TESTIMONIALS
Stories of Hope through Recovery
When battling addiction, it can often seem like there is no hope in sight … Like the challenges to you and your family are too difficult to overcome… At PDAP, you will receive the support and education needed in order to realize that life can ALWAYS get better. Every day, you will see your peers and counselors living out healthy and sober lifestyles, individuals who like you, once struggled with drug and alcohol use. Read below for some of their inspiring stories and see how their lives changed after joining PDAP.
PDAP Parent
When my daughter and I came to PDAP almost six years ago, I was absolutely drained. I had no resources left to draw on; mentally, emotionally, physically, or spiritually. As I attended meetings and eventually scheduled sessions for both of us I was “informally” working the first four steps in my head. I could both see and feel the difference the program was making in all facets of my life; not just in my relationship with my daughter. After close to a year, I began formally working the steps with a sponsor and began experiencing some of the promises. My daughter learned life lessons and gained valuable tools through the group, her sponsors and working the steps. These will always be available to her to draw upon should she choose to do so.
PDAP Young Adult
I am 17 years old. I first stepped foot in PDAP 4 years ago. At that time I was cold-hearted, had no relationships with my family, and I shut out all of my emotions because I felt emotions were for weak-minded people. I had the mentality of “if people feared you, you really do have all of the power.” I truly believed that. At first I was hesitant about coming, but I did it to get my parents off of my back. A few weeks passed and I came to believe I really was and am an addict. After a while in PDAP I made true friends/family, I came to believe in my higher power, basically I felt like a new person…as if my life did a complete 180. I truly believe that PDAP saved my life because without PDAP I know I would be either in a cemetery or in a lock down facility.
PDAP Female, 16 years old
PDAP has helped me stay sober and find a sponsor. I would have not be able to get sober without PDAP. It has also helped me find friends that are sober and help me when I need advice or someone to tell me how it is without sugar-coating it. It has helped me become a better person all around. Of course, I’m not perfect but I am getting better with the help of PDAP and my friends.
PDAP Female, 17 years old
PDAP is my safe place. This is where I come to find solutions to my problems with the help of my counselors and peers. The counselors have always showed me unconditional love and support no matter what I have done or how I have acted. PDAP is where I meet sober friends and receive feed-back I may not want to hear at the moment but need, and eventually really helps me out in the long run. PDAP is where I grow and remain teachable. There is almost no other place in the world that I feel safer to come and to be than PDAP.
Lori, PDAP Older Group Parent
I learned of PDAP from a rehab facility my son was in. At that time, I was in crisis mode; I knew I needed help for my son when he got out; back into the world in which I believed got him in rehab. I had no idea what a life changing experience it would be for both us. I started going to the PDAP parent meetings before he was able to attend his peer meeting. I was sure I was going to learn how to fix him. To my surprise, with the help of staff and the other parents, I learned how to work on myself, which, in turn taught me to be there for my son in a healthy manner, how to walk the walk rather than talk the talk, mirror if you will, what I asked of him. My son started attending PDAP meetings about one month later. The tools PDAP has given me and my son are something I could have never imagined. There is always someone there to help me and/or him. Today my life is one I never knew of. I am a much better person for my son and others in my life due to all I got from my parent meetings and the same is true for him. I am a pdarent, my son is a pdaper, we live a life of recovery because that’s what we learned, recovery is a lifestyle and it works if ya work it! –
Emily PDAP Older Group Parent
I wish you could know what I know about PDAP – it’s hard to put deep feelings into words. I am grateful every day for PDAP and what it has done for us. When a teen or young adult is abusing substances of any kind, chaos is sure to follow and we were that family. We started our journey in PDAP when our daughter was a 9th grader. We have always felt comfortable in PDAP and we have learned a lot. We’ve been shown ways to stop the chaos in our house and to support our daughter in healthy ways. Counseling services have been available to us and this has been a godsend. We have received much needed help and guidance from licensed professionals who truly care about us and our daughter. I often tell others that PDAP is a program designed with us in mind. PDAP doesn’t tell us or our daughter what to do, they show us different, healthier, more positive ways to think, communicate and live our lives. –
John PDAP Older Group Parent
As I’m writing this, my son has 13 years of being clean and sober. It started with the younger group program and went on into Older Group when he was 18. He still works a program in 12-step groups. PDAP provided him with consistent and reliable ways to learn how to get and stay sober. For myself, I took heed of the instructions from my first meeting. I was told to “keep coming back” and I took that seriously. It was worth serious commitment because I understand that when the family is involved too, the kiddo is more likely to have sustained sobriety.
Then, because I kept coming back enough times and listened carefully in meetings I started to get tools to support my son in his path to sobriety. How does it work? What makes this happen? Well, it works with time and happens because of what the others in the program do for each other. The best explanation I have is to compare it to being lost. After wandering deep into the forest for miles a search plane sees us. But it cannot land to take us out. It drops as a compass and a map. We still have to walk out of the forest all of those miles. But we are no longer wandering. This time we get to walk a straight line, and the fastest way out.
Male, 16 year old PDAP
PDAP gives me a place to come and find fellowship and friends. It gives me a place to feel loved and accepted. PDAP helps keep me sober and sane. Every time I come here I feel safe like I can talk openly and not feel judged. Without PDAP I don’t think I would be sober right now. I consider PDAP to be part of my family. –
Male, 15 years old PDAP
It feels welcoming and a fun place to vent in a healthy way. I can also hear other’s stories and learn from them. –
Melinda PDAP Younger Group Parent
In the last weeks before our son was discharged from residential rehab, we started registering that life after in-patient would involve something called an Alternative Peer Group (APG). So, as we planned for our son to continue treatment with intensive outpatient group, we had to shop for an “APG.” At the time, I remember being confused by what seemed like an alphabet soup of new acronyms: IOP, APG, PDAP and more.
It made sense to me that, for my son to stay sober, he would need sober friends and activities that would include emphasis on both sobriety and fun. Finding the right APG was a critical step in his recovery and in restoring our family system to health.
The whole family was nervous as we went to our first PDAP meeting on a pass from residential treatment. Our son met other teens, some as new as he but some with significant sobriety under their belts. We met other parents, some in more distress than we but some with an enviable serenity and wisdom worth remembering. Did we like everything we heard? Of course not. Did we find nourishment for the journey? Resoundingly, yes.
Now PDAP is one of the main supports for our life as a family. Our son looks forward to the meetings and functions and his fellow PDAPers are his main group of friends. He got a sponsor early on with whom to work the PDAP steps. My husband and I decided it was time for us to get sponsors, too, so that we could each find support for our journey and keep our recovery paths separate from our son’s. I cannot imagine recovery without PDAP. –
Thank you for donating to PDAP for retreats!!
Retreats have done so much for me. I’m super grateful for the opportunities PDAP has given me. Without this program I wouldn’t be sober, graduated from High School, or be in college. And retreats are a huge reason why I’m sober today!. I went on my first retreat when I had about a month sober and that was a huge turning point for me. Thanks again!