American Addiction Centers Reviews

There happened to be some people there that had been where I was before, to see where they came out and that they’re living their lives is a thing that I'll carry with me. I’m never alone in this situation and it’s always a battle that I’m willing to take on. I got brothers in arms to help along the way and they showed me that. Don’t worry about everybody else, worry about yourself. In a sense that there are people there that may not wanna be there, and they seemed to take up that time or it seemed to be an inconvenience or they seemed to be just a distraction, stay true to yourself. If it’s something that you want, keep working at it and just don’t give up.

The first eight days were a blur. I was withdrawing off and I just wanna put my head in the ground. They were very kind in helping the symptoms that I had. I felt like I was in good hands. I like the environment. Everybody’s at their lowest point of their life kind of thing and nobody judges because we’re all the same. I went through for quite a few days and just listening. After I got to feeling a little better, I got involved with talking about things. They kept me busy on my toes pretty much of the time and they were pretty nice and polite. I liked the counselor I had. He was pretty cool.

It was just at the end, and it was my fault. I happen to leave. I had to do something, and I left and I didn’t pay my apartment rent and the people evicted me while I was over in Tampa. So, I had to come back two days early just to be able to salvage all my belongings. But it all worked out. My belief is that either you're gonna do it or not, it’s a personal thing. I learned a lot of helpful things about coping mechanisms. I’m doing really good right now and going on 40 days sober. Overall, I’d recommend them.

The staff was fantastic but the management was going through some growing pains. They took my suitcase but didn't take any of my clothes. I coulda had paraphernalia on me and they didn't check any of that. Then, they just put me upstairs and then they started me on the weird thing, but they didn't give me an orientation or any information. I had to follow the people to know that I needed to go to classes. I just assumed I was in a hospital setting because I didn't know. Then, I found a guy who had been there three times and he had a booklet. I asked where he got it and he said it was supposed to be given to me when I checked in.

The American Addiction Centers website is old and there's no therapy dog. You're not really gonna see the psychiatrist or your psychiatrist but maybe once a week. It's alluding that you're gonna see the psychiatrist and that you can ask for them, but I asked and it took me two weeks to see one. My therapist was fantastic though. The doctor was fairly quick and didn't spend a whole lot of time with you, but the rest of the staff were super helpful.

The facility and the food were good, but there were too many people there that were just doing it to appease the courts. The program is like a revolving door. There's no A, B, C, and D like a classroom. You're mixed in with everybody. Some people have been there for 30 days and you're mixed into a class with them. A lot of what they're talking about has no relevance. Everybody's experience is different there. You've got people that were alcohol and a lot of the night classes and stuff were alcohol-related. All in all, it was a great experience. There are days when I cry from the pain that I still have, but I'm mentally happier. I'm back to being my meticulous self.

Before I left, they had it to where the cellphone use started at 4 o'clock instead of 8:00. 4 o'clock was a little bit better, but it should've been a little bit earlier because they fail to realize that a lot of us there still have lives outside of River Oaks. We have to make appointments and follow up, pay bills, do this while we're there. 8 o'clock at night, offices are closed. And a lot of people are in different time zones. So, if they wanted to talk to their children, 8 o'clock may not be their time.

Post-treatment for me was a little difficult. After I left, I had things set up on my own because of my location. They were more focused on stuff that was in Florida and down south. I live upper, so it was hard. Then, the IPOs wouldn't take me because I had private care insurance and I didn't wanna drop that in order to get into sober living. Also, a lot of the times my counselor was lazy, so I had to do my own feedback and research on myself to get to where I needed to be when I left River Oaks.

Overall, they could've had a little bit more outings for us to do. From the time that we eat dinner or dinner's over, there's nothing for us to do. There's no bingo, no games, nobody coming in to help the ladies do some nails, do something to keep your mind occupied 'cause you got that time from like 5 o'clock till lights go out at 10:00. They said you can't turn the TV on in the day room until a certain time. By the time you're getting your meds, it's time for them to turn the lights out. And they make you turn the lights out like you're a little kid. Nobody wants to go to bed at 10:00. The campus is really nice, but they lied. There's no pool, there are no horses. They had horse therapy presented in the brochure, but they didn't have that. So it's false advertisement. Nonetheless, I would go back today if I needed to. My therapist was very helpful the whole time I was there.

However, I had a good check-in experience. I came at night and it was closed, but I was greeted eventually by a nurse who did my intake for me and then checked me in. That was really nice. I had a good time with them. They were also really helpful and caring. The aesthetic was fine as well. The setting was like a hospital setting and I wouldn't say it's exactly ideal, but it's nicer than some places are. I liked the group therapist the best. The behavioral techs were cool too. I only met with my one-on-one therapies three times the entire time I was there. My case manager, I met with him three times. Some of them have a little different style, but they were doing their job of looking after us.

Also, two of their people were calling me, literally harassing me. They were calling me because I refused to get on a plan. I have congestive hearth failure. I had a disability hearing a couple of weeks from when he wanted me to go to another place, and he would not take no for an answer. The the name-calling was very invasive, and they took it a step further and called my daughter. I have given up on this company. Maybe other people have had good experiences, but it was not for me.

