Testimonials
PROMETA
Christa's Story
When I think about the overall cost of drug addiction in terms of the destruction of lives and relationships, not to mention the cost for an addict to maintain his habit, the PROMETA Treatment Program for us was priceless.
My long-term boyfriend, Chance, was dealt a bad hand in life. He was raised in a family of drug addicts and alcoholics, and was forced to grow up when he was really young to take care of his sick mother and little sister. He started drinking and using drugs when he was 10 years old, and continued to use into his adult life.
Chance was addicted to cocaine when I met him, but I had no idea because I had never been exposed to addicts and the accompanying lifestyle. When the truth of Chance’s cocaine addiction could no longer be hidden from me, our relationship had developed to a point where I simply couldn’t leave him. I would not give up hope that there was a way to help the man I loved.
After Chance had an especially heartbreaking binge, I researched the PROMETA Treatment Program on the Internet. After doing everything that I could possibly do to help Chance, I was willing to explore a different approach. We had tried several other treatment choices with no real success and each time there was a financial and emotional cost. Although choosing another treatment option was not easy, I knew deep down that if I didn’t learn what the PROMETA Treatment Program had to offer, I really couldn’t live with myself. The man I loved deserved another opportunity to save his life.
It sounds incredible, but after Chance’s first day of treatment in the PROMETA Treatment Program, he said that for the first time in a very long time, he felt like a normal person. During our time together, I could always tell when Chance was lying to me. I’m a very down-to-earth person, probably a little on the skeptical side, but I know that he wasn’t lying about what he was experiencing after treatment with the PROMETA Treatment Program. We had been through too much together, and what he felt, I felt.
Once he felt comfortable enough to share what he was experiencing with me, Chance told me that after his treatment with the PROMETA Treatment Program, he no longer woke up in the morning wondering where he was going to get cocaine; how he was going to pay for it; how he was going to trick me into thinking that he wasn’t doing anything; and how to manipulate getting out of our house to do all of those things.
On Chance’s first day of treatment, the medical portion of the PROMETA Treatment Program was administered by a physician with a nurse. The whole process involved more than the physician who administered the treatment. There were many people involved who helped Chance. Some helped him understand the financial aspects and some assisted us with attaining appropriate aftercare. We received the maximum support from an absolutely wonderful team.
The PROMETA Treatment Program wasn’t a cure, but afterwards his cravings for cocaine stopped. When I visited Chance many times at his aftercare facility, I noticed something very interesting about him compared to the other patients. Many of them were in the same situation as Chance, but they had not had the benefit of the PROMETA Treatment Program. There was a noticeable difference between Chance and the other patients who surrounded him. They were visibly battling their cravings, and were unable to concentrate on their behavioral and social changes. I had seen this battle so many times before with Chance, and nothing is on the mind of an addict but the thought of getting their next fix. I was so thankful that Chance and I had found the PROMETA Treatment Program.
We were very fortunate that the PROMETA Treatment Program came along at a time when we needed it so desperately. We took advantage of the opportunity, and after 35 years of his drug addiction hell, Chance and I are celebrating his sobriety after completing the program.
When I think about the overall cost of drug addiction in terms of the destruction of lives and relationships, not to mention the cost for an addict to maintain his habit, the PROMETA Treatment Program for us was priceless.
Christa
Cape Coral, FL
PROMETA
Chance's Story
Shortly after starting the PROMETA Treatment Program, I realized I wasn’t thinking about drugs. For once, I had no desire to use. I told Christa that it was the best I had felt in 35 years, and she burst into tears.
The majority of my life has been spent abusing drugs. Growing up, I had no one watching over me. My father was murdered when I was three, and my mother was bedridden battling breast cancer. My older brothers would try to steal her pain medication, and when I hid it from them they would beat me up. I had no role models. I started hanging out with the older teenagers who first introduced me to drugs at the age of 10.
By the age of 12, when my mother passed away, I was using any drug I could get my hands on - acid, cocaine, LSD, anything. By my mid-twenties, I was living anywhere I could and was heavily addicted to crack cocaine. Every day I woke up and thought about how to get drugs and how to get the money to buy them. I’d do any job, just as long as I had the money to support my habit. I’ve even spent up to $1,600 in one day on drugs.
That was my life for over 30 years.
