I was more than ready to start a new life when I went to A Forever Recovery. I was ready to get off drugs, was ready to stop doing everything I’d been doing that was harmful to myself and others. When I went to AFR, I was hopeful yet, also not. I wanted to get off drugs but, I wasn’t convinced that it was something I could really do. Just the fact that I really did want to get clean helped me. I was ore receptive to doing the program and doing the work on myself that I needed to. While I was at AFR I learned how to navigate my life and my choices so that I didn’t fall back into old habits. I finished my program at AFR 6 months ago, and I’m still sober. I’m also more stable than I’ve been, which is just as important to me. During my program, I learned a lot about myself. I learned why I’d been doing the things I had, why I’d been making those choices, what my triggers were and what reactions I had to them. I learned how to take a step back, reevaluate things and then deal with the issue the right way, before I got to a point where I wanted to use. It can be hard to stay sober after rehab. For me, it was because I always had the thought in the back of my mind that every single thing that was going wrong, every problem I was having, could be completely swept away if I used. I knew the problem itself wouldn’t go away but, I also knew that I wouldn’t care anymore. So, while I was at AFR, I learned how to deal with things before they got to the point where I wanted that escape. While I was going through my program, I decided that I didn’t want to go home to my parent’s house. With everything I learned at AFR I could have gone home and stayed sober but, I had family in Colorado, and I decided that starting over somewhere new would be easier and less stressful for me. I’ve always had a hard time asking for help, I always felt like if I asked for help, I was failing at whatever it was. So, I’d try to do everything on my own and I’d fail anyways. When I was going through my program, I realized that staying sober was something I wasn’t going to be able to do without help and that the bigger support system I had, the easier it would be for me. So, while I was at AFR, I asked my aunt and uncle for their help and they’ve been amazing. They had rules but, they’ve let me come stay with them, my uncle helped me find a job that I started 5 days after getting here and really, things couldn’t be better in my life right now. I never imagined my life could be like this before I went to AFR. I wasn’t convinced I’d ever get off drugs completely so for me to be sober for this long and to be doing this good, it’s amazing. Going to AFR was a life changer and I’m so grateful for all the help that I got while I was there. It's an amazing place, with amazing programs and I couldn’t have found a better place to get the help I needed.

Going to A Forever Recovery was the hardest experience of my life. It was also the most worthwhile one. My problem with opiates started when I was 19. I started taking pain pills, then moved to heroin and started taking Xanax as well. When I was 23 my parents convinced me to get help and I went to a rehab they’d chosen for me. At that rehab I was put on Suboxone to help me through detox and was weaned off it. The Suboxone helped me so much, it felt like a miracle drug to me. Taking it allowed me to feel normal again but, what was even better was that I didn’t have the urge to use when I was taking it. So, when I relapsed after leaving that rehab, I went to a doctor and asked to be put on Suboxone. Which I stayed on for 4 years. My life improved a lot in those years. By taking the Suboxone my life was almost completely normal. I could go to work; I kept a steady job and I could go out with friends without the worry that I’d do something stupid and start using again. I was still taking something for my addiction, and I knew that I couldn’t stay on it forever. So, after 4 years, I decided that it was time to get off the Suboxone. Which was really hard for me. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but, I was taking a very low dose of Suboxone and I thought that would help me. I wasn’t able to handle the withdrawal symptoms at all, so I started taking Percocet. Percocet has a much shorter half-life than Suboxone does. My plan was to take the Percocet until the Suboxone was completely out of my system and then tough out the rest of the withdrawal. I’m not really the tough it out type though so I continued taking the Percocet until I was right back where I started, addicted to pain pills. I started looking into rehabs and after finding A Forever Recovery, I asked my parents to help me get there. Going to AFR wasn’t easy but, I was determined to make my life my own again and I felt that AFR was my best chance at that. The staff at AFR helped me a lot. It was hard for me, especially in the beginning. Most drug addicts are master manipulators and I was no different. It might have been necessary for me to be in a place where I couldn’t manipulate anyone but, that didn’t make it any easier for me. I was so used to manipulating people and situations to get my way that being in a place where I couldn’t, it was hard for me to deal with at first and it was a painful adjusting period. The approach that AFR takes with rehabilitation helped me a lot. The different programs they have at AFR meant that I wasn’t doing some cookie cutter approach to my treatment. I wasn’t doing the same as everyone else just because that was all they had. The counselors at AFR helped me find the program that was right for me, the program that would help me the most and that was the SMART program. Which has helped me so much. I’ve changed so much since going to AFR. I got to AFR in November of 2018 and stayed for just over 10 weeks. I got home in January of 2019 and I’ve stayed sober since getting home. Staying at AFR through Thanksgiving and Christmas wasn’t exactly fun. The staff worked hard to make the holidays nice, and I spent it with good friends instead of family but, it's not the same as spending the holidays with your family. It was worth it though. My family has always allowed me to spend the holidays with them, even when I was using. Yesterday was the first Christmas that I’ve spent with them, completely sober, since I was 19. I can’t thank the staff enough for what they’ve helped me achieve. I have over 12 months sober and it’s because of the hard work that the staff at AFR made sure I did. Going through the program at AFR really was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, it was worth it though.

