Welcome to Michigan, Skywood Recovery!

Every year 23 million people suffer from addiction and mental health issues. Unfortunately, only 3 million of those people seek help. There are many reasons why people don't ask for help--stigma is probably the most common one--but when they finally do reach out, we have to have effective facilities to provide treatment for them. And we have to have enough beds.

Foundations Recovery Network (FRN), a leader in state-of-the-art treatment facilities for co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders, is working hard to help as many people as it can. The company recently opened its fifth location: Skywood Recovery in Augusta, Michigan. Located on the sprawling grounds of a former golf and conference resort, Skywood held its grand opening celebration on Thursday, April 28th, and my wife and I were thrilled to be able to attend.

As a lifelong Michigander, I'm excited to have Skywood setting up shop in my state. It's good to know that there will be another quality rehab option available, not only to people who live in Michigan, but to residents of the Midwest and beyond. I can tell you from personal experience that there's nothing more frustrating than trying to get a loved one into treatment and being told "There are no beds available." So it's nice to know that when Skywood is finished with their remodeling, they will have the capacity to house and treat 100 patients.

Augusta is a little village (population less than 1,000) that sits halfway between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. The beauty of the scenery surrounding it is pure Michigan, and Skywood's 300 tranquil acres provide an incredibly relaxing environment. Just being on campus makes you feel like you are one with nature and puts you at ease. All this natural beauty will be an integral part of the Skywood patient experience. In fact, Skywood is working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to return much of its land back to its original state, so it will become even more beautiful in the years to come.

As awesome as the woodlands around Skywood may be, the treatment delivered by the highly qualified staff is even better. Led by CEO Adam Marion and clinical director Lori Ryland, the people at Skywood treat addiction and mental health issues simultaneously using a patient-centered approach. That approach includes:

• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
• Holistic therapies (yoga, massage, acupuncture, art therapy, adventure therapy, equine therapy)

Good nutrition also plays a key role in recovery, and Skywood's executive chef and his staff create delicious, balanced meals that help patients' bodies start healing immediately. Better nutrition equals better physical health, which means more strength to do the work of recovery. (Note: If the patients' food is anything like the food my wife and I tasted at the grand opening--and I'm sure it will be--they are in for a treat!)

Skywood is an impressive treatment center, for sure. They offer all of the building blocks required for someone to establish a solid foundation for long-term, sustainable recovery.

My family's first experience with Foundations Recovery Network was almost five years ago when my son spent 38 days at Michael's House, the FRN rehab facility in Palm Springs, California. It's no secret that the treatment and care he received there was instrumental in him beating his addiction to heroin. The family program at Michael's House--which my wife, younger son, and I all attended--was invaluable, too, because addiction is a family disease and the whole family needs to work on recovery. (Skywood will also have a family program.)

Foundations Recovery Network truly cares about helping people who are struggling. Their evidence-based, integrated treatment for co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders works. I know, because I've witnessed it. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am that they now have a fabulous new treatment facility in my home state.

Welcome to Michigan, Skywood Recovery!

"Addiction and mental health are still highly misunderstood, so it's important that Skywood Recovery is a safe place where people can heal." --Adam Marion, Skywood CEO

Causes and Effect, 12/23/15: Lupus Foundation of America

The twenty-third post of my month-long stint as writer of the Causes and Effect: My Year of Giving Daily blog can be found over at Tumblr. Here's the link to today's post:

Lupus: A Mysterious Disease with No Known Causes or Cure

Today, the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) is the recipient of a $10.00 donation from my family. If you would like to make a contribution to the LFA, you can do so here:

The Lupus Foundation of America's donation page

Twenty-three down, eight to go.

Peace.

25 Years Smoke-Free

(Note: This blog post also appears on The Huffington Post's blog site as "Breaking the Cigarette Habit: 25 Years Smoke-Free.")


October 11, 1990.

That date--25 years ago today--will always be significant to me. Why?

That's the day I quit smoking for good.

