd in Women

June is PTSD Awareness Month

This June, Villa Kali Ma honors PTSD Awareness Month, a topic that’s very dear to our hearts.

We invite you to join us in a spirit of gentle understanding, with patience for yourself and all of humanity.

What is the importance of PTSD Awareness Month?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is relevant for many of us, not only the veterans among us. While PTSD Awareness Month specifically honors those among us with clinical levels of traumatization, the truth is that complex adaptive trauma is widespread and often undiagnosed.

The more we learn about trauma, the more we see that traumatization, or the wounding of the human psyche, underlies the many struggles we face as the human race.

Trauma leads to substance addiction, self-harm, and abuse of others. Trauma underlies the emotional and social disconnection and fragmentation that we see playing out in the world in many ways.

Some might say that the extreme imbalances we see in the world – the injustice and the desecration of the natural world, including human life – are only possible to be carried out by a severely traumatized population. Only the sides of us that are numbed, divorced, and alienated from our human hearts and spirits can participate in destruction without feeling the unnaturalness of what we are doing.

Trauma underlies the cycle of victimization, as the wounded among us enact their wounding on every next generation of humans, animals, plants, and materials of the earth.

And yet, it all makes sense! When we understand how trauma shatters, splits, and distorts us into inversions of our true human nature – making us violent, heartless, and dissociated – we can see that until humanity’s trauma is healed, little progress will take place.

Can we realistically expect people to treat each other, or planet Earth, with regard and tenderness, when we haven’t yet learned to treat ourselves as deserving of safety and protection from harm?

Every path of healing the wholeness is welcome. Still, those of us who are drawn to focus especially on the inner work of transformation understand that trauma is one of the biggest obstacles we face, especially as women.

As a collective, we’re going to have to heal what happened to the humans, before we can understand why we behave how we do, why we’re addicted and brokenhearted and psychologically ill.

Here at Villa Kali Ma, we are ever and always dedicated to healing PTSD, erasing this heartbreaking syndrome forever from the minds, hearts, and bodies of women.

What is PTSD?

Post-traumatic stress disorder is the clinical name for a grouping of symptoms and experiences that first gained notoriety after the World Wars when it was called shell shock.

Observing that veterans came home with shattered nervous systems and that wars destroy people, was the origin of a deeper investigation of trauma and how it works.

Since those beginning inquiries into what we now recognize to be trauma, the field has continued to progress by leaps and bounds, gradually revealing how it is that humans came to be in the state we are now.

While traumatization is widespread, it is less common to be diagnosed with the clinical syndrome called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. To receive a clinical diagnosis of PTSD, certain criteria have to be met, which indicate that a person has traumatization to such a degree that it is severely disrupting their ability to live life.

PTSD is often diagnosed among combat veterans, for obvious reasons, but it may develop in response to any life event which was experienced as life-threatening, terrifying, or extremely violating.

It is noteworthy to us at Villa Kali Ma that the majority of people receiving a diagnosis of PTSD are women, despite the far smaller number of female combat veterans.

What are the symptoms of PTSD?

Symptoms of traumatization in general include anxiety, panic, irritability or rage, intense feelings of dread and overwhelm, sleep problems (including nightmares and terrors), and preoccupation with a disturbing event or events.

It is common to adapt one’s behavior to avoid reminders of a traumatic incident, which can result in developing a substance addiction and/or social isolation as a way to manage exposure to triggers.

Triggers are signals in the environment or within one’s subjective perceptions that are armed to activate the nervous system and flood a person with very intense emotions and reactivity.

Four main symptoms of PTSD are used to diagnose it clinically. Individual people will experience their PTSD in somewhat unique and personal ways, nevertheless, these can be guidelines and markers to recognize the disorder’s presence.

Please keep in mind that all of us can relate to these markers to some degree, and that technically we only qualify for a diagnosis of PTSD if our symptoms disrupt our capacity to meet our life responsibilities.

That said, all trauma is deserving of our loving attention to heal it – we don’t need a medical diagnosis to permit us to heal our soul’s wounding. We all deserve all the help we need, no matter who we are.

Four main indicators of PTSD are:

1. Re-living, or re-experiencing the disturbing event.

Essentially, when we have trauma our nervous systems get stuck in such a way that we re-live the event psychologically – emotionally, and sometimes even perceptually – even though the event itself is over. This can take the form of having flashbacks, nightmares, or getting triggered into feeling like the same thing is happening again.


2. Avoidance of Triggers

It’s common for people with PTSD to avoid unpredictable situations, including social gatherings and even close relationships with people, because of the fear of getting triggered.


3. Negative Thoughts and Feelings

It is part of PTSD to live with constant, severe anxiety and negative thinking. The ability to trust or expect life to be a positive experience is eroded. Other impacts of traumatization include overwhelming emotions of intense guilt, shame, rage, dread, fear, and numbing.


4. Hyperarousal

People who have PTSD are often edgy and wound up, because they are in a state of chronic unease, looking out for danger. This hyper-vigilance makes it difficult to relax, sleep, have joy, or experience pleasure. This factor of PTSD also contributes to a tendency towards substance addiction.

What are the facts of PTSD?

According to statistics shared by the National Center for PTSD, which is part of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, 6% of Americans will develop PTSD at some point in their lifetimes.

