How Addiction Treatment Changed My Life

LMSW- Clinical Director of Inpatient and Detoxification Clinical Services at Conifer Park

Starting the path to recovery is quite possibly the hardest thing an addict must do. Raising your hand and seeking help means you feel truly broken and have run out of options. It can take some of us years of hard running to get to this point, and when it comes, you’re still not fully convinced that you don’t have one more run in you.

My path towards recovery came after I had lost my home, most of my worldly possessions, and my marriage was on the brink of utter collapse. I also had some “external motivators” that helped move me towards the direction of seeking help. Once in treatment, I remember thinking “I just have to get through this and then I can focus on my family.” As it happened, my rehab treatment providers had alternate plans and referred me for long term treatment. My process of healing and growth really started during that phase and the sense of urgency I had to fix everything I had broken, to try and repair all the unrepairable damage I had caused, started to diminish. I was able to really hear what others were telling me about focusing on myself, my health, my well-being and my recovery as actual things I could do versus phrases that sounded good but didn’t really mean anything. As I started to grow into myself and the person I was meant to be, the guilt, pain, heartache and loss felt less heavy in my chest. I started showing the people I loved who I was instead of telling them. I completed treatment and continued using all the things I had learned while in rehab and the residential program. As I walked out of the treatment doors, I took with me the self-discipline, confidence, hope, and self-love, and I left behind the guilt and shame. When I completed treatment, I stepped into a world that felt full of possibility, versus limitations, and that is why I do this work today.

Treatment is not just an opportunity to dry out, it’s an opportunity to take the seed of your own potential and plant it. It’s a path towards finding the best version of you and a path towards cultivating a desire to nurture that person.

If you have ever wondered who you would be without the drugs and alcohol, you deserve to find out. Yes, taking that first step is scary, sometimes terrifying. Seeing the treatment process through is equally as scary, and it is difficult.  All of that said, it is worth it.

You deserve to find out who you are, and better yet, who you could be free from the shackles of addiction.

If you’re ready to start your journey, we, the staff at Conifer Park and Arms Acres are willing to walk beside you through your recovery.