Then, a few years ago, I met Christa. Christa showed me a life I didn’t know existed. I had never known anything beyond using drugs, so this was something special to me. When we first met, she didn’t know I was dependent on drugs, but it didn’t take long for her to figure out that I had a problem. Christa never gave up on me. She did her best to help me quit, but like most people addicted to drugs, the urge to use is too overwhelming. Over and over again I would try, and over and over I would fail. At that point I felt hopeless. I didn’t care if I lived or died. My addiction was in control of my life.
One day I left Christa at home to go on a crack binge. Christa moved my things out that same day and put them in storage. For two weeks I was homeless and sleeping under a bridge. All the guys in my crew were either dead or in jail. I had hit rock bottom. If I didn’t change, I was going to be next.
Finding PROMETA
Once again, Christa never gave up on me. While I was gone, she heard about a treatment program for substance dependence, called PROMETA®, on the news. She researched the treatment program and contacted our local PROMETA provider. She gave me an ultimatum - either try PROMETA, or she was gone for good. I chose PROMETA.
Shortly after starting the PROMETA Treatment Program, I realized I wasn’t thinking about drugs. For once, I had no desire to use. I told Christa that it was the best I had felt in 35 years, and she burst into tears. After I completed the PROMETA treatment, I entered myself into a rehab program, and was finally able to focus on the causes of my addiction.
My recovery is going great. I removed myself from the social circle I used drugs with and attend a 12-step program meeting about five times a week. The meetings are important to my recovery, and I believe I couldn’t have done it without PROMETA. Once my desire to use was curbed, I was open to change and ready to listen.
Christa and I are getting along better than I could have ever imagined. Christa says she can see the change in my eyes, and even in my walk. I see it too. I’m able to do simple tasks, like take care of yard work and things around the house. PROMETA has been a blessing for us. After 35 years of addiction, I feel like a new man.
Chance
PROMETA
Sabrina's Story
I want people to know about my experience because I know first-hand that even the smartest, most together people can get hooked on meth, and addiction is a disease that’s so difficult to recover from.
I was eight years old in 1992 when my family and I survived a tornado that destroyed our home in Minnesota. I remember my mother clinging to a door frame to keep us from being sucked into the tornado. She saved us, but I was hit by falling debris, which left me with permanent nerve damage in my left leg. After the tornado, I went through seven surgeries in five years. Because my legs were uneven lengths, I had constant and excruciating back pain.
As my physical wounds healed, the emotional scars did not.
I was diagnosed with PTSD, and by the time I was a teenager, I was using alcohol, marijuana and other drugs to try to feel better. I was 16 the first time I used crystal meth. By the time I was 18, I was smoking meth daily.
I went to five different drug treatment programs, including two in-patient centers. Every time, I either left the programs early or was kicked out. I just wasn’t willing or ready to work on getting - and staying - clean at that point. For me, breaking my meth addiction seemed impossible. I finished one of the programs, but I stayed clean for just two days afterwards. This was really discouraging. I couldn’t stop getting high.
By the time I was 17, I was a single mother. I stopped using meth while I was pregnant, but I started using again when my son was three months old. I didn’t take care of him when I was using. I was bouncing him back and forth from my place to his grandmother because I wanted to get high. Before I knew it, I was 20 years old, and had lost custody of my son. After he was taken away from me, for the first time I had a strong motivation to get clean.
Finding PROMETA
My mother stopped at nothing to find help for me. She got advice from public health officials, law enforcement authorities and self-help groups. She got involved in the Methamphetamine Education and Drug Awareness (MEADA) Coalition of Wright County, Minnesota. It wasn’t until she found information about a new treatment for methamphetamine, cocaine and alcohol addiction, called PROMETA®, that my journey towards sobriety began.
We found an addiction psychiatrist in Miami who provides the PROMETA® treatments at The Village South Addiction Treatment Center. My mother and I flew down to meet the doctor. After speaking with him and learning more about the treatment, I understood that my meth addiction was a disease that needed to be treated medically. It was an option that I had not considered before. My five previously failed rehabilitation attempts were painful lessons that showed me that I had to do something different if I wanted different results. I chose to be treated with PROMETA, and also used the counseling services offered by the treatment center. The process included three days of daily treatments, for about an hour each visit, and then a two-day round of treatment three weeks later.