The average number of adults in the United States with PTSD is about 12 million in any given year. About 5% of the current population has PTSD.

The incidence of PTSD is higher among women – of every 100 women, 8 will develop PTSD in their lifetimes, whereas of every 100 men, 4 will develop PTSD.

Villa Kali Ma supports National PTSD Awareness Month

For us at Villa Kali Ma, there is no greater issue than how to help women heal their trauma.

Women are a powerful force of love, intelligence, and creativity. We are nurturers, geniuses, engineers, spiritual leaders, mothers, and workers. But we are also vulnerable, as many aspects of our current world could be tagged as Not Safe For Women.

Recovery from PTSD, this heartbreaking disorder that disproportionately affects women, begins with restoring a deep, unshakeable safety in the hearts and bodies of women. This is our ongoing goal.

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World Eating Disorder Action Day

Eating Disorders in Women

What are some statistics on eating disorders in women?

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, ANAD, around 15% percent of women in the United States will develop an eating disorder by the time they reach their 50s. Of those women, less than a third receive treatment for it.

Each year in the United States, more than ten thousand deaths occur due to eating disorders. That’s around one death an hour.

People with serious eating disorders are more than 10 times more likely to attempt to commit suicide than their non-eating-disordered peers. People with anorexia are 18 times more likely to attempt suicide than those without an eating disorder.

Women are more than 3 times more likely to have anorexia than men. Expanding the category to include bulimia and binge eating disorder, women are still more than twice as likely to have an eating disorder than men are.

What are the types of eating disorders in women?

Eating disorders are serious illnesses that cause severe harm to the minds, bodies, and emotions of women and men. Eating disorders are connected to weight, body image, exercise, and eating, and disproportionately affect women. The most common eating disorders are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder.

Anorexia

Anorexia is a disorder centered on food restriction and extreme fear of gaining weight. People with anorexia avoid intake of nourishment and are usually underweight as a result of their fear of eating and becoming fat.

If left untreated, sufferers can lose enough weight to become visibly malnourished. No matter how thin they become, people with anorexia still experience and perceive themselves as overweight.

People with anorexia have a condition called body dysmorphia, or a drastically distorted self-image in which they believe themselves to be fat when in reality, their bodies are starving to death.


Bulimia

Bulimia is a similar condition to anorexia but differs in that it includes a cycle of bingeing, or taking in a large amount of food at once, and then purging, which means getting rid of the excess food either through fasting, exercise, inducing oneself to vomit, or abusing laxatives.

Like anorexia, bulimia is a very serious condition with multiple mental and physical health correlations and is paired with body dysmorphia or a very distorted perception of the size of one’s body.


Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder is a condition in which the sufferer eats a very large amount of food in a short period of time, regularly. Someone with a binge eating disorder typically feels that she is not in control of her eating, and may experience a lot of shame or try to hide her compulsive eating behaviors from others.

Binge Eating Disorder shares some features with bulimia, which also features binge eating, but does not include the compulsive purging behavior associated with bulimia.

 

What are the risks of eating disorders in women?

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, eating disorders are dangerous, not only in terms of the psychological impacts of self-harming behaviors, shame, and negative thoughts, but also because of the toll on women’s bodies.

Eating disorders damage the muscles and the heart and may lead to heart failure. They are also very hard on the stomach and digestive and elimination tracts, causing pain, constipation, diarrhea, pancreatitis, nausea, and stomach ruptures.

Bulimia is associated with mouth and throat cancer, as well as dental problems, due to the corrosive effects of frequent vomiting. Anorexia and bulimia may result in disruption of menses, and loss of bone density (which can lead to osteoporosis).

Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance are frequent problems that come from eating disorders, and difficulties with sleep and concentration are also linked to eating disorders.

What causes eating disorders in women?

There is no single cause of eating disorders. Eating disorders are complex diseases affected by many factors, including the damaging ways that all humans, and women in particular, are treated in the world. EDs are also affected by the rise in addictive chemicals used to manufacture food.

The trauma epidemic affecting people of today is a plausible origin or strong correlative factor for eating disorders. The self-harming, self-numbing effects of abusing food can be used to cope with the emotional and mental dysregulation associated with the severe psychological damage that many of us have sustained.

There is a high correlation between childhood sexual abuse and eating disorders and between EDs and other adverse childhood events like emotional abuse and neglect.

At the same time, there is a component of Eating Disorders that is very similar to addiction. As with addiction, people with eating disorders have compulsive behavior related to a substance (in this case food), combined with obsessive thinking and progressive loss of self-control.

This similarity between addiction and eating disorders explains why 12-step groups like Overeaters Anonymous and Eating Disorders Anonymous work for some women to recover their lives back to sanity.

Many foods available to us today have been treated to be more habit-forming as a way to drive up profit. This increase in addictiveness is accomplished through manufacturing processes that increase the proportion of sugar, salt, saturated fats, and refined carbohydrates, all of which are known to be addictive as well as unhealthy for the body.

The widespread availability of foods that have psychoactive effects of numbing and stimulation, often introduced to our diet during childhood, means that there is greater exposure to addictive food than ever before.

At the same time, our culture’s obsessive preoccupation with physical appearance has also increased, amplified through the omnipresence of the internet. While some progress has been made in reducing the amount of body shaming going on, there is still a long way to go before we have a healthy relationship with eating and our bodies.