My parents convincing me to go to A Forever Recovery was the best thing that could have happened. When my parents found AFR and started talking to me about it, I was pretty much done with trying to get sober. I was pretty close to becoming suicidal and I didn't want to go to yet another rehab that I felt certain wouldn't help me. When I did finally agree to go to AFR, I didn't go there because I thought it would help. I honestly hoped that my parents would finally give up on me if I relapsed after another rehab again. I wanted them to understand that I was beyond hope and the only way to do that was to agree to go to rehab again. I went to AFR 9 months ago, and surprisingly, I loved it there. They have people working at AFR who've been addicted to drugs themselves and that helped me a lot throughout my program. Having people to talk to, who understood why I was so close to giving up but, who wouldn't let me not try, was exactly what I needed. I did the SMART program while at AFR, they have different programs there but, the SMART program was the one I was most interested in. Not doing another 12-step program was also great. I went to AFR 9 months ago, was able to stay there for 2 months and I've been home for 7 months now. Because of the program, the people and the length of my stay while at AFR, I'm still sober. I can't believe how good I feel right now. I'm in charge of my own life again and it's an amazing experience. My parents convincing me to go to AFR saved my life.

I’ve sent my daughter to a lot of different rehabs over the last 10 years that she’s been addicted to heroin. After the first few rehabs didn’t help her, she started thinking that nothing could help her, and she started taking each subsequent rehab less seriously. She wanted to get clean but, she stopped trying and the only reason she continued to go to rehab at all was to humor her dad and me. When I first found AFR and called them, I was impressed. I wasn’t sure how effective AFR would be because it’s so different from every other rehab I’d seen but, that’s also why I wanted my daughter to go there. AFR is the first rehab I’ve found that looks at and treats drug addiction and rehabilitation the way they do. AFR is only a few hours from where we live so I was able to drive my daughter and drop her off. I was impressed with how much care and compassion they showed my daughter when we got there. Her recovery started differently at AFR because they made sure it did. They made her see that AFR could be different, they got her to agree to put real effort into her program and she started her program with hope and purpose. I’ve noticed how much confidence my daughter has in herself since she got home. It made me realize just how much she’d changed over the past 10 years and just how much progress she made at AFR. She hasn’t slowed down at all since coming home. She’s using everything she learned at AFR to make a better life and a better future for herself.

Our daughter went to A Forever Recovery 14 months ago for an addiction to methamphetamine. When she relapsed 8 months ago, we sent her back to AFR because we knew it was the place that had the best chance of helping our daughter. She started using meth in college. It started with taking Adderall to help her study, turned into her taking Adderall whenever she felt like it, which turned into her trying meth and getting hooked on it. When we dropped her off at AFR I was impressed by how well they handled her. She wasn't the nicest person that day and they were really great with helping her feel comfortable. They explained every part of the intake process so she felt better about it all. She did great there. Both times. This second time she's come home I've been really happy with the results. She's back at work and looking into her schooling again but, this time she's much more vigilant about her work to stay sober. She's been in regular contact with her aftercare counselor and it's helped her a lot to have someone that she respects and trusts to talk to about whatever is going on in her life that she might need help with. As much as her dad and I want to help her we couldn't possibly understand it all so, having that counselor has been great for her. I hope and pray that she doesn't need rehab again. If she did though, she go back to AFR. There's no one else I'd trust with our daughter's life and her future.

My brother was addicted to cocaine for almost 10 years. The last 2 ½ years got really bad though. The first 7 years of his addicted he would binge for a few days or a week and then go back to not using. These last years though, he started using every day. It was 6 months after he started using everyday when he was arrested. Which is one of the best things that’s ever happened to him. It forced him to acknowledge the fact that he wasn’t doing okay and that he did need help. The 1 ½ was filled with him being in and out of rehab. He’d go in, do good in them and then a week or two after leaving he’d start using again. 5 months ago he checked into AFR and that’s all changed. He did really good while there. I know there was a few different reasons for that. One reason was that he choose the program he’d do and another was the fact that they have people working at AFR who understand drug addiction completely. Not because they went to school for it but because they have their own histories and experiences with addiction. Not everyone working there used to be an addict. There’s a few though and that made things easier for my brother. He was able to talk more because he didn’t fear being judged at all. He’s been home for 3 months now and this is the longest he’s gone without using cocaine since he started using it all those years ago. Every day he has more control over his own life and decisions. A Forever Recovery was an amazing find and I’m very happy our parents found it.

