Links to other resources: Veterans Program, Medical Detox at Florida Springs
Addiction changes how the brain processes reward. Over time, drugs crowd out ordinary sources of pleasure, leaving people less responsive to natural rewards like music, food, sunsets, or family time. That dulling of everyday joy, often called anhedonia, can make early recovery feel flat and fragile. A growing body of research shows that a simple, structured practice called savoring can help restore healthy reward responses and reduce misuse of opioids, especially when delivered as part of a program known as Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement. In a large randomized clinical trial, participants who learned mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal, and intentional savoring were about twice as likely to stop misusing opioids compared with people in supportive therapy, and they also reported less pain and distress.
A New Mindfulness Method
Savoring is the deliberate amplification of natural, healthy pleasure. In practice, a person chooses a wholesome stimulus, such as a favorite song or a quiet moment outdoors, brings focused attention to sensory details, gently notices positive feelings as they arise, and lets those feelings linger for a few extra breaths. The aim is not to chase thrills. The goal is to help the brain relearn how to register ordinary rewards, so life becomes more satisfying without substances. Brain-imaging and psychophysiology studies show that this kind of training reduces cue-reactivity to opioids while enhancing responsiveness to natural rewards, which is exactly the shift recovery requires.
The evidence for this approach is unusually concrete. In a JAMA Internal Medicine trial conducted in primary care, adults with chronic pain and opioid misuse received eight weekly two-hour MORE groups. At nine months, forty-five percent of people in the mindfulness-savoring program were no longer misusing opioids, compared with twenty-four percent in supportive psychotherapy. Participants in the mindfulness group also reduced their opioid doses and reported better pain control and lower emotional distress. The protocol’s active ingredients included mindfulness to interrupt automatic reactions, reappraisal to reinterpret stress, and savoring to strengthen healthy reward.
Follow-up mechanistic work helps explain why savoring matters. Studies have shown that the intervention dampens the brain’s response to drug cues while boosting the response to positive, non-drug experiences. That shift is visible in neural signals and is associated with less craving. In other words, savoring is not just a pleasant add-on. It appears to normalize reward pathways that drugs have hijacked.
Improving Emotions
More recent research extends the picture. Investigators report that training in mindfulness and savoring improves the ability to regulate positive emotions, which in turn lowers craving among people with opioid use disorder and chronic pain. This pathway is important because many patients describe a narrowed emotional life in which only substances seem to produce relief or intensity. Restoring healthy positivity gives recovery fuel.
What does this look like in practice. After medical stabilization, a group session can include a short mindfulness exercise that brings attention to breath and body, followed by a guided savoring practice using an accessible, safe stimulus such as a favorite piece of instrumental music. Participants learn to notice sensory richness, label arising gratitude or calm, and extend that feeling state for a few extra moments. The session ends with a brief reflection about how to recreate the practice at home using everyday pleasures like sunshine on the face or a quiet cup of tea. This is not abstract wellness talk. It is a skill set with measurable clinical upsides when practiced consistently over several weeks.
For a center like Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center, which offers drug and alcohol detox in Florida, medical detox in Panama City, and comprehensive inpatient and outpatient care, the savoring protocol fits naturally alongside counseling, medication management, and the yoga and art already included in the curriculum. Mindfulness and savoring could be paired with art sessions so patients learn to savor color, texture, and the act of creating as a healthy reward. MORE is a small investment of time that gives patients a portable tool they can use between appointments and long after discharge. This is especially valuable across florida drug treatment facilities, where patients benefit from a mix of evidence-based care and holistic practices that extend into daily life.
Why This Helps With Access
This approach also respects the realities of rural and underserved communities in the Panhandle. Many patients do not have regular access to specialized services once they leave higher levels of care. Savoring is free, repeatable, and designed to work in ordinary life. A ten-minute practice done at a kitchen table, on a work break, or after a stressful appointment can help lower craving and rebuild motivation. When paired with peer support and sound relapse-prevention planning, it strengthens the foundation laid during inpatient rehab in Florida. For those in need of Fentanyl addiction treatment, incorporating mindfulness and savoring can help restore a sense of reward and stability during one of the most difficult recovery journeys.
There are guardrails to keep in mind. Savoring is not a replacement for medical treatment, pain management, or medication for opioid use disorder when indicated. It is a complementary tool that improves the brain’s responsiveness to healthy pleasure and reduces attention to drug cues. The strongest outcomes to date come from structured delivery in an eight-session sequence with home practice. Programs that implement the protocol should monitor participation, teach skills with fidelity, and follow clinical safety norms, especially for patients with severe pain or complex trauma.
Even so, the momentum behind this idea continues to build because it addresses a core problem in addiction: when life does not feel rewarding, relapse risk climbs. By teaching patients to extract more meaning and satisfaction from everyday experiences, savoring helps close the gap. It tells the nervous system that there are dependable sources of comfort and joy outside of substances. Combined with quality counseling and, when appropriate, medications, this is a practical way to make recovery sturdier.
Florida Springs is committed to providing both medical and holistic care for patients in the Florida Panhandle. By combining evidence-based treatment with yoga, art, and complementary mindfulness practices like savoring, the center helps patients experience recovery not just as the end of substance use, but as the beginning of a fuller, more rewarding life. Among florida drug treatment facilities, this commitment to whole-person healing stands out as a model for how to integrate new research into compassionate care.
By Tim Cannon
Resources
- JAMA Internal Medicine randomized clinical trial on Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement for chronic pain and opioid misuse, including eight weekly sessions and nine-month outcomes.