All of these factors – trauma, the addictiveness of some foods that are common in our diet, and our culture’s unhealthy focus on physical appearances – play a role in the epidemic of eating disorders affecting women in the United States.

June 2nd is World Eating Disorders Action Day

For all these reasons and more, Villa Kali Ma is joining in the global effort to raise awareness about eating disorders. On June 2nd, we honor this day by redoubling our commitment to helping women recover and to love ourselves as we are, in mind, body, and soul.

What are treatment options for women struggling with eating disorders?

Eating disorders are notoriously hard to recover from alone. If you or a loved one are struggling with an eating disorder, it is highly recommended that you seek treatment.

Eating disorders have the second highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses and frequently require a combination of treatment approaches in addition to some kind of trauma healing work like EMDR or Somatic Experiencing.

Treatment options for Eating Disorders include several levels, ranging from hospitalization for emergency cases, residential treatment for serious cases, and outpatient treatment. A medical component is very often part of Eating Disorder treatment due to the serious health impacts caused by undereating, overeating, and purging.

Whichever level of care is chosen, it is wise to address the disordered relationship to food with a nutritionist or dietary expert, as well as with a dedicated course of intensive, trauma-informed psychotherapy. This is because to have long-lasting success, underlying emotional components and traumatization will need to be addressed therapeutically with a qualified professional.

Beyond the need for nutritional and psychotherapeutic support, the educational and behavioral aspects (getting compulsive behaviors under control and learning about the disease) also need to be addressed. This is often best accomplished through participation in a structured treatment program, whether residential or outpatient, which provides the opportunity to forge new habits and learn healthy coping skills in a peer setting.

Villa Kali Ma can assist women’s relationship with nutrition and food

At Villa Kali Ma, we are dedicated to helping women recover lives of personal meaning, joy, and purpose. We know that issues relating to our bodies and what we eat or don’t eat strike deep into the core of pain that most women carry.

Deep inside, most of us felt at some point in our lives that we weren’t good enough, that we weren’t lovable, smart, or valuable people, and sometimes we punished ourselves and our bodies for our supposed imperfections.

It’s not easy to be a woman. So many of us developed disordered eating, addictions, and low self-esteem, and then beat ourselves up even more because of those problems. But just because we can’t figure out how to love and forgive ourselves doesn’t mean we’re actually unlovable or unforgivable.

In actual fact, we are wonderful! Each and every last one of us. So are you. And not only do we deserve to heal, we can heal. It is completely doable.

If you need some help healing, come check us out, we’d love to help you find your way to a loving relationship with your body and the food it needs to thrive.

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Sexual Abuse and Addiction

Sexual Abuse and Addiction

What Is the Connection Between Sexual Abuse and Addiction?

Sexual violation is extremely damaging to the psyche. It shatters the mental, emotional, and physiological lives of its targets. There is a strong correlation between the tragedies of sexual violence and addiction.

In situations where unwanted sexual activity takes place, such as sexual abuse or assault, the perpetrator is often acting under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Alcohol and other drugs create a disinhibited state, wherein sexual and aggressive urges, and latent tendencies towards acting out one’s damage on others, are not able to be kept in check.

Once someone has been the victim of abuse or assault, they are also likely to find themselves using drugs and alcohol to cope with the aftermath. This is part of the abuse cycle. The intense feelings of shame, violation, fear, rage, guilt, and unworthiness that follow from abuse and assault are extremely difficult to cope with and require psychological help to heal from.

Most victims do not get help in time and are psychologically fragmented or deeply wounded by these experiences.

In the case of sexual assault, many victims may be under the influence themselves during the events as well, as drug and alcohol use often places people in unsafe, illegal, or otherwise risky situations, including sexual encounters in unknown locations or with unknown people.

Statistics of Sexual Abuse and Addiction in California

Formal studies on sexual abuse and addiction in the State of California specifically are limited, but loose inferences may be drawn from comparing findings on the prevalence of substance abuse statewide.

The California Health Care Foundation’s 2022 study on Substance Use in California found that:

  • Death by fentanyl overdose in California has increased tenfold since 2015
  • Emergency room visits due to non-heroin opioids and amphetamines had increased by 50% in 2 years (2018-2020)
  • The number of facilities offering residential treatment for substance abuse, and the number of hospitals offering inpatient care for substance abuse, increased by more than 50% between 2017 and 2019

A University of San Diego study comparing sexual assault and sexual harassment in California to the national average reports that California has a higher rate of sexual assault and harassment than the rest of the nation.

RAINN, an organization that tracks incidences of sexual abuse and assault, shares the following statistics in its section about children and teens, nationwide:

  • Child Protective Services found that almost 60,000 children were victims of sexual abuse in one year alone
  • One in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys experience sexual abuse or assault, under the age of 18
  • 82% of all sexual abuse victims under the age of 18 are girls
  • Girls in the age range of 16-19 years old are 4 times more likely to be victims of sexual assault than the rest of the population
  • Of all victims of sexual abuse under the age of 18, one out of 3 victims is under the age of 12
  • Victims of childhood sexual abuse know the perpetrator about 90% of the time, and 30% of the time the perpetrator is a family member
  • Victims of sexual abuse are 4 times more likely to develop symptoms of a substance abuse disorder, 4 times more likely to qualify for a diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and 3 times more likely to experience a major depressive episode as adults

A study of the prevalence of physical and sexual abuse among substance abuse patients and its impact on treatment outcomes stated as their starting premise that “two-thirds of all women and over a quarter of all men entering addiction treatment report a history of sexual or physical abuse”. The same study says “Prior physical or sexual abuse is associated with more severe alcohol, drug, medical, family/social, legal and employment problems, as well as psychiatric issues such as depression, anxiety, phobias, and interpersonal difficulties.”

