I would like to share our experience with Pacific Hills with you. At the age of 32, Jennifer was broken spiritually and in every other direction you can imagine. She was using alcohol and drugs to a point that when she left the house, we did not know if she was going to come home alive or get arrested. When I questioned her, she swore on everything that she was not using any drugs and she was very convincing but there was a part of me that knew she was not telling the truth. I have learned that addicts are the best liars in the world, and when you want to believe your loved one, it is even easier to get those lies believed. She was drinking, but I had no idea of how much alcohol she could consume in one evening and along with driving. She was truly living a double life and I did not know most of this until she was ready to go away and get help.
After her divorce, she did get very involved in prescription drugs and was taking 40 Percocet a day just to function normally along with many other prescriptions and alcohol. It was surely God’s intent for her to stay alive with what she was doing. She did eventually tell me about her pill use and I thought that was the end of her troubles. Little did I know that was just the beginning.
As parents, we tend to just want to think our children are going to be all right and we make excuses for them; I have come to realize that is where we, as parents, make the big mistakes. We just don’t want to see the truth, so we pretend all is well, but there is always that nagging little ache in our heart that tells us something is wrong, and speaking for myself, there were many things that I blamed myself for and guilt made me want to feel like I could ‘fix it’, but that was not happening; if anything, I made things worse.
I love my daughter more than anything in this world, but I was finally able to come to the reality that I am unable to help her. As I look back on her life, I can clearly see that she was destined for all these problems in her future. She became a hard core alcoholic and drug user and it got to the point that she was so unhappy, and her life became so unmanageable, she truly wanted to go away and get help. I did a lot of research to find a place that I felt was the best facility and Pacific Hills came highly recommended. I did research on many, many drug rehabilitation facilities across the country and you were the one place that offered everything.
I watched the video on your website and continue to watch it everyday. I know every word by heart and every word that is spoken is the absolute truth. We are not a family with money. My husband is retired from the Long Island Rail Road and we live on a fixed pension, but I can tell you, without any hesitation, that every penny we have spent has been more than worth it since there is no price on making our daughter become the happy woman she deserves to be. She is beautiful inside and out and does not have a bad bone in her body. The only one she hurts is herself.
Every time I talk to Jennifer, it is like a miracle. When she laughs, I know that joy is coming from her heart and not from alcohol and drugs. Starting with Nicole who did such a wonderful job preparing us for this journey; without her help, I don’t think we would have ever gotten her there so quickly. To every staff member involved in this program of miracles, our family thanks you from the bottom of our heart for the miracles you do there ‘one day at a time’. We will never find the words to thank all of you for taking a woman with such a broken spirit and turning her into a happy, productive and sober human being. We know that this is not a temporary fix but a program that has to be worked on for the rest of her life. I am never going to find the words to express how grateful I am to all of you.
God Bless you and everyone connected with Pacific Hills for all the miracles you do with such love and understanding. The fact that you are a dual diagnosis program has made the world of difference. I am not sure people realize how much depression is such a great factor in addictions. As you say in your video, a person can attend meeting upon meeting and work a 12-step program, but if the cause of the addiction is not addressed and corrected, all the meetings in the world will not help. That is what makes your program so successful. There is help for everyone who truly wants sobriety in his or her life. I only wish everyone who has a loved one with an addiction can somehow find their way to Pacific Hills. For the person who has finally hit their own personal rock bottom, Pacific Hills offers every tool for that person to recover but that person has to want it. I can say without a doubt. every word that is spoken in your video on your website is the absolute truth.
Thank you again for establishing a program of miracles that has given us back our daughter. I apologize for making this letter so long. I did not intend on writing a book but this program is such a gift, and we feel so blessed that we put our daughter into your care. I could just go on and on and still never say enough wonderful things about Pacific Hills and all of you who have worked so hard to create a program that brings life and hope back to people who have given up.â€