I made some friends while I was there. They were kinda peers. One was an engineer and another designed golf courses. We still stay in touch and we had no relapse issues since then. My issue was I had a hip replacement and they were giving me narcotics, and finally, I just had to say, “I can't handle this.” And so, I walked away from it, which was strange because you're not supposed to be able to do that. But then, when this pain started coming back in my other hip and my shoulder, and my back, I started self-medicating with alcohol because I wasn’t gonna do the narcotics again, and it got out of hand. My situation was a little unusual. There was nothing recreational about my use.

I wasn’t happy with the art class, but almost all of the staff at American Addiction Centers was excellent. When I was kinda finishing up, I was supposed to pick two people that influenced me the most, and I picked two of the staff because one kinda guided me, and the other one would tell me when I was full of crap, which I needed. The kitchen staff and the housekeeping staff were excellent as well. I couldn’t believe that in the morning I’d walk out of the room to go to a class and I’d come back and the room would be spotless.

The food was excellent, too. The kitchen staff that I interacted with was always friendly and helpful. And I noticed that there were people with special food needs, and they’d cater to them. There was vegetarian, and he always got his own vegetarian meal at mealtime. There was a person with a gluten issue and similar thing. So, they did everything they could to accommodate you. I have no complaints with them.

I had a problem with the medications that were prescribed to me after I was there. Then, they took away all the prescriptions that were given by a doctor. I didn’t go there with anything but I ended up taking five different things when I was there. They then put you on this medicine and from one nurse to another, they couldn’t get their story straight. I would ask them the milligram of the medicine and the plan on tapering it down because they would administer it but would not tell you how it was gonna work the next day. They went from one day of having me at 12 milligrams, to the next not seeing that I even took 12 milligrams the day before. I didn’t understand it and they were giving me the stuff.

I was only there for 10 days and so I needed to get the best out of it. So, I went and moved to a living room on the sofa at night. The reason why I slept on the sofa wasn’t because they told me to. It was because I was getting to a point of desperation of not being able to sleep good because they were waking me up at night. And, I noticed the frustration on the other person in the same room, and I didn’t want to disturb or make anything that would jeopardize our recovery. Everything else, nevertheless, was pretty good.

I didn’t interact in the first three days, so I didn’t get the full benefit of a program, but I am still sober -- I turn two months sober on the 13th. I don’t think I could have done it without going to their place. I have been in a recovery place before and it was a lot different. Based on the information part and on the professionalism, American Addiction Centers drew a line that needed to be drawn, making a difference between friendship and recovery, and that was great. They were outstanding in the areas of professionalism and courteousness.

She with the help of other staff convinced the lock down mental health facility's social worker to release my son to their care where they can watch him closely, giving him treatment and stop him from leaving the facility. She even promised me that they can hire additional security paid by us to prevent him from leaving. She assured me if he leaves since he is under the court order they will be able to call the police. Let me tell you my son left after 3 days staying in their facility, Laguna treatment hospital in Aliso Viejo, California and none of what they had promised happened.

Upon my call to the facility I was informed that he left and they won't be able to tell me anything more. Believe me I have experienced this many times in the past but at least this time their promises regarding involvement of the police and their awareness of the court order made me to believe them. I thought this promise can at least put my son in jail rather than street to overdose.

Once I was brought up on to the detox floor, I sat in the hallway for a while then got into my room. It was a little after dinner when we had gotten there, but I hadn’t eaten. I sat in my room thinking somebody was gonna come to tell me what to do. I sat there for quite a while and started to get upset. I didn’t know where anything was. Finally, I walked out to the front and asked the girl at the nurse’s station if somebody was gonna help me. I said that I was new there and asked what I was supposed to do. It was not good a good experience.

American Addiction Centers was understaffed and things were a little disorganized. We were supposed to have groups and meetings, but a lot of times, there would be nobody to do them. It would be canceled and we would just sit around. One night, in a group, there was some arguing going on with some of the staff and the residents. I was afraid somebody was gonna pick up a chair and throw it. I was scared and called my husband. While some of the staff were wonderful, others were not. But I won the day I left there. I was supposed to get clean and I got what I needed by being removed from my situation at home.

There was a number of very bad things that American Addiction Centers did. First of all, the medical director and the only doctor that I saw in my four weeks there was not properly certified with ASAM or ABAM, which is a licensing requirement in New Jersey. I found that out afterwards. She was so bad that I went and did research in what the licensing requirements are. I looked her up on the ASAM and the ABAM websites and when I put her name in there, it said there’s no doctor with this name who’s certified. I also know she’s not because when I looked at her website on the internet, she was listed as an internist.

She’s been an internist her whole life and she’s 64 years old. She somehow took this job for a short period of time. She’s gone already but she was serving as the medical director and she didn’t know what she was doing in terms of dual diagnosis and co-occurring disorders. She was totally out of her league. They even had her taking care of a hundred patients. She had no time in her schedule. One time I asked her if she could change my depression medications. I told her that while I was there, she had to change my depression medications and then monitor me because I really needed to change that. I couldn't stop drinking if I couldn't stop the depression. She said she was gonna do it. Then a week passed and when I met with her again, I asked her what she had done and she asked me what I was talking about. I reminded her and she said she had patients one after the other all day long and I couldn't expect her to do everything she tells every patient.

When I was researching the rest of the licensing requirements, I noted at least 10 other violations that they had while I was there in terms of the number of hours of instruction a day and the number of hours of therapy a week. The number of people in the group therapy sessions was supposed to be limited to 8 but they had at least 12 in every session that I was in. When I asked for my medical records afterwards, they didn’t have any either. They didn’t keep track of me. They sent me various papers that were not medical records.