A comparative study published in 2002 concluded that individuals who have a background of having been abused could need a higher intensity of care and longer treatment times due to the negative impacts of abuse on their ability to recover.

What Are Common Emotions Intertwined With Sexual Abuse and Addiction?

The emotions that go along with sexual abuse and addiction are characterized by a pattern of alternating experiences of “trauma-flooding” and avoidance.

Addiction represents an attempt to cope with and avoid triggering, overwhelming influxes of traumatic memories, including the terror, shame, guilt, fear, powerlessness, and despair that the perpetrator introduces to the psyche of the victim through severe violation of natural boundaries.

The psyche employs several methods of defense to avoid being in a state of such overwhelming distress at the conscious level. It is very common that an abuse survivor will subconsciously use psychological strategies like numbing, dissociating, developing multiple compartmentalized personality states, and even forgetting what happened (at the level of the conscious mind).

Addiction is part of this pattern of avoidance and suppression. Therefore many abuse victims do not consciously realize what the source of their addiction is, because it is covering up painful traumas and memories that are too terrible to cope with.

It is important that anyone with a background of abuse or assault understand how incredibly damaging these violent acts were, and how much help is deserved and needed to get out from the “eternally returning nightmare” state created by the damage.

It is also important for women to understand that the chances of some kind of sexual or physical abuse, or other form of adverse childhood event, being the real reason for turning to substances in the first place, is relatively high. As shared above, it is estimated that two out of three women who seek treatment have been abused also.

What Treatment Options Are Offered at Villa Kali Ma for Women With a Background of Addiction and Sexual Abuse or Assault?

Villa Kali Ma is a unique program tailored specifically to women who have a background of substance abuse, mental health problems, and/or trauma.

The reason we offer these three forms of treatment together is that they are almost always intertwined! We can’t tell you how many times we have uncovered the degree to which sexual trauma explains the reason a woman “needs” her drugs or alcohol to cope.

It is a mistake to think that your addiction, your self-destructive behavior, or your mental illness is happening because of something you did wrong, or something that’s wrong about you.

There is something wrong, but what’s wrong is not you. It is a signal that something bad, unnatural, violent, neglectful, exploitative, or damaging took place and you were affected by it then, and you’re still affected by it now.

Maybe there was an active perpetrator who hurt you, or maybe it was the unconscious, accidental behavior of others, the failure to be sufficiently protected from harm. This is a dangerous world in many ways, and more of us than we know have been hurt by it.

Whatever you endured, we want you to know that we believe you. We believe you that it really was as bad as your scared, frozen, anxious body, your baffling addiction, your fleeing, scattered mind, and your self-destruction tell us it was. All these years later, you are still carrying the burden of something that was never about you in the first place.

The good news is, sister, these burdens can be lifted. You don’t have to carry them anymore, and you have every right to heal. There IS a path out.

Villa Kali Ma Can Assist With Trauma and Addiction

Villa Kali Ma serves women with trauma and addiction through a unique, sensitive program that carefully, and consciously provides the right kind of help each woman needs. In an East-meets-West approach, we use holistic, ancient healing wisdom (Yoga, Ayurveda, Breathwork, and more) in tandem with a cutting-edge, scientific treatment model that incorporates the latest insights and innovations from the field of trauma and addiction recovery.

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The difference between yoga and meditation

The Difference Between Yoga and Meditation

Yoga and meditation are related practices, both of which are extremely helpful for women recovering from addiction, trauma, and mental illness.

More than 5,000 years old, yoga is an ancient Indian philosophy, including moral guidance and practical advice for achieving liberation from suffering. The philosophy of yoga is formulated as eight “limbs” of practice.

The word yoga represents the idea of joining, or union. When we practice yoga, we are choosing to walk down a specific road. Like all roads, the road of yoga leads somewhere. Each yoga session represents a few more steps down the road.

According to the founders of yoga from millennia ago, the road of yoga practice leads home to our own cosmic origins, the benevolent indwelling one source we all came from. It is the perspective of yoga that all of us come from the same origins, and that we will all find our way back home sooner or later. Yoga is offered as a direct path back, for those of us who are ready for that and want that.

Both yoga and meditation are part of the larger yoga philosophy, which encompasses practices of cleansing, and healing breath work that cause the body to heal and balance itself from within (pranayama). It also offers a behavioral path for living mindfully that takes into account the (sometimes easy-to-forget) unity of all living things.

At Villa Kali Ma we use both yoga and meditation to help women recover lives of meaning, joy, and purpose. We have found yoga and meditation work extremely well to restore palpable experiences of union with a deep inner well of peace. This has been true for ourselves and for the women we serve.

What is yoga?

In the West when we say we do yoga, most of us are referring to the branch of yoga practice which involves physical exercises that strengthen, stretch, and tone the body. There are many different variations and schools of yoga that teach the practice of using these asanas, or postures, as a path to well-being.