Since being treated, I have returned home to St. Cloud, Minnesota. When I took the entrance exam for business school, I scored in the top 10%, and I’m now enrolled and taking classes. My mom is so happy to be helping me with school assignments now, rather than worrying whether I would ever recover from addiction.
I want people to know about my experience because I know first-hand that even the smartest, most together people can get hooked on meth, and addiction is a disease that’s so difficult to recover from. I found something that worked for me, and now I am able to participate in my son’s life and my mom’s life - and my own.
Sabrina
Cokato, MN
PROMETA
Terrence's Story
I participated in the PROMETA Treatment Program, and specifically remember becoming very calm, physically and mentally. This was really noticeable, as I was usually pretty scattered and jittery. I went back to work shortly after treatment, and continued the healing and recovery process.
I was raised in an alcoholic household where my father was a functioning alcoholic. We're a "Boston Irish" family, and alcohol was all over the neighborhood. I started drinking when I was twelve because it seemed a natural thing to do. I was a successful student and athlete, but drinking was a significant part of my life throughout high school.
Adulthood didn't change my habit, and drinking remained a daily activity. My drinking could be pretty dramatic. I would end up in the emergency room with nearly fatal blood alcohol levels. I suffered from blackouts and loss of all bodily functions. I would go for days not knowing where I was. I had a lot of denial about my drinking. I was convinced I didn't have a problem. In fact, I believed drinking alcohol on a daily basis was normal.
Even though I was working and was able to provide my family with a beautiful home, my drinking was negatively affecting my marriage. My wife tolerated my drinking early on, but by my late 30s she divorced me.
I didn't realize I really had a problem with alcohol until after my divorce. In an effort to reclaim my life, I tried three different hospital treatment programs with results ranging from six months to a year of sobriety. I'd also follow a routine of support meetings for periods of time. Then my life would get busy, and I would eventually give in to the forces that led me to drink. This sober-binging pattern continued for years.
Finding PROMETA
During my last binging episode, I checked into a motel room and did nothing but drink. There was no way I could work, which prompted my employer to intervene. He told me about a new treatment called PROMETA®, and was adamant about me trying it.
I participated in the PROMETA Treatment Program, and specifically remember becoming very calm, physically and mentally. This was really noticeable, as I was usually pretty scattered and jittery. I went back to work shortly after treatment, and continued the healing and recovery process.
Before being treated with PROMETA, anger, frustration, and stress were triggers for me to start drinking. I've identified these as something I always need to be conscious of. Even though I've been under these conditions since my treatment, my need to drink has not resurfaced. I can now face these situations without any fear.
I would never identify any one aspect of recovery as a "cure-all." The aftercare I've gotten since PROMETA has been important because of the disease's complexity. It's an ongoing process, and nothing is going to eliminate the necessity of continuing a lifestyle of support and understanding. Today my attitude and general sense of well being are considerably better. I'm feeling healthier - emotionally and mentally.
You can't go through life saying, "I can't help it. I was born this way." That's just an excuse to put off the inevitable. The best advice I can give for someone like me is to not wait another day to get help!
Terrence
PROMETA
Kevin's Story
I unequivocally recommend the PROMETA program. I don’t believe the PROMETA program is a cure for addiction, but it provided me with the necessary first step to jump starting the next phase of my recovery from my meth dependence.
In my late teens, I started hanging out at nightclubs like the legendary Studio 54 in New York City. For my first few years as a club kid/party boy, I drank a lot, but I did not use drugs. My nocturnal activities parlayed their way into a successful career as an entertainment journalist, but by the time I was in my early twenties, I had become equally successful at something else-snorting and smoking cocaine. From the first bump I snorted one Sunday morning at brunch at a prominent New York restaurant, I was hooked. Cocaine made me feel talented, successful, popular, and on top of the world; it took away my inhibitions, insecurities and fears. It made me feel normal. I thought I had found the magic pill that I’d been searching for all of my life.
Over the following few years, the club scene moved on, and so did I-into becoming a casualty of my environment, and a full-fledged cocaine addict. There was lots of cocaine around in those days; it seemed as if everyone was doing it. Even though I was snorting and smoking a couple of grams of cocaine per day, I managed to keep my life together. I eventually burned out on the scene in New York, packed up my life, and moved to Los Angeles. I thought a geographic change would quell my drug problem, but it didn’t. I was at a very high point in my career, serving in a pressure cooker position of running the west coast bureau for a high profile magazine. It was around this time that I was introduced to crystal methamphetamine.