Another requirement by licensing requirements is to maintain a treatment plan. But when I asked them for my treatment plan, what they sent me was a list of things that I was supposed to do for me. It was not things that they were supposed to do for me but things that I was supposed to achieve. I don’t think that’s a treatment plan. It should be their plan for treating me. Plus when I read the licensing requirements, one of the first paragraphs was saying that these licensing requirements were written in order to maintain a minimum standard of quality care for an addiction center to provide services to their patients. These are minimum standards and American Addiction Centers failed to meet 11 of the key standards.

American Addiction Centers didn't seem to have their act in order very well there. I ended up relapsing and I was so gung-ho when I went in there too. I really thought that I was gonna stop. I was committed. I did it on my own and I stayed sober the whole time I was in there. But they didn’t give me the tools to stay sober when I got out. They did not provide any other treatment for my co-occurring disorder, the depression, which is the reason I went there. American Addiction Centers advertise themselves as being at the leading edge of dealing with dual diagnosis and co-occurring disorders.

Their CEO, Michael Cartwright, is one of the leading advocates. He basically says you can’t treat alcoholism unless you treat the underlying thing, whatever it is, whether it’s depression or anxiety. I have a serious chronic depression issue and I told them if I was gonna kick this alcohol thing, I gotta kick this chronic depression. But the doctor had no clue. You reach this point in your life when you finally make a cry for help. You're reaching out and throwing yourself on their mercy. But then you don’t get the kind of care, even the minimum standard of care in a place like this. It bursts your bubble. It takes you away from where you’re really committed and you just need some help to where you’re right back to square one again. That’s just terrible.

This doctor started working there some time in 2019. The CEO of the company started working in March of 2019. There was a press release that they issued that he is the man who was gonna lead them into the future. But both of them are already gone. So even internally, I think they realized something was all screwed up that they lost the CEO. The medical director and he didn’t even last a year. Maybe they were replaced with qualified people. But certainly, during the period of time that the doctor was in charge, nobody was being treated. And that’s a sin. That’s unethical. The place was so outta control and they didn’t care about any of the licensing requirements because they were thinking, "Who the hell is gonna catch us? All we have is a bunch of addicts coming here. They’re not gonna be smart enough to raise any questions.”

Sunrise Treatment Center was bought by a public company, American Addiction Centers, about three years ago, and like most of the time when you have a big company buy a small company, they went in and cut all costs. There was not enough therapists, class time and teachers. They didn’t even hire a doctor who was qualified to be the medical director. So in my whole time there, I did not have a qualified medical director. I don’t even know how, ethically, this woman could hold herself out to be an addiction specialist.

The nurse practitioner there, Jeff, is the nicest guy I met in the whole place. He didn’t come out and say it but he basically told me that the place was outta control, that this doctor didn't know what the heck she was doing and that he felt sorry for me. He understood what I was going through. He tried everything he could and was bending over backwards. I kept going to him behind the doctor's back, trying to get some help in some way or another. It was just a waste.

Also, I just had a hip surgery and had my medicine with me since I still had to take it. They took it from me. My doctor said they should have destroyed it in front of me, but they didn’t. They just took it and I don’t know if they were supposed to do that or not. They also put me on some medication and I was shaking so bad, I could hardly fly home. But I got off of it as soon as I got home. I didn’t like American Addiction Centers very well.

American Addiction Centers had a few good staff, but the majority of them were a mess. There was a horrible woman there who nobody liked. Then, there was my counselor who was great and very nice. I went there for 30 days and that was not what I signed up for. I paid good money upfront when I was there but I didn’t get anything out of it. Then, they had the nerve to send me a bill for over 16 grand. I’m not gonna pay it again and I didn’t even respond to it. I'm very dissatisfied with American Addiction Centers.

The problem is they're understaffed for just about every position. Also, there were some issues when I left this last time. This last summer, I left a whole list of things they could do that were low-hanging fruit to make the place more handicapped-friendly. We had a lady there with only one leg and in a chair. She couldn't even get her chair into the bathroom. She was on the first floor. There were steps in every direction which could easily be solved with a temporary ramp that you can put around the corner and hang up, pull it out when you get somebody with a wheelchair. There was a lot of stuff. I gave it to the CEO and to the doctor there. I've worked at a social service agency, and my job was with facilities' safety and I was the fleet manager so I kinda knew what I was looking for. Otherwise, it was good.

The one complaint that I heard continuously from people there was that their brochures and the stuff their website tends to play up are the swimming pools and all of those things but they didn't have one. But I wasn't looking for that. I was looking for recovery. And on that basis, I thought the classes were good. When I was there last year, there was one staff member that was since been gone, that I thought was not quite up to it. He's very repetitive. And what he wrote had turned into stories about him. But he's no longer there, so that's water under the bridge.

And this last time I was there, there was quite a bit of contraband drugs getting onto the floor. The people were somehow managing to not take their medications they were given and then selling them to other people, or there's somebody who is getting them in from outside. Have a friend come up and drop a bag off behind a tree, that sort of thing, which is always a possibility. People were able to get a bunch of things. But I recommended the facility to other people. It has a very institutional feeling that makes it not very welcoming but the staff is good and the rooms were okay. The food is good, too.

