Addiction-treatment centers are realizing that wellness modalities from yoga to equine therapy can be incredibly helpful in supporting people through recovery (source: Clinic Les Alpes)
Wellness Tackles Addiction and Harm Reduction
It’s a new wellness category, from trendy brands giving smoking cessation a modern makeover to the new wave of sober tours and retreats
Our 2025 trend, “Wellness Tackles Addiction,” explores an emerging category, with the wellness space poised to further topple taboos and offer innovative products around addiction, just as it has for sexual wellness and menopause.
Wellness practices are increasingly being integrated into all manner of addiction treatment—from alcohol to illicit drugs to technology—and wellness companies are enthusiastically entering the harm-reduction space. With the rise of drug use around the world and alcohol’s recent classification as a Class 1 carcinogen, there is urgent need for creative, judgement-free options.
Cool-kids-approved brands aimed at harm reduction have gone viral. Blip and Jones are bringing smoking cessation into the modern era with slick packaging, innovative products, and online support. New ingestibles, like Soft Landing Chocolate (“a reverse edible”), are helping people come down fast and safely if they get too high on THC. There are so many more health dupes, like Puff Herbals’ herbal wellness “cigarettes” that help with sleep or focus.
New apps and wearable tech are supporting people with addictions, as are new “habit” coaching platforms, like Zabit. The trend examines a new wave of medical technology innovations for addiction treatment, like Spark Biomedical’s neuro-stimulating earpiece, easing opioid withdrawal symptoms, and explores the new ways psychedelic drugs are being used to treat drug addiction.
The distinction between a medical addiction treatment center and the most sophisticated luxury wellness resort is becoming increasingly blurry, as more treatment centers realize how many wellness approaches are proving incredibly helpful in supporting people through recovery. Carrara in California marries medical treatment with EMDR therapy, somatic experiences, yoga, tai chi, TCM, spa treatments, and mandatory hyperbaric oxygen chamber sessions. At Zurich’s Paracelsus Recovery, cutting-edge medical advancements (from full-body MRIs to epigenetic testing) are integrated with acupuncture, shiatsu, and equine and art therapy.
With younger gens now questioning booze, from the UK to Japan, there has been an explosion in beverages that are either antidotes or replacements for alcohol––from all the adaptogenic- and nootropic-infused beverages duping spirits (such as canned beverages from Kin Euphorics) to the sea of THC tonics in the US. A “safer buzz” is a booming business.
From cutting-edge tech to luxury retreats reimagining recovery, discover how wellness is rewriting the narrative around addiction—and why it’s becoming one of the industry’s boldest frontiers.
Vaping had its moment but has lost its cool. On TikTok, people posting about how to kick the vape habit are going viral and attracting millions of views. Gen Z is sharing the consumer solutions they’re using to stop this harmful addiction, from those who swear by Blip’s nicotine lozenges and Doja-cat approved toothpicks in millennial pink and mint green to those who breath in vitamins and plant residue from nicotine-free vapes like Luvv and Ripple+ or inhale flavored air from brands like Füm and Pure. Many of these products are covered in our trend.
London Business School economics professor Andrew Scott lays out why aging populations should be embraced, not feared. The fact that humanity is living longer, healthier lives is an opportunity. He identifies the vast changes needed, including a focus on preventative health that needs to start in childhood and no later than middle age. Also, he stresses the need to make measures of healthy life expectancy a key metric in allocating health expenditure, rather than measuring output in terms of treating disease and performing operations.
Promising relaxation without regrets, THC seltzers and tonics are projected to hit $1B in sales this year and $4B by 2028. A loophole in a US law allowed hemp-derived THC products to be sold outside dispensaries, sparking a boom in direct-to-consumer THC beverages. Snoop Dogg debuted Iconic Tonics, Seth Rogen sells them under his brand Houseplant, and Cali Sober’s pastel cans are a poolside vibe. Cann markets to newcomers with microdoses, while BRĒZ incorporates adaptogens to “turn up, tap in, or tune out.” Originating as a salve for alcoholism, Magic Cactus hydrates while soothing. Legislators might crack down on the unregulated THC boom, but, in the meantime, brands are taking initiative to prove they’re a better option than alcohol, collectively sponsoring the world’s first infused beverage study.
There’s a new kind of vending machine being rolled out in Canada, and it’s not full of soda or junk food. It’s called Our Healthbox (the brainchild of a researcher at St. Micheal’s Hospital in Toronto) and offers free nalaxone kits for opioid overdose, HIV self-testing kits, menstrual kits, and more. Fifteen communities have the wellness and harm-reduction vending machines so far, with a goal of getting them into 100 Canadian cities and towns. Their mission: make harm reduction super-accessible for drug users.
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