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Prior to being admitted to Las Vegas Recovery Center's inpatient program, I had attended an inpatient program for adolescents. I was twenty years old at the time and more combative and blindly rebellious than ever. The atmosphere of kids my age who wanted nothing more than to act out helped flame negativity. I felt like the lines were drawn and it was us (the kids in treatment) versus them (the staff). Las Vegas Recovery Center juxtaposed this atmosphere of conflict. Having a broader age range consisting of people who know this may be their only chance at getting clean quelled the divide between staff and patient. Having a staff that mainly consisted of people in recovery allowed the gap to be bridged even further since for me it is much easy to relate to someone who has been in the same trenches as I was. I have learned in recovery that it is vital to surround oneself with people who work their program diligently and it is my opinion that there is no better group of people as inviting, knowledgeable about recovery, or dedicated to the process as the people I met at LVRC. Las Vegas Recovery Center also address more than the “garden variety addicts.” I fully credit their pain program for educating me on how to live a full life without any mood altering medications. I had a complete spinal fusion at fourteen. My back never felt the same and seemed to get progressively worse and worse. I learned there that the drugs I was taking did more harm than good and that there are alternatives that lower the pain that I feel while also allowing me to strengthen my back, opening up a world of physical activities which I am now excelling in.LVRC's pain program helped me go from the paradigm of a drugged up couch potato to a nationally ranked athlete. Finally, LVRC's education on the physiological aspects of addiction helped subdue a lot of the guilt and sense of shame that is inherent with discovering oneself is an addict. LVRC helped teach me that it is not because I am weak (something my addiction loves to tell me) or immoral (although my addiction has led me to immoral things) that I am a drug addict. Their tall and handsome Medical Director, Dr. Mel Pohl, helped illustrate that it was indeed a physiological disease. More importantly, he showed me that there is a treatment for this disease—the twelve steps, meetings, service, and fellowship.

—Michael L.