There was a whole floor of people detoxing but the staff did not have a proper attitude and were unprofessional. It was stressful. Moreover, there were multiple days when there was literally nobody on the floor to monitor the detox patients. They were really confrontational too. They lost my phone and then tried telling me that I was lying to them. They told me that I must have had it on me and then they tried telling me that it was never logged in and that I never brought one in. The lady was very confrontational about it and I probably didn’t handle it very well, but I was detoxing.

They got a disrespectful little kid who keeps the room in order. We were supposed to be in our rooms, but I fell asleep on the couch out in the main living area. No one woke me up so I didn't get to take my morning meds. And it was my third day coming off the meds, so I was still withdrawing. When I woke up, one of the behavioral health technicians started laughing. I walked up to him and I asked if something was funny. He said that I was funny the way I fell asleep on the couch. Before I could even think about it, I slapped him and they pressed charges. You don’t let kids who are still trying to learn to deal with their emotions be in charge of a group of men that are literally withdrawn and going through a hard time.

They had also purposely taken me to the hospital under the Baker Act. I did nothing that would put me under the Baker Act in Florida, where the hospital could keep me for 72 hours if the doctor says so. The lady said that I needed to go to the hospital because I was acting crazy. As soon as I got there, the doctor said that I was good and should go home. I told him that I was not going home and that I'd be going to another rehab to get clean. I stayed in Tampa for a night and had to go get a hotel. I also had to go through the whole process to get a whole new room. Then I had to go fly out to Vegas to go to the rehab center there. We were allowed to have phones there.

The call center gets paid a commission when someone goes through the program. It makes sense why the guy was trying so hard to get me on to the next flight. Some places allow phones, but they tell everyone to bring their phones. Once I get to Vegas, I said I needed the clothes I left in Tampa. They said that there were no clothes in my closet. It was all missing. I lost hundreds of dollars, including the money I put on my account. I put $80 on my account and they never gave it back. They said that they would send me a check or refund it to my account, but they never did. It’s one of the worst places around.

The second facility was way more organized because it was the owner’s baby. It is the flagship and he treats that one a little differently. However, they didn't do anything but detox me. They were great at that, but as far as the program went, it was absolutely terrible. I came home and figured out how to succeed myself. Don’t go to American Addiction Centers.

I had three years of sobriety and I got that result from going to Ogden Regional. I had been there three times. But I figured I couldn't keep going to the same place. I decided to try something new so I sought out to these places because I thought my insurance would cover it. But my insurance didn’t really cover it as I thought. What was interesting too was that they promised me these things – that they were gonna take care of me and that they would pick me up at the airport. But they overrun their facility so much with so many patients that they can't really take care of them. Not all nurses were bad but the overall running of the hospitals was.

Everything is all nice in the beginning. They pick you up at the airport and go through the motions. Once I got there, they followed a procedure like when I had gone in to Ogden Regional. They take your stuff, show you your room and try to take care of you. But as far as far as providing for you and trying to help you with your detox, medication and care, American Addiction Centers dropped the ball. They just have too many people and they're understaffed. The center runs so largely that the staffs they're hiring are not truly involved with trying to help.

I felt like I was on my own. They were just giving me a bed while they charge me or my insurance. They were not helping me. It would have been easier for me to detox at home, sleep on the couch, watch TV and try to take care of myself than to rely on them. They also don’t let you make phone calls unless it's at a certain time that they determined. To try to get myself out of the New Jersey center, I went through about nine hours of counseling with two different counselors because all they do is constantly battle with you. They wanna keep you there so that they can make money, not to get you the treatment. In the end, they worked out a deal with me and gave me a ride back to the airport. They said they were gonna bill me and I said that was fine but that I was out of there. I had credit towards another plane ticket then I had to get my mom to pay for the rest of the portion of the plane ticket and I was able to get home.

But my experience in the Laguna location was the most terrifying I have ever had. I went there and they had the same procedures as the one in New Jersey. So they stick to their policies. But when I asked to leave, they said I can't. If I was court-ordered there or if I was a dug addict, I'd be concerned. But I'm just an alcoholic. There are different ways of treating different addictions. But they treated me like a prisoner. That one took an overnight stay to try to get me out of there. They still gave me that Uber ride from the airport to the hospital. When I tried to leave, they said they would get me a ride to the airport too. I sat in their lobby after I finally signed out everything and I was ready to check out. But they had a couple of drivers go by and I never ended up with those drivers. I ended up walking five miles to a payphone and called my mom. She paid for an Uber and an airline ticket to get me out of there.

I also took a solar panel charger for electronics that was worth over 100 dollars. I had a mini iPad from my AT&T phone service, which was another $400. But when I checked out, they disappeared. I called back and filed a complaint to Lost and Found but they said they didn't have records of who else ever had it. Every time I signed out of the two hospitals, they had my stuff on a checklist. On this one, they had my stuff on the checklist but they denied that my stuff was ever stolen. I'd never heard back from them at all after that either.

I had no positivity and I didn't have a will for trying but they provided everything, tool-wise and all that, that you need to move on from that point forward. They also provided aftercare. They were absolutely wonderful and great. I really loved it. American Addiction Centers was one of the best places I’ve ever been, and I have been to multiple places. Laguna Treatment Center was where I had gone and that’s the one that was through American Addiction Centers. They were just top-notch.

