When an addict or alcoholic hits rock bottom, they know it. The air gets thicker, future looks bleaker, and all hope is lost. The family of a chronic relapser experiences much the same feelings. Much like an addict or alcoholic searches for the next high, family members and loved ones are addicted to “healing” the addict or alcoholic. Sleeping with phones next to them, needing to know where the addict is at all times, spending money on treatment, the list can go on and on. In the end, the family member or loved one ends up much like the addict themselves. Without hope, and feeling helpless.
Burning Tree Programs opened in 1999, and has not changed since. While counselors, techs, executive staff have come and gone, the vision has never changed. Treatment centers want to tell you that they can treat chronic relapse, but ultimately no one can truly break the cycle of chronic relapse like Burning Tree Programs continues to do. Long term recovery seems to be an impossible feat for the true chronic relapser. Time plus pain equals growth. Long term recovery and long term drug and alcohol treatment is not going to be comfortable all the time. Since 1999, Burning Tree is the only long term treatment option for the chronic relapser.
Articles continue to be written, complaints filed, and state of Texas called, yet Burning Tree Programs hasn’t changed. Burning Tree believes that long term recovery can be attained by attacking the roots of both the addict and the family dynamics. Family members and loved ones are not just going to be able to drop their loved one off at Burning Tree, and 8-12 months of inpatient treatment later they get back a healthy, recovered individual.
Burning Tree is going to work with family to create boundaries. They are going work with the family members to say “no” and be able to stand their ground. Burning Tree is going to hold a mirror up to the family, and allow for healing to start. Some people don’t want a mirror held up to them. It is often those individuals that don’t want to look at themselves that write articles, throw out baseless accusations, complain to the State, and are scared to do something different.
My son had been to 7 treatment centers, and by the time my husband and I dropped him off at Burning Tree, we had lost all hope that things would ever get back to normal. It wasn’t a week after dropping off our son, his counselor called and started asking questions about family history and family norms. As much as I thought that my son was the problem, I quickly came to the realization that it was not all my son’s actions and behaviors that were the cause of our family’s problems…….
Burning Tree counseled us as a family and as an individual. They pointed us in directions that can help us grow individually and as a family. They told us that while our son may not stay sober, he can come back to a healthier family that can embrace his recovery because we all got into recovery as well. I learned that I was not alone in my struggles as a mother of an addict. It has been over 5 years since we dropped our son off at Burning Tree.
He is still sober, and I am still utilizing the counseling and directions I got from Burning Tree. I’m able to be a resource for mothers and families struggling with addiction. I have spoken to church groups and school parent organizations about my struggles of being a mother of an addict and alcoholic. The fruits of my life continue to blossom. I will say that I never intended on changing my life, my family’s lives, or realized how our unhealthy family norms were affecting our son’s struggles. I just dropped my son off at Burning Tree so he wouldn’t die.
Burning Tree gives addicts and their families the luxury of time. The addict gets the time in a safe environment to get counseling, work the 12 Steps, and start living according to the principles laid out in recovery. Family members and loved ones also benefit from the luxury of time. They are separated from their loved one, allowed to grow and change as a family. The family and the addict enter into long term recovery together, and life beyond sobriety is something amazing to see and experience.
