“I very much believe the origins of a journey precludes success for the journey. Being in this facility has given me the best start to recovery I’ve had thus far.
I have extreme trauma to hospital settings. So extreme, detoxing there feels like a cloud of doom. I served in Afghanistan and was involved in an IED blast in July 2011. A week later, I woke up in Germany in a military hospital. I thought I was dreaming, and when I tried to leave the bed, the pain I felt testified it wasn’t a dream, but a reality. A few minutes later I found out that I lost a close friend in the blast.
Little did I know, but my enslaving addiction had commenced. In the first 11.5 months, I had 11 surgeries, including a below the right knee leg amputation. Following that, I had 3 more surgeries in the summer of 2012 due to complications from the amputation. I say that to say I developed a phobia of hospitals, many of its staff, and associated hospitals with pain and failure. With the surgeries came the pills, and pills became my master.
Since then, I have had more surgeries, became addicted to Adderall and Lorazepam, all types of pain pills (though not an opiate, I have a severe addiction to Kratom). And, of course, alcohol—perhaps the drug that has caused the most destruction in my life.
Over the years, in hospitals, I’ve had flashbacks of trauma, pain, cold-hearted doctors, outbursts requiring restraint, and a deep and dark bottomless depression. It is embarrassing the amount of ickiness I typically feel when I’m in a hospital for me.
The point of sharing all this is if I’m finally going to get recovery right (as I’ve had almost 18 months & 9 months of sobriety since July 2011) I need to get detox right, which I’ve never done. But, before coming here, I dreaded the thought of detoxing in a hospital. So my wife found White Dove as the alternative.
I researched White Dove and was open to do detox here. I was excited! Explaining to my daughter (who knows somewhat my disdain for hospitals often causing her to become sad when I’m in a hospital) that I was coming to White Dove, a place of healing, she relaxed and believed me.
So I thank you for for giving me a compassionate foundation for recovery and for allowing myself and family a place of healing. I pray the universe reciprocates your compassion”.