Many yoga teachers uphold the tradition of practicing mindfulness during postures, and may also guide students through different forms of pranayama (breath work). Some teachers include short seated meditations, but most Western yoga classes center around a sequence of physical postures.

Lucky for us, we can take our pick among the many variations of yoga, following what resonates and feels supportive for us. All forms of yoga asana practices are beneficial for training the body to reside in a state of health and happiness.

Even though asanas like Downward Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana, seem like they’re primarily exercises for the physical body, the truth is that each asana works not only the body but the mind, heart, and spirit of the person practicing.

Each posture stretches, tones, twists, cleanses, or stimulates key glands, and nerve plexuses, and activates the deepest body pathways which are responsible for generating feelings of peace and joy. Whether we realize it or not, therefore, yoga is automatically healing and regulating our minds, hearts, and spirits.

What is meditation?

Meditation refers to the practice of being as physically and mentally still as possible (usually in a seated posture) and strengthening inner powers of neutral observation and unwavering focus.

There are many different styles and traditions of meditation, but the general idea is to learn to quiet the mind. Meditation usually has an anchor for the awareness to focus on, and return to after having wandered off, such as placing awareness on the breath.

Meditation has a lot in common with mindfulness but isn’t strictly the same concept. Mindfulness is a broader concept and can encompass other practices of present-moment awareness, such as mindful self-compassion, mindful eating, or mindful movement.

Both mindfulness and meditation are about learning to gently tune one’s powers of awareness towards the present moment and to refrain from identifying with any contents of the mind. Emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts are all compassionately and neutrally observed without grasping onto them, trying to change them, or making an identity out of them.

There are other meditation traditions that aren’t, strictly speaking, the same as the practices articulated by the philosophies of yoga, but there is a lot of overlap. Zen Buddhist meditation and Tibetan Buddhist meditation are relatives of the older Indian meditation practices.

What are the benefits of yoga?

Yoga has many benefits for the mind, body, and soul.

At the physiological level, yoga is a powerful tool that:

  • Strengthens the body and builds muscles
  • Reduces inflammation
  • Relieves stress and regulates the nervous system
  • Improves flexibility, mobility, and balance
  • Combats depression and reduces anxiety, regulating mood
  • Boosts immunity
  • Promotes healthy sleep
  • Improves cardiovascular health

Because yoga promotes mindfulness and clarifies focus, in part through the benefits of breath work and the impacts of yoga positions on adrenal and other body systems, yoga improves mental and cognitive abilities. Some mental benefits include:

  • Greater ability to clear the mind of brain fog or scattered thoughts
  • Improved single-minded focus and concentration
  • Choice in one’s thoughts, greater ability to refrain from indulging in a negative thought
  • Greater ability to become absorbed in a flow state

The psychological impacts of yoga are also many, and include some of the following benefits:

  • Stay calm in the face of potential nervous system triggers
  • Deeper peace and feelings of wellbeing
  • Stay in the now moment
  • Feel your feelings and feel your body
  • Sense of connection to life and oneself

What are the benefits of meditation?

Like yoga, meditation has many benefits to the health of mind, body, and soul, in part because of its powerful effects on the nervous system. Meditation is known to:

  • Reduce general anxiety and control panic attacks
  • Combat stress, including the inflammation and toxicity to the body created by stress
  • Deal with difficult situations without going into states of fight-flight
  • Longer attention span, better memory, and restored ability to focus
  • Healthier sleep
  • Pain management
  • Lower blood pressure

Villa Kali Ma offers yoga and meditation

At Villa Kali Ma we incorporate both yoga and meditation into our offerings. The philosophy of yoga guides our program, and the practical tools learned through practicing asanas, breath work, mindfulness, and meditation are valuable assists for learning to live a happy life in recovery. The great Indian sages, who wrote their advice for living well down over 5,000 years ago, saw deeply into the heart of the suffering of humans, and also into its enduring cure.

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Plant-Based Diet and Mental Health

Essential Oils for Alcohol Detox

What is alcoholism?

Alcoholism is a complicated, serious disease affecting the mind, body, and spirit. It is progressive, which means that it worsens over time.

Although alcoholism can be stopped in its tracks, it cannot be reversed, which means that once the ravages of alcoholism have taken hold, they cannot be altogether undone.

That said, through living a recovery-based lifestyle centered on health, sanity, and sobriety, many women who used to suffer from alcoholism move on to live meaningful, joyful lives.

Alcoholism’s key features are chemical dependency on alcohol, serious problems with mental, emotional, physical, and relationship health, and negative life consequences (for example job loss, legal problems, DUIs, and so on).

Alcoholism involves overwhelming cravings to drink, which the afflicted person finds impossible to override, despite known negative consequences of drinking. When there’s a problem of ineffective willpower, an inability to choose against mental obsessions, and impulsive urges to act in one’s own best interests (and that of other people), this is a sign of addiction.

 How does alcohol affect the body?

Alcohol affects many of the body’s systems negatively, including the brain, heart, and stomach.

Hardest of all for the body, however, is alcohol’s effect on the liver. Because alcohol is toxic to human bodies, the liver has to work overtime to try to eliminate the poisonous effects on the body’s systems at large. In the case of liver disease cirrhosis, alcohol has overwhelmed the ability of the liver to cleanse and protect the body from harm.

