Being admitted here went really well, they came and picked me up from the hospital themselves. I…read moretold tyson what I was dealing with and he drove his own car on his lunch break to come and get me so I could actually make it to I Am Recovery. Super nice guy, he really understands addiction and would give anyone the shirt off his back to help them or whatever they need.
Once I was in residential treatment there I was really blown away by how much everyone cared and went above and beyond. They have 2 trained chefs there, the food was amazing, I gained about 40 lbs while in residential treatment for a little over 45 days. I was assigned my own therapist, case manager, and all of the techs were great to work with, they don't look down on people here. The techs that really stood out to me were probably Tyler (Just an awesome guy, very caring), Alex (Took me to all my outside appointments and always has your back), Alecia (She knows about a lot of interesting things and is always super helpful), and there are a bunch of others but those are the ones I worked with the most. We went to classes during the morning and had different groups learning different things. A lot of time in the evenings they would take us (I think they hold about 14 clients at a time) to places to do things, like playing pickleball, going on hikes, we even went bowling one time. It is nice not being just stuck in a little building, they do a lot of outside activities, and they have a larger facility with a few different buildings too. We also did some things I really enjoyed, like breathwork, sound baths, cold plunges, we even went to a native american sweat lodge a few times. That was a real cool experience and I felt like all the holistic stuff they do really adds to your recovery. They said they like to introduce us to a lot of different ways to stay healthy and that we can pick and choose what to continue doing in our own lives that works best for us in the future.
The case managers here help you get food stamps, medicaid, everything that is going to help you. They know their stuff and are very efficient at what they do. So much better than trying to call workforce services or whatever myself, they know exactly how to handle them and they get stuff done. They also helped me with coming up with a resume, talked to me about how to get a job and do a good interview, and gave me a lot of good advice. I was amazed at how many programs exist that you can take advantage of for assistance while being eligible for things like this. I had not been told about any of this while at other treatment centers in the past.
My therapist (Olivia) was amazing, or is I should say as I felt like she was helping me so much I continued to meet with her after residential treatment. She is very knowledgeable and has a lot of experience doing therapy, fully licensed etc. She cried a little on my graduation day and really seems to care, and the other therapists are no different from what I could tell. Graduation is awesome by the way, they let you bring in whoever to support you and it is a couple hour event with them all taking turns talking about different things that they noticed while you are here and things that might help out in the real world. Very emotional experience. The therapist for each graduate picks out some kind of stone to represent the client and it is presented along with a certificate and some other things to you when you graduate the program. Really cool way to do it for sure.
They offered me the chance to go to sober living afterwards, which I took them up on. They own multiple sober living houses in different areas, you are assigned one or if there is a good reason why you should go to a specific one they work with you on that. The houses are really nice and you basically end up living with all the friends you made while in residential treatment. This gives you time to find a job, get back on your feet, and they dont just kick you out after residential and say 'see ya!', they really care about making sure everyone is setup for success. During sober living they continued to help me with job skills like making a resume and looking for a job and stuff. While in sober living you continue to stay in touch with those in residential treatment and all the same case managers and therapists and stuff are available to you as well. Sober living has been awesome and I will miss these guys when I leave. You definitely form connections here, this program is unlike many others and they care about you personally I have found. I'm so glad I decided to come here, I've been to other treatment centers and it's just like a rinse and repeat kind of thing there. Not here. Really a special place with a lot of caring and knowledgeable people working there.