American Addiction Centers can’t pick the perfect clientele but they should be able to separate them. They have facilities that they could split the sides because some of those guys belong to jail facilities rather than the rehab facility. They’ve got a good facility and I would recommend them over dealing with those people in the Malibu Beach and seriously wanna get off medication.

I told the counseling staff that my partner was most likely gonna pass that night and I needed to keep my phone. They talked amongst themselves and decided that I was not keeping my phone, so I did not give it back. I told them it was my personal property and I was keeping my phone but they refused to let me keep it when my partner was dying, and he did die that night. So, I kept my phone the entire rest of the time because I not happy with the situation and I needed it to talk to family members.

Before my partner passed, a young girl who was about 21 years old was in there. The fire alarm went off at five in the morning. One of the clients pulled it, so we all had to go out front. I was already awake and I went outside and the girl passed out. So, they took her to the ER. I came in and saw her sitting in a wheelchair. I told her she passed out and asked what was going on, She said that she felt like she had an elephant on her chest. The echo tech that was there told her she had a blood clot in her heart, which she was not allowed to tell her in the first place. I asked her to describe the procedure that they actually did to her. She describe an echo and an EKG so, I know what she was saying was correct, because she had no idea what it was. She didn't even know that it was dangerous.

She was sitting in front of the doctor's office telling me this so when it was her turn to go in, I asked her if I could speak on her behalf and she said yes because she was scared, in pain and in a wheelchair. So, I walked in with her and said that mostly likely, what she was dealing with was a pulmonary embolism and it could kill her. The doctor tried to scoot around what I was saying because I'm just a drunk and I'm in there or whatever they think I am. So, I probably got disregarded by him. I talked to the girl later and she was up and walking around. I could tell she was pale and I tried to advocate to a counselor that told us to advocate for the other clients there but she was rude to me and the person who told me to advocate walked away from me. I went back to the doctor's room by myself and he said he ordered a vascular test on her, which wasn't gonna do anything.

I was worried sick about this girl and the facility was telling her parents that she was lying about everything, and she didn't go to the hospital. The girl was crying and trying to leave there because she was sick as hell and she was getting ready to get on a plane. Her parents ended up believing her finally and let her leave. Her sister came and picked her up, and supposedly, they were gonna go to the cardiologist.

Another girl was on detox and she has detoxed multiple times before. She was completely normal when she came in then she started having seizures, and the medical staff was not doing anything about it. They kept her on the same medication when she needed to be on a different one. Eventually, she could hardly move and I am convinced that poor girl had multiple strokes while she was in there because she was given the improper medication. Another girl was throwing up all night long and they would not help her. They told her not to throw up in the nurse's trash can and she needed to go to her room to throw up.

I went to the Granbury, Texas location and I stayed through my partner's test to try to get better but I couldn't stay there because of the way that the staff members were. I was stuttering and having a hard time forming sentences. My brain wasn't connecting with my mouth and they weren't giving me the proper medication. I kept telling them this and nobody was doing anything. The only time they wanted to do something was after I told them I was gonna leave. The clients were taking care of each other because the staff wasn't. I got my eyes rolled at and I overheard two nurses saying that I was drug-seeking, when all I wanted was to feel normal. So, I went to the head nurse and I told her exactly what happened. I have never in my life experienced such neglectful staff members. There were a couple who were trying to do the job just best of their ability but there were others that were not and didn’t care.

The techs agreed with me on multiple things that I have said and I had my therapist apologize to me. When I told her about what was going on, she put her head down and she agreed with me about the staff. She couldn't even look at me after that because it was that crazy. Every day there was a code blue. There were too many of us and too little of them. Everybody was being neglected. I ended up relocating. I talked to one of the doctors that I actually like. She got on the phone in the room with me on the day that I left and said that we needed to do something about this now. She was one of the good ones and when my partner passed, she hugged me like she meant it. No one else in that place did. I was a person to her and I wasn't just a druggie or drunk.

It would be a good idea for American Addiction Centers in their intake facilities to have some of their peer leaders to be present when someone first arrives. The staff is very clinical and during the whole intake process, you’re just sitting there signing paper after paper after paper electronically without having the opportunity to read it, or understand it, or comprehend it. It was too intense, given the circumstances. I didn’t come there intoxicated, but there were people that were very intoxicated upon my arrival. I can’t imagine what it was like for them. It was almost like shock treatment as far as the initial environment with the intake.

I moved pretty quickly through the process. It was an emphasis on being in detox, which I had already done. So there was no fluidity between the facility that I’ve been before and what they were trying to do, which initially was more about money than patient care. But I appreciate the treatment, and I learned a lot there, mainly because of the staff. They have very excellent, sharing staff, but the corporation and their emphasis on propertizing treatment is despicable.

A lot of the practices are unethical and borderline illegal with the way they pushed pharmaceuticals to some of those young folks that come in there. They put everybody on **. But I refused to take any pharmaceuticals when I was there. Even though I haven’t been there in a while, I’ve always considered filing some sort of complaint or grievance with the Texas Board of Health, or whatever governs that facility. The treatment, and especially chemical dependency or substance abuse, shouldn’t be driven by a profit margin. It should be driven by taking care of people and making sure that they’re okay when they leave.

