My stay at Lakeview Health literally saved my life...

My stay at Lakeview Health literally saved my life. I could go on forever about the facility, from the accommodations, the state of the art gym, the pool, the great food and round-the-clock snacks, but that's not what makes this place special. What saved my life, and thousands of others, is the people.

The therapists truly care, and unlike many facilities are there, morning, noon and night, weekdays and weekends. When I discovered by accident that my job vanished eight days into treatment, when I was really vulnerable, therapists who weren't even assigned to me sought me out and made time to put it all in context. They put everything they had into making sure that we left there equipped for what was facing us in the real world, whether they were in group therapy or meeting with us 1:1. They worked as a team to make sure we got what we needed, and took the time to make sure it was what each patient needed, not a cookie cutter approach.

The nursing staff knew us all by name, knew our medications, and could tell by our faces how we were feeling and offer help. The cafeteria staff not only served us tasty, nutritious food that brought our abused bodies back to life, they knew us, what we liked for breakfast, and even which desserts we craved. The case managers made sure all our issues with work, disability and insurance were taken care of so we could focus on recovery, and the personal trainers made sure our bodies got what we needed to get better, not just what we wanted to do in the gym because it was what we always did. They knew us better than we knew ourselves.

But the heart and soul of the place are the BHAs, the people who made sure we went where we needed to go, be it a group session, or driving us to a specialty meeting offsite. These are the people you interacted with all day and all night if you needed someone, and they were tireless, many in recovery themselves, talking us through issues when they found us isolating or just hanging out. These were the hardest goodbyes when I left, and each sent me away to my renewed life with a hug and truly sincere wishes for the future. They knew us and cared.

And goodbye at Lakeview doesn't mean you're forgotten. The aftercare and alumni teams make sure your recovery continues, and check up via Facebook and the regular events they hold all over the country to keep us connected. I just recently went bowling with a bunch of people I knew and new friends I met that night when they came to South Florida. These are people who are invested in not just you getting clean, but keeping up with your recovery, which is the work of the rest of your life, which will be a long and happy one if you simply do what they teach you there, and the ever changing, but always solid community of staff, patients and the clinical team.