I started smoking in 1975, around the age of 14, because I thought it was cool. My dad smoked. So did my brother. And I'm pretty sure my sisters did, too, although my memory of that is a little cloudy. But I definitely grew up around smokers, even though my mom hated cigarettes with a passion.

I remember very vividly the first time I tried smoking. I had stolen a cigarette from my brother--I think it was a Salem--and kept it hidden in a dresser drawer until I thought the opportunity was just right to venture outside and light it up.

A few days later, on a Saturday afternoon, I was ready to cross over into coolsville by finally attempting an activity I had been exposed to all my life.

I took that single menthol cigarette and a book of matches with me as I snuck out the back door and walked to the furthest corner of my backyard. I huddled against a telephone pole that was planted where two fences came together, put the cigarette in my mouth, struck a match, and lit up.

When I first inhaled and the minty, tar-filled smoke entered my lungs, I coughed. How could anybody want to do this, I thought to myself as I took another puff. But that puff wasn't as bad as the first one. And the next one was even better than the first two. Maybe I was getting the hang of it. Maybe I was actually going to become a smoker. How fucking cool!

My euphoria was short-lived, though. About midway through my first cigarette, I turned around and looked back at my house as I exhaled smoke from my freshly soiled lungs. To my surprise, there was my mom, standing in my bedroom, looking out the window. Right. At. Me.

I was devastated. I knew how much my mother despised smoking. And here she was, looking at her baby in the backyard, puffing away. I immediately threw the cigarette down on the ground and stomped on it to extinguish it.

Then I froze.

I didn't know what to do. There was no way in hell I wanted to go back in the house, so I just stood there, for a good hour or so, wondering what my mom was thinking and what she would say to me.

Twenty-five years later, I can reflect on that moment and laugh about it. But back then, it was the most terrified I had ever been in my life. Surprisingly, my mom didn't yell at me. She expressed her disappointment, lectured me a bit, then continued on with her Saturday afternoon house cleaning.

Fast forward to late 1989. I had smoked pretty much non-stop from the age of 14. There were some stints of being smoke-free along the way, because I had tried to quit on a few different occasions. One time I went several months without smoking, only to be sucked back into the habit by a new girlfriend who smoked. Apparently I thought that love was better--or at least easier--when both participants smelled and tasted like an ashtray. Wrong.

It took the birth of my first son in December of 1989 for me to once again start seriously considering giving up cigarettes for good. As months went by, I noticed my little boy watching me intently. No matter what I did, he watched. Babies are so observant, and much of what they learn they learn by watching their parents. Smoking was not something I wanted my son to pick up from me.

Unfortunately, wanting to quit smoking and actually quitting are two different things. Almost ten months after my son was born, I was still a slave to my Benson & Hedges Deluxe Ultra-Light Menthols.

But in early October of 1990, I came down with a nasty case of bronchitis and a sinus infection. I went to the doctor and he examined my nose and throat. "Do you smoke?" he asked (in a way that let me know he likely already knew the answer). When I told him I did, the next words out of his mouth were: "Quit. Not next week or next month. Today. NOW."

And that was it.

When I left the doctor's office, I went back to my office, went in the bathroom, took one last cigarette out of the pack I had, and smoked it. I flushed the rest of the cigarettes down the toilet. I was done.

I went back to my desk, pulled out a business card, and wrote on the back of it:

I put a piece of tape over what I had written so the ink wouldn't smear over time. Then I stuck the card in my wallet. Twenty-five years later, I still carry that card in my wallet.

Quitting smoking is right up there with the best things I've done in my lifetime. Smoking is dirty, dangerous, and expensive. The smoke-free me is healthier, will live longer, and has had a little more pocket change to spend during the last quarter of a century. (I think cigarettes were about $2.00 a pack back in 1990. If you figure an average of $4.00 per pack between then and today, giving up my pack-a-day habit has saved me around $36,500.00.)

To this day, I still get cravings for cigarettes. They don't come as often as they used to, but they do still come. Thankfully, I'm able to zap those cravings out of my mind almost as quickly as they show up.

It's been 9,132 days since I last touched a cigarette. And I don't plan on doing it ever again.

"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." --Mark Twain