It’s an amazing thing to know that my son is truly living his life for the first time in 11 years. My son was addicted to crack cocaine for 11 years and it was a pretty rough 11 years for all of our family. It’s hell to have someone you love addicted to drugs. You try to help them but nothing you do really seems to help. You send them to rehab only to have them start using again. You know in your head that you are doing everything you can to help them but in your heart, it always feels like you could do more. For 11 years my son was in and out of rehab and jail and it’s awful to watch and awful to go through. I was always hopeful when my son went to rehab and always relieved when he was in jail. Hopeful when he was in rehab because maybe this time it would be different and he would be able to stay clean. Relieved when he was in jail because for the length of time that he was in jail I knew that he was at least marginally safer. I knew that he was eating and that he was sleeping and that he would be a least a little bit healthier when he got out. When he went to A Forever Recovery he was truly ready to get the help he needed to overcome his addiction. A Forever Recovery was so much different than the previous rehabs he had been to. The building and the property are beautiful. While my son was at A Forever Recovery he had a sort of serenity to him that wasn’t present at any other rehab. He liked the program he was doing and he especially liked the people. He felt that the people working at AFR truly understood him and what he was going through. So, when a counselor or someone said they wanted to help him and they understood what he was going through it didn’t immediately put his back up. He was more willing to listen and learn at AFR and that made such a big difference with his recovery. He went to AFR 8 months ago and has been home for 6 months. He’s been clean before. Was actually clean for an entire year at one point. It’s so much different this time though. It isn’t just that he’s not using drugs. It’s that as a person he’s changed so much. He’s become a really caring person. He and his father have had a much more strained relationship than he and I had and he’s taking action to fix that relationship. When my son went to AFR I expected it to a place much like the other rehabs he has gone to. I wanted him to get the help he needed to overcome his addiction I just wasn’t sure that help existed. AFR is like no other rehab though. It was the only place my son felt like he could be himself and get the help he needed. It was also the first place where I felt like my son was a priority to the staff.
- Dawn
Battle Creek, MI
Going to through rehab at BRS turned out to a surprising great experience. I’ve been to a few rehabs in the last few years and BRS is the nicest rehab I’ve been to. I would have put up with a lot to finally get off the pain medication that I’d become addiction to but, I went to BRS and it was great there. So, there are pros and cons to BRS. There aren’t many cons and they are completely outweighed by the number of pros there are. The first thing is that BRS is in central Michigan. Not really a con because it’s beautiful there but, if you’re going in winter, it’ll be a step past freezing. The second con which isn’t really a con is the food. I only bring it up because the website made me think the food was going to be completely amazing and it wasn’t. It was good though so, not really something to complain about. Think Applebee’s, not Spago’s. The last con, which isn’t really a con for the clients is that sometimes it seemed like there weren’t enough people working there. The staff at BRS is incredibly dedication to helping others and they are good at their job but, I think they were run a bit ragged sometimes. Now, the pros. The building is really nice. BRS looks and feels like you’re staying in a ski lodge and it doesn’t have that institutional feeling that most rehabs have. You’re allowed to smoke at BRS. I’ve never been to a rehab where I couldn’t smoke but, I’ve heard a couple horror stories of someone checking into treatment only to have them take their cigarettes away. Which sounds awful. They offer different programs at BRS. Every client is about to find a program that feels right to them. The first rehab I went to only offered the 12-step program. Now, I know it works for some people. I’ve talked to people that say it’s the best thing they have ever done, it helped them so much. For me, it felt weird to do. It didn’t fit with me or my personality and honestly, I until I went to BRS and was able to look at and find a different program, I thought it was normal. So, having the different programs available at BRS really is a huge benefit. The staff working at BRS are perfect for their jobs. Some of the most compassionate and understanding people I’ve ever met work at BRS. One thing that stood out to me was that to the staff at BRS, I was a person, not just an addict. They took the time to get to know me, to understand why I’d become addicted to pain meds and when I told them how I’d become addicted, they understood. With other people I’ve talked to about my addiction, it felt like once they found out that I’d become addicted, it didn’t matter how it happened, it didn’t matter that the first time I took a pain pill it came from a doctor and that everything I took actually came from a doctor. The only thing that mattered was the fact that I didn’t stop taking the pills, which made me an addict. It wasn’t like that at BRS. They took the time to understand me and my life. They helped me feel like a normal human being again and their attitude was very refreshing. You can stay at BRS for as long as you need to. I was there for 4 months but, there was someone who came and went in 30 days there and there was someone there that stayed for almost a year. It didn’t matter, you stayed for however long you need to. All in all, going to BRS was a really great experience that resulted in me being clean, sober and able to stay clean and sober. I haven’t run into any problems staying sober since getting home. I would have put up with so much to get to where I am today, I’m just glad I went to BRS because I didn’t have to put up with anything.
- Jennifer
Harrison, MI