Cirrhosis takes hold when enzymes in alcohol are absorbed into the cells of the liver, causing a fatty acid called acetaldehyde to begin to accumulate in the body. This excess of fatty acids corrodes the liver and prevents it from being able to properly metabolize fats.

Alcoholism also causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, pancreatitis, high blood pressure, and brain damage.

What is alcohol detox?

Quitting alcohol requires a detoxification process, during which the body must be monitored carefully to make sure that the withdrawal symptoms do not present a health risk. People have died during detoxification from alcohol because the body can go into seizures. It is also very uncomfortable.

We highly recommend checking into a medically supervised detoxification facility. Detox facilities are designed to ease the physical body through withdrawals and will make the psychological process easier too. Alcohol withdrawal may involve frightening hallucinations, intense discomfort, shakes, nausea, sweating, and of course, very strong cravings to drink.

You are more likely to succeed, and it will be less difficult to endure, with support and supervision of the process.

What is the process of alcohol detox like?

During acute detoxification, which may take between five to ten days, the body goes through predictable stages as it adjusts to the absence of alcohol in its system.

Each addictive substance has a slightly different profile during the detoxification process. In the case of alcohol, you can expect a range of mild to severe symptoms including:

  • Diarrhea
  • Sweating
  • Weakness and muscle aches
  • Inability to sleep
  • Chills, Shaking and Tremors
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Hallucinations
  • Depression and Despair
  • Anxiety and Panic
  • Seizures

Withdrawal symptoms from alcohol detox may kick in around six hours after the last drink. The intensity and severity of symptoms will most likely peak and be at their most dangerous and uncomfortable a couple of days into the process.

The severity of withdrawal symptoms will be influenced by any preexisting physical and mental health conditions, whether or not alcohol was used in combination with other substances (including prescription medications). Withdrawal severity is also impacted by how much alcohol is being consumed, how frequently, and over what length of time.

Aromatherapy for alcohol detox

There are many kinds of supplemental healing methods that can be engaged during withdrawals to make detoxification from alcohol a less painful, severe experience. Villa Kali Ma uses many of them, including massage and nutritional support.

One wonderful support from the nature kingdom is to use essential oils to help the body reorient and restore its inherent self-healing and self-balancing functions. Several common essential oils have been found to assist in the detoxification process and generally promote peace, well-being, elimination of poisons, and restored immune functioning.

Alcohol detox symptoms like nausea, chills, and anxiety can be ameliorated with the presence of aromas administered in the form of direct topical application (rubbed into the skin) or inhalation (breathed in).

What is the history of essential oils?

Aromatherapy is an ancient form of plant medicine that employs naturally occurring healing properties of aromatic plants. The reason we feel joy when we smell jasmine flowers and roses, breathe more deeply when walking in eucalyptus groves, or like to scratch and sniff the peel of a lemon is because each of these healing plants is gently communicating with our bodies in a beneficial way.

Plant extracts, including essential oils, have been used therapeutically since time immemorial, for healing, cleansing, and spiritual purposes. Many plants have healing properties – in fact, many prescription medicines have a plant extract as its key ingredient. Nature provides many cures for common ailments contained in ordinary plants growing around us.

There is evidence of advanced knowledge of the healing properties of plants, including their oils and extracts, tracing back to Egyptian times. The Greek namesake of modern medicine, Hippocrates, recorded observations related to plants serving as medicine for human wounds and illnesses. More recently, French chemists and surgeons in the 19th and early 20th centuries re-confirmed the presence of many effective cures for burns and battle injuries in common plants, like lavender.

Although much knowledge of the medicinal use of plants and their essences has been forgotten in the folds of history, the use of essential oils has become popular again in the West. Little by little, what was once commonly known in our great ancient civilizations, about nature being a source of healing for humans, is slowly returning to collective memory.

What is the use of essential oils for alcohol detox?

Essential oils can be used in a supplemental fashion to help support detoxification from alcohol, lessening the pain and severity of symptoms through triggering inner hormonal and neurotransmitter cascades that create greater feelings of well-being, and aid in the body’s removal of the offending poisons.

Detoxification is work done by the body’s own self-healing systems to eliminate and flush out substances that present harm to the body (such as alcohol). Essential oils, through gently stimulating the immune system, nervous system, and glands, help the body’s healing force to do this more easily and comfortably.

Essential oils are derived from plants, trees, flowers, and roots, through a distillation process that concentrates their therapeutic effects. Essential oils can be applied topically at certain points of the body, such as on the scalp, brow, temples, acupressure points, chest, stomach, back, or hands and feet, depending on the type of symptom to be alleviated.

Some essential oils can be imbibed as tinctures, which help send oils to the digestive tract. Others are best absorbed through the lungs and nasal passages and will be administered through diffusion in the air or as steam.

The method of delivery is chosen based on which body system is being targeted, and most essential oils have multiple purposes. For example, ginger is warming, immune-stimulating, reduces inflammation, and also dissipates nausea, and may be used for any or all of these effects.

Essential oils are used for a wide range of effects, ranging from pain relief, calming the nervous system, stimulating the nervous system, reducing inflammation, boosting the immune system, and cleansing.

10 types of essential oils for alcohol detox

Essential oils are natural, potent, fragrant plant extracts that are packed with medicinal powers. Essential oils may be an anti-depressant, pain-relieving, anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), detoxifying, anti-inflammatory, soothing, and stress-combating. All of these effects can be helpful during detoxification from alcohol.

