HIGHLY recommend BNI.
Nothing else had worked for us…until BNI.
Our son recently completed his treatment at BNI and is finally back with our family. Not only do we have our son back, but thanks to BNI, we have our family back.
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Two years ago, our family moved. While my husband and I were busy setting up a new home and navigating the logistics of a more remote life, our beautiful, gifted son began to struggle. We assumed the changes in his mood, behavior, and appearance were due to teenage hormones and the challenge of being “the new kid” in a small town where everyone had grown up together and looked like each other and not like him.
Prior to our relocation and unbeknownst to us, our son had been given prescription pills from well-meaning friends who had themselves taken or seen family members take prescriptive medications for anxiety and depression.
Secretly, for months, our son self-medicated. Feelings of guilt began to mount, as did his fear of discovery.
Once the pills were gone, our son spiraled deeper and began engaging in harmful behaviors—including self-harm, substance abuse, and suicide attempt.
As the downward spiral of our son became ever more evident, we felt even more helpless. Like many others—perhaps you who are reading this now—we got our son a therapist.
It felt unbelievable—surreal to twilight zone to nightmare. Our son who had scored in the 99th percentile of standardized tests and had his whole life been the favorite among peers, teachers, and adults was unraveling. He began failing classes; he was caught cheating; other parents and adults in our new community began accusing our son of drinking and stealing.
Where there was once a happy and thriving boy of exceptional aptitude and sensitivity, there was now a sullen stranger who was so unpredictable, our entire family felt hostage in our own home.
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After our son was suspended for possession, we enrolled him into a substance abuse program…and when things didn’t get better, our son was enrolled into IOP (intensive outpatient). Our son continued to struggle, so we added more therapists and more therapy. Despite all the efforts, our son continued to hurt. One day, one of his therapists called us and informed us that we needed to pick him up from therapy and take him to E.R. for SI (suicide ideation) with plan. The E.R. doctor who treated our son recommended hospitalization. Our son was gurney’d from E.R. to the mental health ward of the hospital.
After two weeks, the hospital came to the conclusion that our son required a higher level of care; Deafening mic-drop. A higher level of care than the mental health ward of a hospital?!
Among the flood of thoughts and emotions was the fear that if over a year of intense therapies with multiple therapists + an IOP program, and now a team of hospital doctors, therapists and nurses couldn’t help our son, what chance did anyone have? It felt like our entire family was being sucked into a vacuous, deep black hole and we were being crushed from the intense pressure. Worse, it seemed like we were reaching a point of no return.
Everyone we knew was praying for our family. . . and then, we got a call pointing us to BNI.
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Fast forward to today: Our family is once again in a happy place. Our meals are filled with bright conversation with our children overflowing with excited anecdotes and playful humor. It’s such a simple thing—family togetherness—but once you’ve had it and then had to live without it, having it back makes you swell up with happiness…and admittedly, tear-up from emotions.
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More about our experience with BNI:
BNI was and is amazing. Perhaps it is because BNI is doctor-owned and operated, but the level of care from BNI is lightyears beyond any care that our son had previously received. Not to say that the various doctors, IOP, hospitalization, therapies, and therapists before BNI were bad, they just weren’t as effective as BNI—not by a long shot.
When I first reached-out to BNI, they *immediately* called me back. I’d made several inquiries to at least a dozen other RTCs (residential treatment centers) / in-patient programs with lackluster results, so I was especially impressed by BNI’s responsiveness. Still, given our history of disappointments, I was cautious not to get my hopes up. I didn’t know it then, but BNI’s stellar handling from the beginning was just the start of BNI’s superlative care.
Those first days, while we were still in the hospital, BNI ‘handheld’ me through the registration process and even before our son was admitted into BNI, BNI staff began actively and proactively assisting and advocating for our son and family. We were especially shocked when a BNI psychiatrist made himself available to us BEFORE we were at BNI and WHILE he was traveling abroad!
BNI is thoroughly committed to their clients.
Within the first 48hrs of contact with BNI, the BNI doctors and staff already seemed to know more about our son than the staff where our son been hospitalized for two solid weeks. We are forever grateful that the BNI doctors helped us pushback when the hospital aggressively insisted that our son be given heavy sedating medications at a dosage that did not seem to make sense—especially given our son’s diagnosis and history of substance abuse.
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Our son entering BNI and our son post-BNI are almost unrecognizable as the same human being.
BNI opened their doors to a boy in obvious distress—sunken, scarred and shaky. Through the course of treatment, our bright, witty and sensitively thoughtful son was not just returned to life, but—and I cannot believe I am going to say this—actually improved from having gone through the entire experience.
I never imagined I would ever see a silver lining to all the chaos and agony of the last two years, but looking at our son, listening to him talk, watching how he conducts himself and interacts with the world and people around him, it’s undeniable that this experience has been formative.
BNI helped rebuild our son and it shows. He’s once again making long-term plans and is committed to his academic and future success. He went from having to drop classes and multiple “F”s to finishing his academic year with a B+ average! He is the picture of youthful energy and health—a glowing young man with obvious promise of being the sort of adult who is self-possessed and wise beyond his years and a valuable asset to those fortunate enough to cross his path.
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We are post-BNI, but BNI will always be a part of our family.
Our son’s primary doctors have been and continue to be involved and impactful. I don’t know how to thank them enough, nor endorse them adequately.
If your child / loved one / family is suffering, call BNI. See what they have to say. And if they have space available, consider it a gift.
