The beauty of recovery: Detoxing and healing with compassion

August 27, 2021

Providence Health Team

This story was originally published in the Winter 2021 edition of Providence Health Matters.

[3 MIN READ]

The Chemical Dependency Program at Providence provides a range of services including 12-step groups, partial hospitalization, continuing care and intensive outpatient treatment.
Patients work with a care team that consists of doctors, nurses, case managers, and behavior techs.
The program provides patients with valuable educational tools and resources to move forward and live a healthy, substance-free life.

The Chemical Dependency Program at Providence Mission Hospital Laguna Beach is a priceless resource for recovery in Orange County. We offer a comprehensive range of services, including 12-step groups, partial hospitalization, continuing care and intensive outpatient treatment. We have walked side by side with thousands of patients in recovery, including this patient who speaks from the heart.

In a patient’s own words

Once again, I found myself at the emergency department at Providence Mission Hospital Laguna Beach. Down and out. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had been doing the detox-home-detox-home cycle for a while. I entered the fourth floor thinking that’s what I was going to do this time, too. I’m a familiar face up there—they know my name and I know theirs. It was the first time I had been anywhere since COVID-19 hit, but I just could not take the pain and suffering anymore, the incomprehensible demoralization that comes with all I had been doing.

My detox experience was different this time. After the first couple of days of withdrawal hell, I started to hear laughter. The group I was with was laughing. It was contagious. I was laughing, too, for the first time in a long, long time. I started really listening to Dr. Aung Thu, the counselors, the nurses, the case managers, and the behavior techs. (They are all angels.) I’d heard the same stuff before—the groups, the education—but this time was a little different.

All the counselors, therapists, nurses and Dr. Thu talked to me about what I was going to do differently this time. I decided to go to Providence Mission’s Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP). I was not even sure if I could last there. I was scared, honestly. Every day at PHP, we had support from therapists, counselors and case managers. People like Kim, Kimberly, Joe, Kelly and many others.

I learned a lot when I thought I knew it all, as I had already been through other programs. Providence Mission’s PHP covered a ton of education, as well as the mind-body-spirit connections. They made sure I had a therapist before I left, as well as follow-up appointments with my other doctors. I learned a lot of tools at Mission that I am still using today. I have been 97 days clean and sober. It has been over five years since I have been able to do that. Believe me, I do not take it for granted and rest on my laurels. This disease requires me to do something every day to keep it at bay.

Thank you to everyone at Providence Mission Hospital Laguna Beach detox and PHP. My family thanks you. Providence Mission saved my life.

Read the full story here.

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If you or someone you love is struggling with chemical dependency, you can find more information at providence.org/LBchemicaldependency or you can find a compassionate expert through our provider directory.