Healing Gardens: Mental Health and Addiction

The power of therapeutic healing gardens, a six post series. 

Post 6: Dual Diagnosis Mental Health and Addiction

Healing Garden Case Study: Dual Diagnosis Mental Health and Addiction

Rachel (name changed to protect ID) lived with agoraphobia for three years and was unable to leave the confines of her home without severe mental anguish. Diagnosed with PTSD after going through a traumatic event, she was uncomfortable going outside because her heart would leap in fear even with something minor, like a car pulling into her driveway to turn around.

She also struggled with addiction issues, as she was attempting to self-medicate her pain, not an uncommon situation. She ended up reaching out to a non-conventional healer since driving to a traditional therapist’s office was out of the question. While she began to heal her spirit and work through the debilitating panic attacks, she also identified several triggers that could be reduced by altering her physical environment.

Enter Garden Girl. First, we created both a gate across the driveway (no more strangers using her driveway to turn around!) and a privacy screen surrounding her entire property, so she was able to begin to go outside for 5 minutes at a time. She eventually worked her way up to several hours over the course of a year. Noise was still a PTSD trigger for Rachel, especially vehicles with loud motors, so we created a soothing pond with a waterfall to drown out all traffic noise. This also invited wildlife to her property and gave her yet another reason to connect with nature. This is big progress.

Rachel had low confidence in being able to care for any plants, which is understandable when getting out of bed is a major feat. We devised a strategy to implement just one manageable bed per year, filled with disease-resistant, hardy nursery stock. GardenGirl also took care to select plants, ground covers, trees, and bulbs with healing properties, although this wasn’t broadcast at first (Rachel simply didn’t have the capacity at that time to think deep about medicinal plants, so this was a GardenGirl bonus.)

Rachel was given homework by her healer to simply sit and observe what she saw in nature once she was able to be outside for 10 minutes. Through doing this activity, sitting on a variety of benches and chairs located strategically throughout her garden she slowly developed a mediation practice. The water feature introduced wild ducks, fish, newts, bald eagles, and hawks. Plants were selected to increase butterflies, bees, birds, and deer to her environment. Viewing wildlife, even for 10 minutes out of her 24-hour day, slowly started to heal her broken spirit. Nature is amazing.

Nutrition was also a cornerstone of her recovery. Severely mal-nourished when she began her recovery, she had no interest in eating a vegetable, fruit or even preparing a simple sandwich. She was a self-described “skinny-fat” person and could no longer find enjoyment in exercise or eating with others. She worked with her healer and eventually a nutritionist to slowly integrate healthy foods back into her life.

GardenGirl supported Rachel’s nutrition effort by designing raised planting beds for vegetables she would actually eat. The thought being: Why plant cauliflower (et al) if you really don’t like it? By setting up a timer-powered irrigation system, Rachel could care for/weed the gardens in just 15 minutes. She essentially received a healthy dose of Vitamin G – time spent outdoors, being mindful, and touching soil all benefit the soul. Her brain fog began to lift and she became increasingly interested in health. She replaced her addiction by enrolling in Yoga classes and slowly opened herself up to meeting other people.

That’s the power of a Healing Garden. Each healing garden is designed to the clients’ needs, time and budget. Rachel is an active participant in her recovery. She works with her psychiatrist to manage her medications, receives ongoing support working with a healer and continues to work with GardenGirl to expand her outdoor environment when her budget and energy levels align. It’s an honor to bear witness to a person’s courageous journey and offer non-judgmental support by building a natural outdoor environment that will aid in the healing process.