DIMENSIONS OF WELLNESS

There are seven dimensions of wellness which can effect and are effected by substance use/abuse which include the emotional, environmental, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual dimensions.

Emotional wellness is a very broad dimension; it can involve experiencing, identifying and dealing with one’s own feelings as well as recognizing and understanding the feelings of others. Environmental wellness relates to how we treat our physical environment both inside our homes as well as outside our homes. Intellectual wellbeing relates to how we use our brains, more specifically our reasoning, decision-making and learning skills to guide us through life. Occupation wellness involves feeling a sense of reward as a result of complete your job/task. Physical wellness involved taking care and managing our physical beings; maintaining good health, good fitness, good eating habits, as well as avoiding bad habits are all ways in which we can increase our physical wellbeing. The foundation of social wellness lies within our personal relationships and in the manner in which we keep these relationships. Finally, spiritual wellness is very much up to the individual interpreting it; Spirituality, for some of use, can mean religion, meditation, beliefs and values, the meaning of life or any other definition, which stays true to the individual.

These dimensions of wellness are vital for assessing an individuals overall wellness; together they make up the areas in which wellness needs to be maintained. Substance use and/or abuse can be very detrimental to any or all of these areas; it can be the reason substance abuse begins or can be the affect substance abuse produces. Everyone would ideally be mentally, physically, and emotionally well if at all possible however, it is rarely the case that an individual is all of these (or has no areas to be improved). Substance use can drastically make overall improvements more difficult on individuals as they often are ignoring their current or previous issues.

Substance or behavioral addictions have the ability to interrupt ones education or employment (i.e. showing up under the influence, reduces concentration, missing work/school), cause great financial loss, loss of other assets such as ones house, family, possessions, dignity and so one. The occurrence of substance abuse increases the risk for personal illness or injury; other physical necessities may also be ignored such as hygiene and nutrition when one is harmfully involved in substance use/abuse. Other areas on an individual’s wellness, which could be impacted, include one’s social relationships – substance use/abuse can cause strain, judgment, or complication to existing relationships and may be the end to others.

Substance abuse can also take a large emotional toll on individual involved. Substance use can be a method of stress management or as a coping mechanism for life events or stressors. Using substances or participating in an addictive behavior can cause added stress which can also be seen with the loss of relationships, jobs, possessions, money and so on. A positive life balance is difficult to achieve in the best circumstances – with the added pressure of other dimensions of wellness being affected it is easy to see how substance use can have an effect, emotionally.

It is important to have a working knowledge of these areas of wellness not only for personal benefit but when working within the field of addictions. These dimensions of wellness can be the areas, which may have lead to the initiation of substance use or a problematic behavior or as well, may be affected (or the result) of continued substance use or behaviour. Furthermore, it is essential to have personal positive wellness before attending to someone else's wellness within this field. This is a reason why I have developed a personal wellness plan - to improve my overall wellness in hopes to be more able to improve the wellness of future clients.