When I walked into Gulf Breeze Recovery I wasn’t looking for a new way to live, I was simply trying to stay alive. I had been through numerous 12-Step programs and while I could maintain sobriety for a period of time, my thinking and more importantly my perception of life continued to drag me back to drinking and substance abuse. The world seemed to be against me, the subsequent consequences continued to mount and before long I found myself in a divorce, my 6 month old son had been taken away and my seemingly perfect FaceBook life was in shambles. I reverted back to the only thing that I knew to escape, vodka and pills and eventually hard drugs. When I walked into GBR my liver enzymes were 100 times the normal level, I was dying at 35.
GBR was unlike any facility I had ever been to, I was treated like a sick human being, not a hopeless alcohol/drug addict. The detoxication process was done in a kind and caring manner and was much easier than what I had made up in my head. It became clear that the program was extremely well thought out, each thing from neurofeedback to sauna and finally into the morning classes built upon one another. I began to stop thinking about what I needed to do out-there and noticed an entire shift in my perspective (consciousness) around week five. All of a sudden, I was noticing things that were always there, but that I never gave much attention to; the clouds, the smell of ocean, my breath and even other people! When I was using I was so caught up in myself that I simply shut down, my concentration was strictly on surviving another day. GBR helped to guide me back to who I really was (mostly through learning who I was not). When I came to GBR my greatest hope was that I could find a way to stop using substances and what I ended up receiving was so much more, it was a chance at truly living a fulfilling, serene and content life. I encourage all whom think they are hopeless to push forward and give Gulf Breeze Recovery a shot, you are not a lost cause.
