Sponsored by Seasons in Malibu.
Many people seem to have it all on the outside, but a raging disease of addiction on the inside. Rob Watson suggests there may be more holistic options for them to grab hold of the seriousness of their disease than there used to be.
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I have been clean and sober for over 34 years now. My wake-up call came as I was being guided into the back of a police car at 4am on a Wednesday night… a work night. Nothing major had happened, just that I had (while stone-cold drunk and in a blackout) stalled my car in the left-hand turn lane in front of a police station… and then passed out. The hands of fate had delivered me to law enforcement—and subsequently, to recovery—when I, of my own free will, could not.
I got the message. I had not lost everything… yet. I was of weakening health, but not life-threatening. I had a studio apartment… my third downgrade in three years. I had a job, but many more nights “visiting” police stations and that would be a thing of the past. I was facing my alcoholic bottom, and I knew it.
I threw myself into recovery, and I regret nothing I did on my way to health. It was not easy, and while my core orientation was toward sobriety, the rest of my life (from a health perspective) weighed me down like an albatross. Because I suddenly went cold turkey from consuming gallons of sugar-based wine, a craving for sweets overtook me. I was consuming whole packages of cookies every day. I went to smoke-filled rooms and downed buckets of coffee. I ate crap food and embraced my grungy existence. At the time, my focus on not drinking meant I would deal with all other health things…later.
All in all, as I said, I do not regret the process. It worked and eventually I peeled away the unhealthy and made better and better decisions. Now, looking back, I wonder if it had to be that way?
I also wonder how people who are in the grips of addiction, but function at a high level, get the opportunity to experience the incredible depth of life that I do now—in later sobriety. In order to gain the humility to open the door to health, is total lifestyle humiliation required?
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Not everyone thinks so. New methodologies have allowed the punishment aspect to be freed from the recovery process and for an embrace of a total health renaissance to occur. Now there are establishments like Seasons in Malibu, a luxury, dual-diagnosis addiction treatment center, that immediately surrounds the addict or alcoholic in a positive, healthy environment.
Seasons in Malibu circles the entire life experience, and through one–on-one therapy, family therapy, and a complete wellness overhaul, a person is given the support and opportunity to lead a new, addiction-free life. Seasons is also diligent in tracking their patients and holds itself accountable for their success.
I have done tracking of my own path to recovery and it has been miraculous, wonderful, and spectacular. On the way, I have seen many who did not make it. They had people who cared, but may have needed a professional staff to further help guide them on their journeys.
The irony for some is that the fall into alcohol addiction often does not take someone from the board room to the gutter. Sometimes it takes them right to the grave. How much better if there was a different way.
Now, for them, there is an alternative, and it has beautiful sunsets, shoulders to cry on, an array of treatment options, healthy food, and the most important thing of all: hope.
Check out Seasons in Malibu on Facebook and Twitter.
BTW, we have contracted provider for all the same insurance companies and to be honest with you, when looking at what they pay, I was being VERY LIBERAL.
This all sounds GREAT but for most of the addicts/ dual diagnosis/mental health, MOST can’t afford this kind of treatment. When treatment centers like the one adolescent center we just closed, are closing left and right, it’s nice to know that these places are available. But then again, if Bernie gets in, the guys we get will have just as much right to go to Seasons, as anyone else, yes? Seasons in Malibu … INSURANCE ACCEPTED (No Medicare or Medicaid). – Here is the kicker about “insurance Accepted” what they accept are reasonable and customary charges and that’s after a… Read more »