Tim’s journey to recovery is one marked by deep struggles and a transformative shift in perspective.
Before arriving at Healing Transitions, Tim’s life was consumed by alcohol and drugs. “It was a disaster,” he reflects, recalling how he started drinking at 14 and turned to drugs shortly after.
He managed to avoid serious consequences for years, relying on his academic and athletic abilities to skate by. He was awarded a scholarship to play soccer in college, where his addiction continued.
“My ego was at an all-time high,” he remembers. “I just got away with it for a very long time.”
By the time Tim moved into his own apartment, things had spiraled, and the isolation brought on by COVID-19 affected him deeply.
He would wake up in withdrawal, shaking and sweating, and immediately go to the gas station to buy wine, only to wait until the liquor store opened for his daily supply of vodka.
“I was just drinking every day so I wouldn’t get sick,” he admits.
As Tim’s addiction deepened, he found himself without a job, without a home, and without relationships— “I was homeless, living over by Crabtree,” he says.
His family continued to help him, bringing him to the hospital several times when he was detoxing, but nothing changed. It was his sister, a therapist, who suggested Healing Transitions, but even then, Tim resisted.
“I thought, if I didn’t have a job or a car, at least I had a place to stay,” he recalls, but soon, he lost his job, his relationship, and his home in the span of two days.
In a moment of complete hopelessness, Tim had nowhere else to turn.
“Healing Transitions was the only place that was opening its doors to me at this point,” he shares.
His family, desperate for him to get help, took him to the steps of the facility. The first-person Tim met there was Bobby, who was extremely kind to his family and helped guide him through the process.
He remembers how overwhelmed he felt seeing so many men in the program. But as he settled into detox and eventually the long-term recovery program, he began to see hope.
“It was the only bit of hope I had in a long time,” he says.
He recognizes that the recovery journey is ongoing, but he now lives with a sense of purpose. “I’ve been given this new lease on life that not everybody gets.”
While Tim was in the program, his parents actively participated in the Family Support Group at Healing Transitions.
“My family was able to use the group as an introduction to their own experience with a loved one in recovery,” shares Tim.
The Family Support Group provided Tim’s parents and sisters with the understanding that they weren’t alone on their journey. There was strength in numbers, as the program offered a supportive community. As Tim continues, “It wasn’t just them going through it alone.”
Reflecting on their experience, Tim’s parents share some of the key lessons they learned along the way: “Addiction is a disease, not a choice, and it affects so many families.”
They also realized their family needed healing too. “Part of that healing process was holding ourselves, and Tim, accountable as we walked alongside him on his road to recovery,” they explain.
One of the hardest truths was that Tim’s recovery was his own. “Recovery doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a lifelong, daily process. And we came to understand that relapse is often part of the journey, not a failure, but a step forward,” they share.
Through perseverance and the support of a loving community, Tim’s life has been forever changed. Today he is employed, has relationships with all three of his sisters, his nieces and nephews, their significant others, and his parents.
Tim’s story is living proof of how recovery can benefit the entire family and offer an opportunity to rebuild what was once lost.