Addiction treatment in South Africa

L from The Netherlands discovered Stepping Stones:

"The 18th of July I arrived in the middle of the night at Cape Town Airport. The flight from The Netherlands had been about 11 long hours been long, and I thought about why my decision to go into treatment had become inevitable. I was totally disorientated about myself, where I was and where I was going to. A big guy waited for me at the gate to bring me to Stepping Stones. He was very gentle and said he would take care of me and I should just stay close to him. I felt relieved and sensed I could trust this man. Arriving at Stepping Stones I felt frightened, lonely and exhausted. The nurse doing the intake made me feel relaxed telling me that I've come to a good place. They brought me to my room and with a feeling of trust and a sense of hope I fell asleep.

Treatment at Stepping Stones has been an amazing experience for me. I knew I lost a lot. I lost myself, my family, my work and was isolated in my addiction without anywhere to go. I was committed to give myself a chance to a better life. I knew it would be hard and it was. But never did I stand alone. In the groups I heard others sharing there experiences and found out that I was not alone. The groups are led by the counselors and they make sure that everybody participates. Next to that my personal counselor set up a personal treatment plan for me and put me to work my recovery. The counselors work like a holographic team together. They all seemed to know exactly where I was at, all though I did not even speak to some of them. Next to that they all had there specific knowledge that they brought in. In this way my addiction was explained to me from either a psychological, spiritual, scientific or medical point of view. Intensive classes about various addiction topics made it clear to me what I was dealing with and my counselor guided me how to work my recovery. After 4 weeks I was able to admit to myself I was an addict and obtained the basic tools to deal with my decease in real life. But since I also discovered that my using came from deep enrooted feelings like fear, insecurity, ejection, anger and loneliness from my past which formed my current coping behavior, I took the advice to go into the secondary of Stepping Stones named The Beach House.

In The Beach House my counselor and me set the goals of my Personal Recovery Plan. Here everything is focused on behavior, both one on one with my counselor and in the daily groups. Here I was confronted with myself and got the chance to experience how I react on others and how they react on me. This is something I never could get out of real life experience. Living together in a controlled environment makes it a safe place for everyone to learn from each other and be able to change. In the groups the counselors lead and guide the process. Afterwards they exchange their perceptions and determine per patient how to proceed. Everything is situated around real life situations. Tools are put into place and helped me to change myself from the inside. My counselor coached me through my workload, answered my questions and helped me how to develop and use my new life tools. My struggle was hard. A lot of my behavior was based on years of immediate reactions on feelings without thinking. Now I needed to think before to act. And doing things totally different then I did before. But after a while a grasped the first benefits of my change. Instead of being angry or isolating myself I became able to express myself in an open and honest way. Instead of dwelling in self-pity I could express my feelings without being insecure or afraid what others might think. And so I became able to grow again."

Patient story supplied by Stepping Stones.

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