Video: Road To Recovery
Video Transcript:
Nancy Snyderman:
Mental illness is widely considered a taboo topic. However if not addressed and treated it can lead to further issues such as addiction. As one of the leading causes of premature death and illness in the United States chances are you know someone whose life has been affected by addiction. In our next segment we hear a young man’s story of battling addiction, and how he and a team of addiction specialists are helping him on his road to recovery.
Cody:
My name is Cody I’m 35 years old, I’m a recovering addict.
Michael Herbert:
Addiction is a disease – it’s identifiable, it’s chronic, it’s progressive, and it’s fatal if it’s not treated.
Jonathan Saul:
People don’t understand and when people don’t understand something that breeds fear which ultimately puts the people that suffer from these diseases on the fringes.
Cody:
My first experience with addiction started probably five years ago. I got an attack of pancreatitis and I was put on prescription pain medication and there’s just one day that I decided to take extra and it kind of took off from there.
Michael Herbert:
On some level once the substance is put into the system that person can’t reasonably control what they’re doing.
Cody:
The last time that I had gone into the hospital because of the overdose, my mom came in and I could kind of see in her eyes that she had kind of come to terms that I was an addict and this was probably how I was gonna pass.
Michael Herbert:
If we could engage families in the recovery process along with the addict and alcoholic the recovery rates would increase. They need to move away from enabling the disease of addiction and start to enable the recovery process.
Cody:
Well I hit bottom and that’s when ended up here at Brighton.
Jonathan Saul:
Brighton Recovery Center was formed by myself and a group of other people that understand that this industry needs quality care. We treat people with dignity and respect.
Cody:
Ever since I was young I dealt with anxiety and depression. And in high school I started experimenting with different drugs and alcohol.
Jonathan Saul
Dual diagnosis treatment is the concept of treating mental health issues and substance use disorder issues at the same time.
Cody:
It became a center of my world so I pushed friends and family away, and the more that I kept people away the easier it was to maintain that addiction
Michael Herbert:
And so this addiction overrides things like love and care for others
Jonathan Saul:
We highly individualized the care – the person comes in and have an initial assessment with a master’s level clinician decide which kind of therapy modalities that are going to be used.
Cody:
We had group process where we could talk to each other about the things that we were dealing with and was led by a therapist.
Jonathan Saul:
When you combine those evidence-based practices with some 12-step philosophy in an environment that promotes healing and dignity, we believe that that’s your best option for success. It used to be where we call it the shame game, where you know, you bring the person in and break them down in order to build them back up.
Michael Herbert:
People who view drug addicts believe that they created this themselves. They’re the ones who chose to do the drugs, they’re the ones that continue.
Jonathan Saul:
In our view the patient has probably done enough of beating themselves down and need an environment where they can start building themselves up from where they are. We supply the hope in the beginning until they can take it on themselves and bring it out into the community, and hopefully eventually start helping other people themselves.
Cody:
I think being in recovery has helped me to kind of gain that self-worth back. i was surprised that i was able to not only get sober but also enjoy life that was really kind of scary thing for me I thought you know i could get rid of the drugs but am I gonna like what i see after. And the truth is you can be sober and clean and have an amazing life. You know, it’s very hard but it’s really worth it
For more information about addiction dual diagnosis and recovery visit these websites or contact Brighton Recovery Center.
