Evan
Before Skyland Trail, I felt completely hopeless and I was so low that I saw no way out and I honestly felt hopeless about Skyland. And after Skyland, I have so much hope for my life and my future. And I see so much possibilities for myself that I never thought were possible.
Before I entered treatment at Skyland, I was having a lot of issues with substance misuse. I was feeling like I really couldn’t continue on with my life. I was very hopeless and isolated from pretty much everyone and I didn’t see any way out at all. I decided I wanted to try treatment at Skyland Trail because it came recommended by so many people in my life including my outpatient therapist that I was seeing at the time who referred me there and I had a lot of support from my friends and family to try Skyland because they thought that Skyland could really help me.
At Skyland, I had a lot of somewhat unique reactions to things. I think I just ran into a lot of issues getting through the day with my behavior and my reactions to people. I always thought that eventually I would get in so much trouble that they would say “We can’t help you anymore, you need to go somewhere else.” But they never did that. They always showed me that they were still there to support me and get me through what I was doing so I could make progress and not continue to have those issues.
I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the art programming at Skyland Trail. I ended up trying every class, I think. and it’s turned into something that I do regularly in my daily life now. Being in Dual Diagnosis at Skyland means that you have a diagnosis of some mental health disorder and also you have a substance misuse problem. I was put in that program for misusing several substances. And although at the beginning I thought that I somehow actually didn’t need to be in it, they really supported me in helping me see that if I made progress in this way that I could really improve my life. And I did. The hardest part about treatment was how many peaks and valleys I went through. Especially in the beginning, they were so high and so low. It was really hard.
I think Skyland really changed me as a person and to me that means so much because I hardly recognize myself now from someone who was completely isolated and very unwilling to reach out and make connections. I am almost constantly reaching out to people and building my friendships and rebuilding relationships within my family. I also am just so much more able to just handle life and enjoy life and be present in it and not focusing on how low I feel.
Recovery and stability looks like for me today, being able to handle the small and big things that come up out of nowhere in life and and not have it send me into any kind of episode. In the future, I hope to build on the progress that I made in Skyland Trail and continue building my resilience that allows me to have so much joy and freedom in my life. The best way to help someone in your life who is struggling is to support them and help them find the treatment that they need and remind them that you’re going to be there for them. You’re going to help them get through it.