I drank a whole bottle of Chardonnay in less than 10 minutes. And when I came back, they wanted to search me, and I had some of my anxiety medication quarantined on me that I’m prescribed. I was being selfish, and I didn’t want someone to take it because if they took it, I knew they would just destroy it. So I was like, ”I’m just gonna take some,” and I ended up overdosing and like getting kicked out. So I feel kind of disappointed in myself. I don’t think it should be a drug because I don’t abuse it, but they say it is. If some bring these drugs or something to detox or rehab, they obviously need a lot more help. And to pick somebody out like that makes me feel very sad. Those are the people that need this the most and they’re like giving up on them. They gave up on me like twice, and I just give up on myself.

American Addiction Centers sent me to Recovery First, a detox and rehab center. But before, it’s used to be called Recovery Place and that was the first rehab I ever went to in my life. When I was 18, I was court-ordered by my parents. They were really nice. I was court-ordered to the 30-day treatment center. But I stayed and did the halfway house program, and I had clean friends which I wasn’t used to having. And then all of a sudden, my roommate said I was throwing up in the bathroom after I eat. And there was no way she could’ve known. She later on apologized. But the center wanted to send me off to an eating disorder program. And I told them I didn’t need it and that I wasn't going. So they kicked me out on the streets of Florida with two big backpacks full of my stuff, which I don’t have anymore. I just kept stuffing it up at different places because it was too heavy to carry.

I went back out to the streets with no after-care. And it’s no excuse. I could’ve went to meetings. But I had a fall and I reached to Dr. **. And then American Addiction Centers contacted me back. They got me a plane ticket to come down to Florida. I got on the plane and came down here, and then my insurance wasn’t accepted here. That also set me off. I wish it would’ve been different.

American Addiction Centers didn’t equip me with anything. After they saw that I came down there and my insurance wasn’t accepted, they gave me a scholarship. There was a guy that was with me in New Jersey and he came down to the program, and because I knew him and I was always around him, he got high and I was implicated with that. They kicked me out and him, too. I had nothing to do with that. So I was saying to myself, “Maybe they kicked me out because they gave me a scholarship and they didn’t want to continue to give me a scholarship.” So I went back out to the streets again, and another program took me up, Beachcomber, and they built me up because I was broken. I’m on IOP, and I’m doing great now. I’m in a sober house here.

The main director also does a lot of the addiction portion of the sessions, and I lost out on that one. The other therapists do the therapy part and when I first went there, I was told that I would get to meet with the therapist for one hour a week. However, every week when I would get to meet with a therapist, it would be 10 to 15 minutes. I think part of the reason was because the director was splitting up with the other two therapists to meet with us and since she was out, the therapists had to take on her load of people. I was a self-pay because Recovery First did not accept my insurance, so I spent a lot of money out-of-pocket. If they are telling me that I’m gonna get one hour of therapy a week, I would expect it.

Another thing is that I filled out a packet and I should have received a copy. When I filled it out, I was very clear that I was self-pay. I did not indicate any insurance company because I have a different health insurance now from last year. I gave them my credit card and I signed off an authorization that my credit card could be billed every week. Still, they billed my old insurance, AvMed, and I got a bill from AvMed. It’s a huge problem because it’s over $1,000 I owe. Other than that, I had a positive experience. The therapists were wonderful and informative. I’m also going on three months and so far, I haven’t relapsed, so that’s a plus. I got something out of my experience, so I’m grateful for that.

I have spoken to them multiple times on this. I have multiple emails between me and my case manager at the VA in New Orleans about these differences between what they said we were gonna get. There used to be a pool at the residential and there is one at PHP, but the VA doesn’t cover PHP. The website says that there’s a serenity chair. There is one and it is in the detox location’s group room which you are not allowed to enter unless there’s a group. It said there was a full gym. That gym wasn’t up and working for two weeks until after I got there.

How are they false advertising all of these amenities? There was no WiFi at the residential. There was a network that said AAC Guest, but because everybody in the facility, like the techs, were using it, we weren’t allowed to use it. Because I’m tech minded, what I ended up doing is I took on the responsibility to be the editor-in-chief of the newsletter in order to gain access to the main computer, pinging the router and get the password. Even though I had the password, I was in a house which is the top and furthest out from the office. I couldn’t even pick up service there because the place is built like a damn bunker.

I’ve had a balance of $100 and something in limbo. It was supposed to go back on my mom’s card, but they’re still holding it. It probably went towards my plane ticket, but they need to tell my mom something. They were taking money out of people’s personal accounts to apply to their RX accounts, leaving them without cigarettes. And we had a bunch of pissed off addicts up in there. We had three people leave for that very reason.

Ryan and I halted all flow from New Orleans in Veterans to this place. If I didn’t have Ryan to hold me back the whole time I was there, I don’t know if I would’ve made it. He and I stood side by side and kept everything five by five. We didn’t get paid outings for about a month until Ryan jumped in, took over his peer leader and said, “Look, this is what we were promised.” Then it started being, “Oh, we’ll go to the beach and we’ll buy for everybody, but y’all have to cook it.” Three times I did the barbecue as a cookout. One time, it was frozen hotdogs and hamburgers. We didn’t even get buns, we got sliced bread to put it on.

But the group facilitators were amazing. Steve is recovering addict and he knows the struggles. Vanessa has a family around her that are all recovering addicts, and she’s extremely knowledgeable. As for the staff, I’ve got a list of the ones that are awesome, the ones that do the bare minimum, do their job, but at least are consistent, and the ones that are terrible. They do nothing but sit around and play on their phones and eat fried chicken.

