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EXPERIENCE
I lacked the solution to my own problem -- an unfamiliar and frightening feeling. Up to that point, I felt as if I managed resonably well. The time came when the pressures of life became difficult to handle. Worse, alcohol had long since stopped providing the relief I needed. I dreaded the future. Work, social and financial pressures bore down harder and harder. I reached the breaking point.
This low point, in retrospect, was the most significant moment of my life -- the day I decided to enter treatment at Cumberland Heights. I had no idea what the next month would bring, and no clue how I could expect to handle life without alcohol. As it happened, this was just the beginning of what the staff at Cumberland Heights taught me. In those early days I struggled with fear and anger. Now I have the tools to handle them, if they crop up. I began to shift from regretting yesterday and dreading tomorrow to loving what today offered me. At the end of the traditional program, I wanted more. I entered the Extended Care program, and learned even more about how to build a new life in recovery.
Now two years later, paradoxically, longtime friends recognize the person they first met many years ago. I go to sleep each night grateful for the gift of the day that has just ended, and I awaken each morning relishing the day ahead.
Paul
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STRENGTH
I had two choices - to continue on my drug addicted path which would surely lead me to death, or to surrender, get help, and let someone show me how to get to the road to recovery. The only real thing that stood in my way was not having any money. I did not know how I was going to pay for this stay and I knew that I was in so much financial debt that I could not get a loan and my family was so sick of me, they did not want to help. I felt helpless. Why would anyone want to help an addict that could not even help herself? The only way I can describe what Cumberland Heights has been for me is Diving Intervention. If it had not been for the scholarship that has allowed me the opportunity to be here and travel the road to recovery and experience a new life and fine me and love me, the only other answer for me was the road to death. I am alive with my eyes wide open and I am on the right road for the first time in a very long time, and if feels awesome! My children see me and they see the real me and they are so excited. I love seeing that excitement!
May
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HOPE
My sobriety date is April 17, 2010. I was 17 years old when I got sober. I started drinking at a young age and then around the age of 16 I was drinking every morning, afternoon and night. I drank to fit in, to escape reality, and to feel the high it gabe me. I was oblivious to how it started to control my life.
I was an athlete. I did pretty much every sport but rubgy was the sport I loved, the sport I lived for. I was going to be on the USA women's rugby team, but alcohol stood in the way of my dreams. At the end of my senior year I was suspended from school for drinking at 7am with a BA level of 3.27. I still could not admit that I had a drinking problem. So I stopped drinking for about a month until it was time for me to be the star of my powderpuff football game. That was the night of my last drink and I will never forget how awful and helpless I felt. I was suspended again from school and next day I was on a flight to Cumberland Heights.
I am so grateful to have gone to Cumberland Heights. I had the time of my life there and I will never forget the laughts I shared with the friends I made there. Because of them I was able to graduate high school. I learned so much about myself while I was there. They suggested that I move into a halfway house when I left and I did exactly that. I wated this recovery so bad that I was willing to do whatever they said.
Today I am a student, a friend, a daughter, and a better athlete than I have ever been in my life. I owe so much to Cumberland Heights for giving me the tools to begin my journey on the road to recovery.
Ashley
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Involvement
My first involvement with Cumberland Heights was approximately thirty-five years ago when my mother was a patient. At that time, alcoholism was thought to be a character flaw and not a disease. Many people were embarrassed to be associated with a drug-alcohol treatment center.
My second involvement was when my wife and I brought our daughter, Leslie, to Cumberland Heights. We would visit Leslie every Sunday and her younger brother would play with the two dogs in residence. Leslie was skeptical at first, but I am so proud of her. She has been sober ever since – twenty-one years. Leslie is still associated with Cumberland Heights by serving on The John Hiatt Concert Series Committee.
My third involvement is when our son, Jody, was admitted for treatment five years ago. Jody is a recovering alcoholic and is heavily involved in several Cumberland Heights programs – The Cumberland Heights Advisory Board and The John Hiatt Concert Series Committee.
Last year I got a call asking me to co-chair the Annual Fund Drive with Leslie and Jody. The thought of our family giving back to Cumberland Heights excited me. Over twenty-five hundred letters were personally signed and through the hard work of many over $115,000 was raised.
Cumberland Heights has had such a positive impact on my family that my wife and I decided a few years ago to include Cumberland Heights in our estate plan. Once again the old saying is true – you get back more than you give. Get involved.
Joe Roberts
Donor & Volunteer
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