Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Why Equine Therapy Helps in Prescription Drug Treatment

What is Equine Therapy?

Equine Therapy is a form of psychotherapy which uses horses as tools to help a person with emotional problems that they are having a hard time overcoming; equine therapy will help a person rebuild trust in their life, which includes trust with their self and trust in others. The bond between a human and an animal has been found to be therapeutic to people in need of emotional healing.

Typically equine therapy does not involve horseback riding. Instead, equine therapy focuses on the human taking care of the horse and bonding with the horse. The person in therapy will take on the role as caregiver and work on gaining the horses trust to create a healthy relationship with the horse. The individual will take care of the horse by feeding the horse, grooming the horse, exercising the horse, and leading the horse when need be.

Working with horses is not the only part of equine therapy, it is just the tool. While working with the horse the individual receiving treatment will also work with a therapist talking about their feelings and trying to get to the root of the problem regarding their prescription drug addiction.

How Equine Therapy Helps

Equine therapy teaches responsibility and the importance of staying active to help keep people off of prescription drugs.

Prescription drug abuse and addiction has been increasing throughout the years and continues to be an epidemic that is spreading throughout America. Prescription drug addiction is harmful to a person’s body both physically and mentally and leads to numerous overdoses each year.

According to USA Today, prescription drugs now surpass heroin and cocaine as the leading drugs to cause overdoses and fatalities.

Many people who receive treatment for prescription drug addiction have a difficult time staying clean and fixing the original problems that led to their drug addiction. Equine therapy helps individuals to feel more peaceful while creating an environment for a person to enjoy and regain life skills that they may have lost due to their drug addiction.

Some life skills that equine theory helps a person to find again include trust, acceptance, responsibility, self-worth, respect and empathy. In addition, many people who stop using prescription drugs suffer from depression and anxiety. Working with a horse and taking care of a horse helps a person to naturally feel more at peace and can be a major help in decreasing symptoms of depression and anxiety. All in all, equine therapy could be the answer for people who have been battling with prescription drug addiction and are trying to find a therapy that works well for them. Equine therapy is especially beneficial to people who love animals.

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Driving After Binge Drinking More Common Than Believed

Nearly one in eight binge drinkers say they get behind the wheel and drive within two hours of drinking, U.S. government researchers report. The new research adds a timeline and other new information to what’s known about drinking and driving, said study author Dr. Timothy Naimi, a physician with the alcohol team at the U.S…..

Heart of the Treasure Valley: ‘If you’re a drunk, you’re a drunk’

For 35 years she’s been sober and helping the homeless and mentally handicapped She hit bottom just before Christmas, 1974. That was a long time ago, but that’s also part of the point: For more than 35 years, Adele McGrath-Davis has been sober. But at 93 years old, that means there were a lot of….

Think before you drink

Alcoholics aren’t easy to pick out in a crowd. The person next to you in the checkout line at Walmart may be an alcoholic. So may the person who works next to you at the office, or sits next to you in church. The person who teaches your child, works on your car, or cuts….

Youth access to alcohol hurts all Montanans

In Montana, underage drinking is often thought of as a “rite of passage” that every teen goes through. It is seen as a harmless pastime. The exact opposite is true; this “harmless pastime” contributes to more deaths among our youth than any other preventable cause. Recent studies in brain development show that the human brain….

Alcohol Addiction and Mothering

A friend of mine who is an accomplished psychologist and mother of two recently confessed something to me: she likes wine, a lot. After working all day with troubled adolescents, picking her girls up from school and making a dinner that loosely resembles a healthy meal, she drinks. Her daily consumption included one glass of….