My Recovery Story, Grant from Sydney Australia
The moment I landed I was greeted at Bangkok’s hectic airport by one of my own – a recovering addict.
Hope Rehab will always hold a special place in my heart. The property has a feel about it like no other. Its ocean views and beautiful native trees makes this place feel like a Garden of Eden in an Exotic paradise.
Why Hope is unique to other treatment centers around the world.
– You are treated equally, like an adult not a drug addict.
– You are away from the pressure of home in beautiful Thailand. No family pressure. There is no option but to look within and fix the issues inside us that ultimately lead us to addiction.
– You are shown trust by being allowed to leave the premises with another client to grab a coffee or ice cream. This is huge for a recovering addict because the trust is something you have not had for a long time.
– You are allowed coffee, cigarettes, phones and Laptops as Simon understands that kicking your main addiction is hard enough. And many of us have still got commitments like family and work going on that we cannot ignore completely.
Exercise
You are encouraged to get out of your head and in to your body. Physical exercise is over looked with treatment centers around the world. It’s a vital part of long term recovery.
Activities
– Bootcamps and group exercise
– Cycling and running
– Yoga and Pilates
– Muay Thai Kick Boxing
– Basketball
– Soccer with a local Thai team every Saturday
Mindfulness – This is the missing link in most treatment centers now. Hope is lucky enough to have a Mindfulness coach Paul Garrigan and Alon Kumsawad. Paul and Alon really helped me slow my head down, monkey-mind they call it, along with seeing the world through a new stress free pair of eyes. Most Addicts relapse on drugs and alcohol when they are stressed, it’s the biggest trigger. Thankfully I have found an answer to life’s stresses. Mindfulness has changed my life forever. Areas of focus that helped me move forward were
– Social Anxiety
– Depression
– Dealing with Stress
– Compassion for self and others
– Managing Cravings
– Changing my negative thinking with CBT
12 step recovery – a treatment center is not a treatment center without the 12 steps to recovery. CBT; “The way we think is the way we feel” This is imperative for me to stay clean and sober.
CBT gets us out of our negative head space which ultimately effects the way we feel. If we can train our brain to think positively again, we no longer need to use drugs and alcohol to feel better.
Personas These are the characters we become that protects our addiction. We identify what personas you demonstrate and then during your stay at hope slowly undo these behaviors that keep us sick.
Thai Massages – Two 1 hour massages a week by our highly trained Massage Therapists – This is was a delight when I was in treatment and really important as we are getting our clients moving again. Steam room every day which is really important when you are detoxing.
Cost of going to Hope Rehab – Price sadly treatment centers around the world are big business. As soon as this is the case the therapeutic value is lost. Simon Mott has proved to me he is not in this for the money. His passion for getting people clean has really inspired me to take this line of work for the rest of my life. Hopes price point for treatment says it all $7000.
Together We Are Stronger – Addiction cannot be beaten alone, sadly many people perish to this disease and the world still does not see the seriousness of this mental disease. Above the group room where or clients unearth the deepest and darkest traumas and secrets is “Together We are Stronger”. The Therapeutic value of one addict helping another is the only quire to this disease. Every staff member has been an addict and has come out the other side – This is really extremely important for an addict to see. Hope creates a family atmosphere and to some people it is the first family they have ever really had here at hope. Some of the best times I have had in my life were here in treatment. I owe hope my life and that is something I will never forget.
“I was Living for Others – So I Didn’t Have to Face Myself”
During my twenties, depression really set in. I had spent more than a decade just existing. To the world I was always okay, always there to help anyone in need, always the friend to be relied on, always the best brother, and always a good son – but it was all a mask hiding an unrelenting pain. In my head no one knew my struggles. I’m an addict, extremely good at manipulation and lying – to myself and others. It turned out this was a complete delusion. The only one I was fooling was myself. I had started to believe my own lies, but other people could see through me and they had started to worry. I thought that I had hidden my secret very well. I would only drink alone, away from judgement and concern, slowly killing myself with alcohol and isolation. I saw this as the solution to my pain – it numbed me and momentarily calmed my obsessive thinking. For a short time there was peace.
The Cracks Begin to Show
Eventually my family began to worry. But they thought I would sort it out on my own – as I had always done. All my life I had been the rescuer, the problem solver, but now I needed rescuing and all those who loved me just didn’t know what to do. I knew I was hurting them but I had got to the stage where I just didn’t care.
“I had got to the stage where I just didn’t care”
Statement by Simon Mott founder of Hope Rehab Thailand
The people that are most important to you become unwilling passengers on a deadly journey with your drug of choice. My parents had to deal with sleepless nights worrying if their son was going to come home. My twin brother would send me a text every night saying you can beat this and that he loved me. My younger brother ran an ultra marathon with a busted knee with me to help me break the shackles of addiction. I didn’t see any of this at the time, that’s the power of this disease.
Finding Hope – I had to do something. I couldn’t deny the mess I was in any longer. It was then that I found Hope Rehab in Thailand. I had been to rehab in Australia three months before I found Hope in Thailand but it just did not compare. Also I wasn’t ready to admit I was powerless over Drugs and alcohol. I went there for my family and not for myself.
The majority of Australian clients come to us to escape crystal meth addiction. Our residents are usually people unable to get help back home. Australia appears to be struggling to provide adequate response to the ice epidemic, consequently demand is greater than the resources available to addicts. Individuals that want to escape addiction aren’t getting the level of support needed. Australia needs help with its crystal meth epidemic. At Hope Rehab we have pioneered a new treatment model that we call “recovery-coaching” based on what’s known as exposure therapy. We employ people in recovery to take clients out and about. They go together to restaurants, gyms, shopping, college, beaches and even sightseeing and so on. This helps to prepare them for a sober life, instead of keeping them locked up. The fusion of east meets west, mediation, yoga and therapeutic interventions like CBT/12 steps are globally accepted as the best approach to helping addicts with ice addiction. We provide high quality western methods and facilities for an affordable price. A one month stay at Hope rehab Thailand costs $7500 US dollars.
Find out more – www.hope-rehab-center-thailand.com