Tess is infuriating because she uses the Socratic method of therapy. She will keep asking questions to box you into a corner so small until you think your own way out, which I appreciate, and it helps. She does her job well. It's infuriating but it's logical. I totally understand it because I read the principles of psychology at age 12. I understand that it’s the Socratic method, but Socrates was the gadfly of Athens ‘cause he was just so infuriating. He assumed you know nothing and would ask you questions on the most basic of things but it was to box you into a corner. He gets you to realize your own fallacy.

Danny is more hands on. He has a tactical approach to it where he identifies the problem and then attacks that problem until you realize that it’s pointless to worry about. So both of the therapists have their own style which is fantastic. Most of the people that I was there with preferred Danny’s style just because of the way he does it.

Mary Lisa and Tess were very professional but it seemed like everything I said to them was approached a little too professionally. They were disconnected like they had no investment in it. It was just like I’m sitting here raising valid points and they’re just, “Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.” There wasn’t a conversation there. There was just me throwing all of this information out and not really too much was ever done about it.

When I first got there though and I was moving into residential, one of the techs had just gotten fired. There was an incident while I was there on Christmas. With all the drama stirred up, this tech that had gotten fired. I guess she stirred up a bunch of stuff with the clients. She was telling some people with kids that they didn't love their kids. So that was a little hectic. But that doesn't reflect AAC as a whole. It reflects her.

But within the first two days, a ton of designer stuff and some of my personal properties stored with the techs in safekeeping went missing. The only way that it could've gone missing was through the access of a tech. A $200 perfume was stolen and it had disappeared right when all this happened with this tech and that was the last night that she ever came. I tried to file in for a grievance and a complaint form for it. I would never put any of the techs that are still there accountable but nothing was ever done about it either. I was still disappointed that something was taken like that. I had to continuously file the complaint. Then finally, clinical came back from higher-ups, and I guess they just said that I never had a perfume. So that was a little bothersome. That was the only thing that I wasn't so fond of. But that doesn't even reflect the good times that I had in treatment. So I weighed the good with the bad, and that doesn't even touch the good.

With the way the clinical is set up with the AAC, it definitely keeps you busy. But sometimes, it can be repetitive. Still, the experience was really nice. In a lot of rehabs, you don't have your phone and this and that. But with AAC, you still have that little bit of freedom where you can still have that self-care. You can go to a Walmart, pick up your food and cook it at night. So you still have that sense of responsibility and I enjoyed that.

I had tons of interaction the first few days when I was hurting and so, that was disruptive. It all seemed unnecessary to be put through all of that while I was trying to get steady. They were pushing me to get to classes in those first few days when they had me on medication that was helping me to withdraw and when I told them that I needed to sleep because of the withdrawal medicine, they just reduced my medication without consulting me and ended up putting me back into serious withdrawal.

The treatment center I went to back in ’85 didn’t have as many people and so, we had two classes in the morning, a couple in the afternoons and then, we went to AA meetings. Here, they had us making seven classes a day and the class was really large. We weren’t walking out of that class with anything. I’ve done a lot of step studies and stuff over the years and maybe someone who has never been sober get more out of it. There were several people back in there that had already gone through and they were drunk within days to a couple of weeks after they left. A part of that is due to the fact that there were no real AA meetings. They have some people come in in the afternoon every day and it wasn’t an AA meeting. They would just preach to us out of the first part of the book, like the doctor’s opinion. They all come from groups and they all were preaching from the same theory. We didn't get to experience AA in there.

Just from being sober for 28 years and as someone that made meetings every day, sometimes several times a day, I kinda have an idea of what people need and this just wasn’t hitting it in any area. They also said they were efficient and effective. They had two pools and a sauna and workouts but this stuff was not inclusive in any kind of class time. They kept our days full of classes that offered little to nothing and then exercising or an hour to enjoy yourself, swimming or something, weren’t even available. You had to do those things on your off-time, and there wasn't any off-time unless you want to get up at 5:00 in the morning.

There were a few issues that I had problems with and they started dealing with some of them right away. Within a week or so, things started to improve. They made a conscious effort to improve things. But they don't do dishes overnight there so in the morning, we were eating off a foam again. They should hire somebody at minimum wage to wash dishes at night. But in the long run, everything was very good there. The staff was great and so was their approach. I've been to other rehabs. I've been to what's known as the rehab of rehabs, Hazelden, and their approach there was a little different. I really like the approach that they did there at American Addiction Centers in Dallas. I learned a lot. Hopefully, this is the last time I go to one.

I'm a complicated case 'cause I'm an atheist. Requiring a god to get better is demonstrably false in many circumstances. I understand the literature and how many people benefit from this and I know that American Addiction Centers are trying to help more as opposed to the few, but if they could please incorporate smart recovery and some other secular ideology into this program, they'd be able to benefit others.

It was also really easy to sneak things in and out of the facility and it made me uncomfortable. When some people get a visit, the staff wouldn't check baby bags and so there were some people who got high. The staff knew about that, but they didn't wanna deal with it right then and there and put it all off. They took notice if you’re late for class, but the very serious matters, they didn't. Also, I'm from Kentucky and I didn't get visits. When you’re not getting visits while the other ones are taking advantage of it, it's just rude. Then, my discharge plan got put off until the very end. I've already left and I'm doing really well now.