I went to A Forever Recovery because they offer the SMART Recovery program. I’d been interested in doing this program for a while and had some hope that it would help me more than the other programs I’ve gone through in the past. Going through the SMART program was great. It was hard work but, really great for me. It completely changed the way I viewed addiction and recovery. Drug habits are looked at as just that. Habits that can be changed. You don’t hear that you’re an addict, that you’ll always be an addict whether you’re using or not. You hear that you have addictive behavior and your behavior, your habits, actions and reactions are all things that can be worked on and changed. One of the first things you do during the SMART program is take a really long, hard look at your life. You compare how things are now to how they were before you started using drugs. How things are with your family, your friends, how you do at work, everything. It made me see how much worse my life is was when I was on drugs and gave me more motivation to do the program right. Before going to AFR I had used pills for 10 years and I’ve gone to a few rehabs over those years. Each program felt the same in that it didn’t feel like I was fighting to get better or to make my life better. It felt like I was fighting just to not get any worse. AFR wasn’t like that. It felt like I was working and fighting so hard to get better. Going to AFR and doing the SMART program there was life-changing.

I started abusing prescription medication over a year after I had started taking it. I took Vicodin for headaches and there was a week where it was like I had a continuous, horrible headache. I took Vicodin throughout that whole week and after that was when I started abusing my prescriptions and getting stronger prescriptions. When my sister went to rehab my husband asked me about it and I finally got the courage to talk to him and tell him what was going on. We decided that I needed rehab as well but neither of us wanted me going to the same place as my sister. It wouldn’t have been good for me. We found A Forever Recovery and quickly settled on sending me there. We live in Arkansas and AFR is in Michigan so it’s not exactly close by. We felt it would be the best place though and so that’s where I went. It really was perfect for me. The staff were kind and understanding and yet they were relentless in making sure each step of the program was fully understood and could be applied before allowing me to move on to the next step. They also worked with me and helped me find better ways of dealing with my headaches so that I didn’t use the first time I had a headache when I got home. Since I got home from AFR I’ve stayed sober and things are going great with my husband. I’m so glad I went to AFR. I’m so grateful for the help I received there and for the support I’ve continued to receive since getting home. It’s the best program I could have gone to.

My daughter went to A Forever Recovery 6 months ago. She started using heroin at 21 and is 25 now. The time she spent using did a lot of damage. To her both mentally and physically. It also ruined just about every relationship she had. She went to one other program before going to AFR and it was a traditional 12-step,28-day program. When she finished that program she stayed clean for just long enough for me to start to believe that her drug using days were over. She relapsed 3 months after finishing that program though and spent another 4 months using before agreeing to go back to rehab. I spent so much time during that 4 months researching different rehabs hoping to find the right one to send her to. Which I did find in A Forever Recovery. We chose AFR for quite a few different reasons. Mostly though, my husband and I felt that she’d be safe at AFR and well cared for with the best treatment available. We were absolutely right and she’s doing great now. She’s been home now for 6 months and she’s doing amazing. She’s still clean and sober and she’s working hard to make sure that her future is the one she wants. She’s working and hasn’t missed a day since she started. She’s also taking classes at the community college. Going to A Forever Recovery was the best thing for my daughter.

I’m extremely pleased with the way A Forever Recovery handled my son and his addictions. For years he’s been using both crack and heroin and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop it. He never wanted to get help and so he refused to get help. The few time we’ve been able to get him into rehab never went well. He just refused to do any work while he was there and bided his time until he was able to leave. The program at A Forever Recovery is an amazing one and I’d recommend the facility to anyone looking to get help for themselves or a loved one. When my son finally decided to get help and I went looking for a place to send him I knew that AFR would be a good fit for him. They have such amazing people working there. Some of which have dealt with addiction themselves and that personal experience with addiction helped my son immensely. They have multiple programs there which aren’t based on time but one evidence. Which meant that my son didn’t move forward in his program until both he and the staff felt he was ready. That was a really big comfort to me because I knew that they would be able to see the signs of whether he was ready to move forward or not much better than someone who didn’t have that personal experience with addiction. By going to AFR my son, for the first time, got the exact right kind of help, he was able to take as long as he needed there to get the program right and he was able to work with people who truly understood him and the best ways to help him.