These 10 essential oils are especially beneficial for supporting the body in going through withdrawal symptoms and restoring balance as it purges out poisons.

Black Pepper Oil

Black pepper oil has been determined to help with alcohol cravings, gently reducing the desire for a drink during detoxification, and may be used on the spot to get through a nasty bout of cravings.
Black pepper oil is believed to achieve its anti-craving effect in part by stimulating the body to increase availability within the brain of the two critical neurotransmitters, dopamine, and serotonin. Both of these neurotransmitters are intimately connected to mood and motivation.


Ginger Oil

Ginger oil helps heal the liver. Since of all organs, the liver suffers most under the toxicity of alcohol, the powerful properties of gingerol, the medicine found naturally occurring in ginger root, is especially helpful for alcohol detox.


Peppermint Oil

Alcohol detox typically includes nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Peppermint oil soothes upset stomachs. Peppermint oil is also refreshing and cooling and helps create mental focus, dispelling brain fog.


Lavender Oil

Lavender oil helps with anxiety, encouraging the body to relax. The anxiety and insomnia of detox can be soothed with this powerful oil.


Roman Chamomile Oil

Roman chamomile oil is deeply calming and helps with the anxiety people experience during alcohol detoxification.


Rosemary Oil

Rosemary oil has diuretic properties, which means that it helps the body eliminate. Elimination is an important path for the body to cleanse itself during detoxification and is related to the restoration of optimal hydration levels.
Rosemary is additionally known for alleviating muscle pain and soreness, which is a common symptom during detoxification. Finally, rosemary is calming and will help the body return to regulation after a spike in anxiety.


Lemon Oil

Lemon oil, extracted from lemon peel, is a powerful healing agent that stimulates the immune system. The naturally occurring healing chemical limonene, found in lemons, supports the liver and kidneys to cleanse toxins out of the body, especially during detoxification. Lemon is also noted for healing the symptoms of depression.


Mandarin Oil

Mandarin oil helps with the detoxification of the liver and the body at large, by supporting cleansed and oxygenated blood to circulate in the body. Mandarin oil, made from the peels of a species of orange similar to a tangerine, also has calming effects.


Grapefruit Oil

Grapefruit oil, another citrus oil, helps detoxification by supporting the body to flush out molecules of alcohol that have built up in the liver, and is also used to kill pathogens or parasites. In general grapefruit oil stimulates elimination, as it is a diuretic, and flushes out any kind of waste.


Fennel Oil

Fennel is a plant which helps purify and flush the body of toxins. Similar in scent and taste to licorice, it is especially helpful in the digestive tract, stimulating the body to digest and process. Generally, fennel oil supports the body’s tissues and organs to be cleansed during detoxification.

Villa Kali Ma can assist with Alcohol Detox

At Villa Kali Ma, we’ve devoted ourselves to helping women recover from alcoholism, a particularly nasty form of addiction. If you think alcoholism may be affecting you or a loved one, we encourage you to take action!

Mercifully, alcoholism can be treated and lives can be recovered back to sanity. But alcoholism’s a tough nut to crack, and like many illnesses, responds best to early intervention. That said, no matter how far you’ve spiraled into addiction, there’s still hope for you if you’re willing to change and be changed!

If you need to detoxify from alcohol, we strongly encourage checking yourself into a medically supervised detox facility, for your safety. This is especially true if you have been drinking a high amount and/or over a long period.

If you’re not sure, detoxification from alcohol is part of the treatment services we provide as a part of your recovery journey at Villa Kali Ma, so feel free to consult us for an opinion!

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Plant-Based Diet and Mental Health

Plant-Based Diet and Mental Health

What is the connection between plant-based diet and mental health?

Is there a link between eating your vegetables and having a resilient, healthy, happy mind? We think so! Here at Villa Kali Ma, we’ve been championing a plant-based diet since our founding days.

What is a plant-based diet?

A plant-based diet means eating only plants and foods made from plants. This includes eating fresh leaves, stems, and roots of plants – vegetables like carrots, lettuce, and broccoli, raw and cooked. It also means eating fruits and berries, as well as starches and proteins in the form of whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Some foods made by fermenting plants, like tempeh, miso, and tofu, which are made from soy, are frequently included in a plant-based diet, as well as oat or nut milk, yogurts, and faux cheeses.

Specifically, in the plant-based diet, we refrain from all meat and dairy – red meat, poultry, fish, and milk-derived products are replaced with alternatives.

Ideally, plant-based diets are composed mostly of fresh, organic, whole foods. Where organic isn’t a possibility, we look for simple food that is as fresh, unprocessed, and natural as possible.

In this context, natural means “as close to the original form as possible”. The more processed a food item is the more degraded its nutritional profile. That said, naturally-fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and pickles are recommended on a plant-based diet because they help maintain gut health and bring much good (such as B vitamins and other needed nutrients) into your body.

It’s important to note that with the rise of many plant-based products on the market, GMO foods and plants farmed using chemical pesticides (these often go together) have many toxic impacts and should be avoided where possible. If a product is not explicitly labeled organic and/or non-GMO, the chances are high that although it is plant-based, it may be made from genetically modified soy, corn, or wheat (for example). Make your own decisions, of course, just a heads up that not all that’s technically plant-based is healthy for humans or good for the environment.