If cocaine was my magic pill, then methamphetamine was the extra-strength version. It made me feel smarter, faster and stronger. It blurred the boundaries between reality and the fantasy celebrity world that I was covering as a journalist. For awhile, I was able to keep my professional life and my meth life separate, but my efforts were futile. Soon, my whole life was tied into getting loaded. I was luckier than most people because help was available to me, yet I continued to live a hopeless cycle of going into in- and out-patient treatment programs. My employers even paid for services to help me, but my detoxing from meth always hit a point, at day three, when my physiological cravings and anxiety forced me to leave the programs. The beast of addiction was stronger than me and I had no control over it once it was out of the cage.
There would be several more attempts to get clean on my own over the years, but none resembled a victory over drug dependence for me until about seven years ago. For five years, I kept "the beast" at bay through a combination of psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and attending 12-step recovery meetings. I accomplished many goals that I wanted to achieve in my life, including obtaining my post-graduate education, becoming an addiction therapist, working in a treatment center and having a private practice.
I was so busy helping everyone else, however, that I stopped going to meetings and counseling-the necessary work I needed to do for my own recovery. And "the beast" was always lurking in the background. When my relationship of five years ended, the pressure proved to be too great, and I collapsed under all of my personal and professional pressure, and relapsed. Using meth for the first time in five years was like inserting a biological key into the ignition of my addiction and putting the pedal to the metal. The grip of "the beast" was so strong that I knew I was not going to be able to stop until I either crashed and burned, or ran out of gas.
I learned about the PROMETA program from a friend six months before I chose to participate. I thought it sounded too good to be true, so I didn’t explore the program option immediately. My addiction progressed, and my life began spiraling downward in fast forward. I was using exorbitant amounts of meth. I was living in the purgatory of wanting to stop (because I knew I was about to lose everything), but unable to stop, because the biological cravings were just too strong. I was desperate. I agreed to try the PROMETA program. I didn’t believe that the PROMETA program would work for me, but I was desperate to give anything a chance.
After a couple of false starts, I finally made my way into the PROMETA Center® to begin treatment for my addiction to meth. From my experience as a therapist working with clients during the early stages of recovery, I had enough of a point of reference to know that I was not an easy case. I was malnourished, dehydrated, and had not slept more than a couple of hours during the previous week. I was irritated, anxious, depressed and angry because I thought I was going to have to go through the physical and emotional hell that I had previously experienced during the detox process from meth. Every step of the way, the staff at the PROMETA Center treated me with dignity, empathy and respect. The unconditional care and compassion I received at the PROMETA Center was something that I had never experienced at any of the other treatment centers I had experienced.
Up until the third day, on which I historically relapsed over and over, I had remained very skeptical. But on this day, after my third PROMETA program medical treatment, I experienced a shift that affected me physically, mentally and emotionally. It was as if my fog had lifted, and the horrible feeling that I believe had led me to relapse in the past, had been quieted to a whisper. After the PROMETA program I felt free from the physical grip of my addiction, and I felt able to handle the emotional aspects of my disease, which would not have otherwise been possible.
Life after the PROMETA program seems very promising. My energy, clarity and sense of purpose have returned. Instead of destroying myself, I am staying in balance by participating in 12-step programs, therapy, exercise and following the nutritional guidelines I learned while doing the PROMETA program. I have returned to working as a therapist, empowered by the experiences learned during my relapse and grateful for the renewed opportunity to make a difference not only in my life, but also in the lives of others. When friends or clients are suffering in the grips of their addiction, I unequivocally recommend the PROMETA program.
Kevin
Los Angeles, CA
PROMETA
Adrian's Story
When I chose the PROMETA Treatment Program, I knew that I could not beat my meth addiction alone. During my 10 years of meth addiction, I stopped using on my own only once for three weeks, but I always knew that I would use again. With the program, I noticed that my cravings were no longer noticeable and that I had the mental clarity to begin to understand the confusion in my life. It's an amazing feeling to start the recovery process without cravings getting in the way.
I grew up youngest of three kids, so I was spoiled a lot by my parents and my sister and brother. My family members are very successful individuals, so I always had amazing role models for guidance. In grade school, I was the class clown, and was a pretty mischievous kid. It was fairly normal behavior for a kid my age, until all changed for me in junior high school when I was introduced to drugs for the first time.