But AAC could make some more sessions and work on having some recreation time then have it monitored. They have a gym, ping pong, and shuffleboard, but no one ever got to use them because no one had enough time in the little breaks to do those stuff. The group did almost everything as a whole, except for the counseling, and if they made the breaks in between the lectures and sessions shorter, it would free up 45 minutes and people can have a little bit of free time to use the gym. I know people who were there for the whole month and they never got to use the gym because the time they were supposed to use at the gym was also the time they could use the phone, and people wanted to be able to call their loved ones and tell them they were okay.

However, AAC is mismanaged. It was a mess even for me to get a letter out to my employer. Usually, you sit down with your counselor. They have a template that they use and they type the names in, then they send it. You sign a release and it takes eight minutes. At AAC, they told me it was gonna take nine days to get a letter out to my employer and I've never heard of that in my life. I shouldn't be stressing about that while I am at rehab. They told me that it had to go through their corporate office in Tennessee or Georgia. At that point, we had our cellphone, so I just contacted my employer and let them know what was going on.

The staff and the groups were good. I could talk to them. From my experience, they have the self-advocates, so I always do that and things get done, but everyone is underpaid and overworked. They had two people doing discharge planning for a whole bunch of people and it was crazy. There should also be eight people writing the letters, but there was just one that time and they were billing my insurance company the same. They were really understaffed and it was frustrating. There was a woman who came in on prescription medication and she was trying to get off alcohol, but they wouldn't take her off the prescription medication because she had been on it for about a decade. And on her discharge planning, they weren’t getting her set up with a prescription medication doctor outside. That was scary.

Taking attendance was so ridiculous. They took attendance every two minutes and I've never seen that either. It was for legal purposes, but there was a better way to go about it. I had a counselor there and he was very nice. I am gay and I am totally comfortable with myself, but he sat me down and said, "It's okay that you're gay. We're all sinners. Sinners sin." It was so weird and really awkward. If I wasn’t leaving, I would've been totally uncomfortable after that and I probably would've requested a change of counselor if I were to speak with him about other things. Nonetheless, I am clean today.

I was not messed up at that time. That was the 15th day and I told them that they weren't helping me. I wasn't getting the help that I needed. I already had two procedures because I wasn't tapered off the drug correctly. I've been taking medication for seven years and they expected me to just come in and be fine, but that was not okay with my medication. They would not work with me on my medicine. They gave me and my roommate food poisoning as well from their food. We found bones in our meals and it wasn't a meal that was supposed to have bones in it. They were beef chips and you never get beef with bones. It was a really bad experience and I did not like River Oaks one bit. I left American Addiction Centers and I am not with them anymore.

I was taking the experience very seriously, jotting down a lot of notes, and trying to absorb as much information as I could. I learned a lot there, from the staff and some other patients as well. I learned about addictive behaviors and coping skills. As far as the suggestions on follow-up programs, I took that advice and I'm doing an outpatient program right now and going on meetings. I was definitely glad that I got out of my comfort zone and looked to this program for help. But if one experience could be better, it would be that I had certain issues that I had to resolve with my job and certain paperwork that I had to fill out, and these took longer than they could have. But other than that, everything else was great. Overall, my experience with American Addiction Centers was very positive, insightful and helpful.

Some of the staff were strictly by the book and still easy to get along with. Some of them are more lenient and not completely by the book and friendly, but there were also some who were the same way but you can’t be around them. There were different types of staff but it didn’t affect my treatment. I was there for me and I was determined to get what I could get out of the program. Before I went there, the staff told me that they would put me on some maintenance and see how I would do on that. If I was gonna stay on it, they would keep me on it and if I didn’t want it, they would take it off and it was okay with me. When I got there, they told me that they would see if they were gonna put me on medication or not. I had to threaten them that I was gonna leave if they didn’t start me on it.

Then, they lied to me again to get me to go there. They told me that I would have my phone the entire time that I was there, which was a play on words, because I got there, and they took my phone. They told me that I could get my phone back after detox. I got out of detox and figured out that you don't get your phone all the time. They would give it to you from 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning and then, you'll get it from 8:00 to 10:00 at night. So, there were a lot of downtime and boring time. A lot of times sitting there and I was just ready to leave. The guys get out of group between 3:15 and 3:30 every day and the girls have an extra group from 3:30 to 4:30. So, from 3:30 to 5:30, the boys were just sitting there.

At 5:30, we eat. It takes 10 minutes to eat, so 5:40 to 6:30, you're sitting there doing nothing. Then at 6:30, you have the option to go to an AA or an NA-based meeting. You get out of there at 7:30 and you have to wait 30 more minutes to get your phone. You don't have to go to the meetings and AA and NA is not my chosen method of recovery. It's not the way I do it. So, from 3:30 to 8:00, I was just sitting there, bored and didn't have anything to do. I ended up talking to my therapist. I asked her to give me extra time with my phone and she worked with me. She ended up giving me my phone from 3:30 to 10:00 but I was not allowed to carry my phone outside because it could be a violation. I could be outside taking pictures of other clients and there were too many clients there, so they would make you keep your phone inside.

During phone time, everybody is in their room on their phones. I would get my phone at 3:30 and I would go to my room and hang out. I would talk on the phone for a little bit, leave my phone in the room, go back, smoke a cigarette, hang out and talk, and be sociable for a little bit. Then, get back inside, get back on the phone, go back and eat, hang out and smoke a cigarette, play some cards for a little while, go back inside and check the phone. So, once I got that little situation worked out with my affairs, everything went a lot better.