Manning Regional Healthcare recently issued the following announcement.
Throughout his addiction, Damon Bromley couldn’t hold jobs to provide for himself and had to depend on his parents the entire time. But finally, in 2014, the day came when he was able to see his dependency for what it was.
“All the while, I had been thinking all these other things were the problem. Then one day I was driving to the liquor store. I didn’t want to go to the liquor store. I was crying as I was driving there. I finally realized it was the alcohol and drugs that were the problem,” Damon said.
Damon called the Recovery Center the next day for in-patient treatment and hasn’t looked back since. “They got me in within a week and it changed my life.”
The Recovery Center at Manning Regional Healthcare Center is dedicated to helping those, like Damon, who struggle with addiction. Throughout National Recovery Month, we will be sharing stories of recovery right here close to home. National Recovery Month is a national observance held every September to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, the emergence of a strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and community members across the nation who make recovery in all its forms possible.
Finding success in recovery
Damon accredits his success as a Recovery Center patient to the camaraderie and fun he and his fellow patients were allowed to have together. “They took us to the rec center, they took us bowling and those kinds of things. And it was the first time in over twenty years that I just had fun without drugs and alcohol. I wanted more of that and they exposed me to that.”
You are not alone: recovery in community
Many aspects of the recovery process are geared toward building a patient’s self-esteem, self-worth and self-efficacy, and their belief that they can do this. But keeping a patient’s road to recovery on track goes beyond them as an individual. “We support them in any way we can,” says Damon. “We try to introduce them to an outside recovery community. Support is so important with this disease. Most people cannot do this by themselves, they need the support of others.”
Working to build bridges between families, communities, and groups, the 2021 Recovery Month theme, Recovery is for Everyone, hopes to bring awareness and encouragement to remember that we are not in this alone. Sharing our personal accomplishments and struggles, reaching across barriers to support one another, and actively dismantling systems that harm our recovery neighbors are all commitments to strive for as we celebrate our diversity and seek to develop the deeper understanding, caring, and connection that nurtures recovery.
On the other side of recovery
In 2016, after two and a half years clean and sober, Damon started at MRHC’s Recovery Center as a Counselor Tech. After three years in that role, he was promoted to Counselor and now does individual addiction counseling, group therapy sessions, and outpatient counseling sessions.
Damon’s unique perspective as both a patient and counselor of the recovery program lends this key advice for overcoming addiction: “We can’t do it for you. We’re here to partner with the clients but the real change is going to have to come from them. They’re going to have to sustain this. This is a life-long disease, it’s a chronic and terminal illness for a lot of people.”
“There’s a momentum involved in addiction where you don’t know how to stop all these behaviors you’re doing,” Damon says. “The Recovery Center tries to give a new direction, and then you get to see people build this new momentum in a positive direction and watch them come alive. That’s the best part of my job. People come in here so beat down, and then two weeks later they’re glowing, they’re laughing, like pure joy. Not from ingesting some substance, but just from having fun with their peers. It’s just a beautiful and amazing thing to see.”
Damon reflects that he has to be careful not to let his job be his recovery. “But it adds to my recovery every day. It makes me realize I don’t want to start over again. I want to help people be successful and help them to believe in themselves.”
“During this year's National Recovery Month, remember that addiction isn’t something that just happens to people who have chosen a bad path in life. Addicts are our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, and they are sometimes even you and me," said Bradley Madsen, Recovery Center Counselor. “When we as helpers understand what we are up against, our job gets a little easier. Especially when we understand that we are not alone in this fight.”
If you or a loved one needs help, contact the Recovery Center at (712) 655-2300. You are not alone.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Manning Regional Healthcare
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