Chemical additives, preservatives, long ingredient lists, ingredients you’ve never heard of, and highly processed and refined sugars, gums, and other common ingredients that add flavor or help a plant-based product mimic meat or dairy should be considered with caution. Of course, it’s ok to have treats in moderation and to enjoy your food, but it’s wise to be aware of the presence of imposter health foods on the market.

Plant-based diets are meant to be paired with a healthy lifestyle, including good enough exercise and sleep. In general, we always recommend tuning in with your body resonance and highest wisdom before putting anything in your system!

What is the difference between vegan and plant-based?

Strictly speaking, vegan means that not only your diet but also all other products in your life (cosmetics, clothes, etc) are free of animal ingredients. Following a plant-based diet focuses just on what you put in your body in terms of food and drink.

How does eating a plant-based diet affect your mental health?

We at Villa Kali Ma favor a plant-based diet for recovering a healthy mind, body, and spirit.

We have found the plant-based diet to be the most supportive path for restoring natural functioning internally. A conscious, thoughtful diet focused mostly on eating as closely to nature as we can (in practical terms, that means as organic and unprocessed as possible), is highly supportive of a life of self-awareness, self-care, and intention.

Eating plants has many nutritional benefits that are known to support optimal mental health too. Fresh, minimally processed plants and whole foods replenish us with the right balance of minerals, vitamins, probiotics and prebiotics, fats, and proteins that are right for a higher-vibrational version of human life.

Here at Villa Kali Ma, we also feel that eating foods with the lightest impact on the environment, and the greatest regard for animals, fits with our ethics and intentions to live in harmony.

What are the benefits of taking care of your gut?

Perhaps the most important connection between mental health and the plant-based diet has to do with healing your microbiome, which is found in your gut.

The gut is called “the second brain”, and it is an important part of mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual health.

A growing minority within the field of medicine holds that most mental health imbalances, such as negative thoughts, anxiety, and low moods, stem from troubles in the microbiome (gut). The gut and the brain are closely connected and maintain constant two-way communication, by way of hormones, neurotransmitters, and nerves.

By helping the gut to get what it needs, nutrients-wise, and cutting out those substances that erode the gut’s strength and ability to protect itself from harm, we have a better shot at restoring the natural relationship between “gut feeling” and a clean mind. A healthy gut will signal to the brain that all is well, and promote positive, healthy feelings and thoughts.

A healthy microbiome corresponds to healthier thoughts and emotions, as well as a well-feeling body. When the gut is supported to do its job, then our brains and nervous system can do their jobs better, too.

How to make the most out of your plant-based diet?

While in treatment at Villa Kali Ma, we will show you how to prepare plant-based foods that are delicious and share guidance on how you might like to integrate plant-based, conscious eating into your life.

Please know that whatever your path and choice is, we respect and understand that every woman, and everybody, is different. Each person is encouraged to follow their own highest wisdom and to pay attention by tuning in to the truth-frequencies of their own body as best as they can.

Our general attitude is to eat as close to nature as possible. That means, eating plants soon after harvest, and eating plants that are organically grown and locally sourced, whenever and wherever this is possible.

Shoot to shift the bulk of your diet to be composed of fresh vegetables and fruits that haven’t been preserved or processed (the exception being living-culture, fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, which provide many vitamins and probiotics). Support this diet with whole grains (unrefined wherever possible), seeds, nuts, and legumes. If you care to, include some organic tofu, tempeh, and nut milk.

Remember that food issues can be emotionally triggering, and don’t make it a moral thing, or about being a worthy person or not. And don’t be too black or white about it. A perfect diet is not a thing; “perfect” can be the enemy of the good. A better diet will go a long way!

What are the benefits of a plant-based diet?

The health benefits of a plant-based diet are believed to be:

Lowered risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes, potentially contributing to a longer life span

Supports optimal weight for your body type and body mass index

Happier mental-emotional states through hormone harmonization, regulation of serotonin and other neurotransmitter functioning

More fiber and nutrient-dense foods

Better gut health and immunity

More energy

What is Villa Kali Ma’s principle behind a plant-based diet?

The field of nutrition, which we at Villa Kali Ma support wholeheartedly as one of our many multimodal approaches to supporting women, explores the ways that mental illness may be connected to a lack of certain nutrients, or an impaired ability to process our food the way we need to.

The idea that we can support our souls to heal in part through diet is wonderful because what we put in our mouths is something that we have some measure of control over.

Even if we can’t change what happened in the past, we can change how we think and feel in the moment, in part through eating more holistically.

Villa Kali Ma supports a plant-based diet benefiting mental health

Many aspects of contemporary life are believed to negatively impact mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Consumption of synthetic chemicals in our food and drinks (dyes, preservatives, and so on), too many pharmaceuticals, drugs, and alcohol, toxic exposure from manufacturing and agriculture, inundation by artificial light and sound, infrequent contact with soil and living flora, and many other factors are probably making it hard for your beautiful, miraculous physical body to function as nature designed it to. And how can your spirit, here to have its experiences in form, do what it’s here to do, with all these burdens pressing down on it?

Spend some time with us, in any of our programs. We’ll include guidance for how conscious eating, nutrition, plant medicine, and gut healing can be a beautiful, freeing part of your recovery story!

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