Marijuana was the first thing I tried when I was 12 years old. I smoked marijuana for two years, and jumped to LSD-a common drug at rave parties. When I was around 14, I did acid. After I tried acid, there was no looking back, and I used all of the hot club drugs-GHB, microdots, mushrooms and any hallucinogenic I could get my hands on.
By the time I was 17, I was responsible enough to live on my own with roommates. One afternoon, I stumbled upon them using crystal meth in our apartment. I wasn't really interested in trying meth because I had tried cocaine before, and I didn't like it. Cocaine and speed were never my thing because the come down was different. I eventually joined my friends in doing speed on a daily basis. I was able to still work and handle my business, using my favorite hallucinogenics on the weekends, and meth on a daily basis.
Shortly after I started using meth, my life started to unravel quickly. My disease masked everything. I was telling myself that everything was okay, and that I could keep using and hold myself together on the outside. I knew in my heart that it wasn't the truth. I moved out of the apartment with my roommates and moved back home to get away from the meth environment, but it didn't work. I was already hooked and the drug controlled me. The drug cravings and the pull of the social environment was stronger than my will to quit. I actually stayed away from my usual crowd for a few months, but started doing meth on my own.
Looking back, my parents didn't have a clue about my drug use all throughout school, so they probably thought that I was just a rebellious teen back then. But when I returned home addicted to meth, they started to notice. My whole persona changed and my perception of reality was warped. I was a total head case, and there was no way to hide my madness because I simply wasn't me anymore. My family attempted an intervention, but I escaped through a window, and never received the benefit of the gift that had been offered to me.
When my addiction was at its worst, my days and nights blurred, so my time perception was way off because I didn't sleep. I would normally go three to five days without sleep, but at my worst, I would stay up for two weeks and crash for a week. Near the end, the drugs weren't working for me, and it took double or triple the amount for me to get high. Using wasn't fun anymore because it cost more to get more drugs just to have a moderate high. I was always stressed out about how I was going to get my next fix what I had to steal to get it. I have been to jail several times during the years of my drug use, and I was never scared straight.
The one thing that kept me from being eternally lost to drug addiction was my fear of losing my family's trust and love. My sister read an article about the PROMETA Treatment Program, and showed it to my mom. My mom told me at the right time in my life when I was exhausted and wanted a change. I wanted a change, but my disease didn't want me to get help. It kept telling me that my family was the enemy and that drugs were my friends.
I seemed to be able to get a handle on my life for a few months when I started working at a new job, but I slowly started buying drugs here and there. I thought I was in control and that I could use drugs like a "gentleman." Who was I kidding? I wasn't in control, and I certainly wasn't a gentleman. I quit my job and adopted the routine of my addiction. Most people get up each day and go to work, but I would hit the streets, see my friends and score drugs. I had become a robot to the drugs.
I remember looking at my friends one day, and noticed that they were all older than me, and that they actually had real problems-problems that might explain why they were using drugs. I didn't have a reason to continue my behavior because, in my mind, I was never like them, and never wanted to become them. I knew that I was smarter than the person I had become. So, I chose to fight for my life, and agreed to do the PROMETA Treatment Program.
The PROMETA Treatment Program was my first attempt to save myself. When I walked into the PROMETA Center® I thought I knew what rehab was about from books I had read or movies that I had seen. I was scared that there would be two big guys waiting there for me to haul me off and take me away. But when I walked into the facility it was so non-threatening and unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. My sister and her husband came with me, and were able to ask questions. It was good for them to be there, and very calming for me to have them there. The PROMETA Center was extremely upscale and professional, but the people there are really caring and very down-to-earth. Right away, I knew that they were really there to help me and to put me at ease.
Life after the PROMETA Treatment Program is full of promise for me. Before the PROMETA Treatment Program, I could see a picture or a movie showing people using drugs, which would have triggered something in my brain to start my cravings. Now, I can see the same images, and I can't remember what it feels like to be high. Now, I have a clear mind to realize that I didn't have to sacrifice myself to get clean. I continue to participate in post-treatment support, and am now employed. My relationship with my girlfriend, of nearly three years, and my family are 100% better. Of all the people that I knew who were addicted to meth, I was the worst case.
Adrian
