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Addiction has a ripple effect that touches not just the person abusing substances but also their loved ones. Recovery Centers of America understands this and offer family therapy and support as part of their addiction treatment program. RCA is a leading treatment center in the US. It was founded on the premise of offering specialized addiction treatment delivered by a team of passionate and experienced professionals in the comfort of a world-class facility closer to patients.
With their outpatient and inpatient treatment centers spread across the country, RCA helps patients and their loved ones build a foundation for lasting recovery close to home. RCA also offers behavioral therapies for mental health issues that often co-occur with addiction.
The staff at RCA makes sure that while your loved one is getting the treatment they deserve, they also make sure the family and the ones supporting them also get the care they deserve.
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RCA has designed a specialty program for families with loved ones undergoing treatment.
Family members participate in an educational seminar taught by their clinical team on topics such as the brain and addiction, communication and boundary setting, and the journey to recovery. This is complementary as a sign of their dedication to the families supporting their loved ones in treatment with RCA.
RCA offers specialized inpatient and outpatient services focusing on the whole person – mind, body, and spirit. Their passionate and experienced professionals are available 24/7 to help patients and their families through treatment. RCA boasts world-class facilities, immersive 12-Step Programming, a strong focus on wellness, and an Alumni Association for lifetime support.
Success Stories of Addiction Recovery
The effects of addiction reach beyond the person struggling with substance use disorders. Addiction harms families, friends, and employers. It destroys relationships and lives. But with the proper treatment, those struggling can turn their lives around and be a positive force in the world again.
Recovery Centers of America has helped countless individuals and families find hope and healing from addiction. Here are two stories of hope and recovery:
Luke’s Story of Alcoholism, Hope, and Recovery
Luke is a former patient of RCA who completed treatment in 2019 and has been sober ever since. Music and songwriting have been critical in his path to long-term recovery. Before that, alcohol was part of Luke’s life. He drank alcohol to kill the pain that he felt deep inside. When he was young, a priest abused him, and he carried that trauma his entire life.
“Growing up was chaotic,” Luke said. “In my house, you know, a lot of drinking. Drinking was like going to church. Drinking was like birthday cake on the Kitchen table with all the cousins. It was just part of life. I drank to kill the pain. I was abused by a priest when I was younger. All that trauma I carried along with me. By the time I was in therapy, I was addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to the feeling it gave me and the fact that it took the pain away.
Luke was good at hiding and managing his alcohol addiction. He could go to work, sing and perform. But that couldn’t go on for so long. Alcohol took over his life to the point he was powerless. He lost control and hurt the people he cared the most about.
“I was going through a divorce. I was living by myself. I was not there emotionally for my kids. I was by myself in my apartment. I closed all the curtains. I locked the doors, and it was one of the darkest weekends of my life,” Luke recalls.
He then reached out to his family members, who helped him find and join RCA. According to Luke, he was scared about joining rehab and losing his job, time, and money. But his support from his loved ones and the RCA staff made all the difference.
“I felt more comfortable as each day went by. I felt good. This is helpful. I’m so glad not to be drinking every day. I’m so glad to feel sober. To feel not sick as a dog,” he added.
After his initial 30-day treatment, Luke had a relapse and went back to RCA for the second time.
“When I got out after my first 30 days, I didn’t work a program,” he said. “I didn’t go get a sponsor. I didn’t do the steps, and I was not open to anything having to do with spirituality. It wasn’t long after I found myself helpless, sick as a dog, stuck in a really dark loop, and I returned to RCA.”
This time, Luke says he felt embarrassed and humiliated – but he was received with open arms.
“There was no judgment. It was open arms. It was, ‘hey man, it’s okay. It takes a lot of us a few times to get this, and we’re so glad you’re back.’ That made me feel great, he continued.”
Luke decided to give the spiritual side of treatment a chance. It was obvious to him that that’s what was blocking him from something clicking or taking hold.
“Being a musician, I had my guitar right there. I wrote a song called Begin Now. That song has been recorded and released, and that was purely inspired by my higher power. That was it. My obsessions were gone. The cravings were gone. That was the beginning of my new life.” He said, “I look back at rehab as a gift. RCA has given me a great, beautiful community of people. It has given me opportunities more than anything. It has given me an opportunity to help others.”
Luke had a message for others struggling with alcohol or drug addiction.
“Asking for help is not a failure. It’s the opposite. It’s a sign of courage. It’s a sign of strength. It’s a sign of willingness. It’s being vulnerable. That one time you ask for help and you get help and accept help could and will and can change your life.” (Source)
Jeff’s Story
Jeff grew up in the rough neighborhood of Dorchester, where all he and his brother could do was run the streets. He started drinking when he was 10 to feel tough enough at school. But later, in 11th grade, Jeff dropped out of school in Dorchester and decided to live with his father, who had split with his mother when he was still a kid.
“We decided it would have been better if I went to live with my father on the west coast and finish the 11th and 12th grade out there,” Jeff narrated. “That turned into a disaster as well. I stole all his booze and was a raging alcoholic on the west coast.”
His dad, a police officer, couldn’t take it anymore and decided to send him back to the east coast. So Jeff moved back, settled down, and got a job. He then got a wife and had a son but divorced after two years of marriage. He married for the second time, had two more kids, and continued drinking. But in 2013, Jeff couldn’t function without drinking.
“In 2013, I remember it specifically. It went from me just drinking casually or at the end of the day to every day, then to survive or function throughout the day, I had to have a drink,” he said.
Jeff finally ended up in RCA Danvers, where he was put into the evolutions group, a group of guys his age who had been through the same things he had.
“The camaraderie that I found here and the quality of care of the staff here made me realize that this is the thing I needed to do to get my life back in order and not lose everything I have worked all my life for.”
Jeff appreciates that RCA put him in a group of people his age.
“I think it was most important to get treatment amongst my peers because when I was in other treatment centers, I was around a lot of younger kids, and I couldn’t relate. Our stories, the same age group of people I’m with are almost exactly the same. We all go through the same struggles together and come out as sane men together. That was very beneficial for me.
He also had great things to say about Recovery Centers of America staff.
“The staff here at RCA is very caring and very interested in your recovery, and they became like lifelong friends to me. I stayed here the whole program, and I came out of the program and did what they suggested. I went to meetings, and I stayed sober, and here I am today, a year and a half later, working for Recovery Centers of America.”
Jeff says that his life is now Amazing. He’s gotten everybody in his family back where they didn’t want anything to do with him. He can now see his grandkids and go on vacations with his loved ones. Jeff has a message for those struggling with addiction.
“If you’re struggling and think that you might need help. And I know you’ve probably been through it before; you’ve lost faith in some of the programs that you’ve been in. I think coming to RCA will be the best choice you can make in your life because it has worked for me,” he concluded.(source)
