A Forever Recovery

A Forever Recovery is a Battle Creek, Michigan treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction offering a truly innovative approach to drug and alcohol recovery. The private facility is located on 14 acres of beautiful lake front property, and is staffed with a group of professional and highly qualified and committed individuals who are dedicated to guiding clients into finding recovery from...

The first time I came across A Forever Recovery was at least 7 years ago. I was looking for a place to send my son and it looked like it’d be a good place for him. Then I started reading some of the things said about A Forever Recovery and I changed my mind. There were far too many times that I read that AFR was more or less a recruitment center for a cult, and I had no interest in sending my son to a place like that.
My son spent the next 6 years in and out of rehab and every time I started looking for a new rehab, I’d see the advertisements for AFR and after 6 years of my son making absolutely no progress with his addiction, I decided that it might actually be easier to get him out of a cult once he was clean, so I called AFR.
Which is when I found out that AFR isn’t affiliated with that cult anymore. They still have an impressive set-up and the more I heard about AFR, the more excited I was at the prospect of my son going there.
AFR has different programs for the clients to choose from. They don’t have a one size fits all mentality to treatment there and I thought that, more than anything else would help my son. In fact, I’m almost ashamed to admit that it didn’t even occur to me that my son might be doing the wrong program for him. Whenever I found about him relapsing, I just assumed it was his fault, that he just wasn’t trying hard enough. I thought he wasn’t putting in the effort to get sober, it never occurred to me that he might need a different program. I had been sending him to 12-step programs over and over because the 12-step program has been around for so long, it’s the only one I really knew anything about. So, before AFR the only kind of program my son had gone to was a 12-step program.
My son was able to choose a program that he felt comfortable doing and his entire attitude towards his recovery changed after he decided to do the SMART program. He started putting in much more effort into doing his program because he had finally found something that made sense to him.
The clients at AFR are also moved forward on their programs based on individual progress. As I’ve said, they don’t have a one size fits all mentality at AFR, so the clients choose their program but, they also stay at AFR for however long it takes them to get it right. When my son first started at AFR, he did so like he’d started every rehab program before, Which was a bit annoyed that he had to go back to rehab to appease me, planning to just ride out the program without putting much effort into. After going through detox, seeing the different program that they have and spending time figuring out what he wanted to do, his whole attitude changed about being there. It stopped being something he had to do and became something that he wanted to do. He stayed at AFR for 18 weeks because he wanted to stay for that long. He knew that being at AFR was helping him and he felt that the program he was doing was something that would really help him stay sober, so he put everything into doing the program right.
Going to A Forever Recovery gave my son a better chance at staying sober than every other rehab he’s ever gone to. I am very happy that I finally called AFR and gave them a chance because going there has saved my son’s life. He got home last week, and I’ve never seen him so determined to stay sober. He’s doing everything he’s supposed to be doing, working on his aftercare program and staying in touch with one of his counselors from AFR. Our entire family’s life has improved because of my son’s stay at AFR and I’m so grateful for everything they did for him and everything they’ve continued to do since he’s been home.

If my daughter hadn’t gone to A Forever Recovery for treatment, I don’t know where she’d be or what she’d be doing. When my husband and I started looking into rehabs for our daughter, we knew she wasn’t ready to get help. We couldn’t do nothing though so, we started looking into treatment for her. When we first spoke with the intake counselor at AFR we told him that we didn’t know when, if ever she’d agree to get treatment. The intake counselor was really great though. He was willing to talk to my husband or I whenever we called, and he was instrumental in helping us get our daughter to agree to go to treatment. He helped us understand why our daughter wasn’t willing to talk to us about going to rehab, why she’d refused to go in the past and he helped coach us on how to go about talking to our about getting help. Without that, our daughter would still be using today. It was 6 months before our daughter agreed to get help and this intake counselor, knowing that getting her into treatment wasn’t going to be a quick thing, he still took the time to speak with us at least weekly, asking us how things were going with our daughter, giving us advice and helping us cope with our daughter being a drug addict.
He also helped us get everything set up so that as soon as we had our daughter’s agreement to go to rehab, she wouldn’t have time to back out before she was on a plane, heading to AFR. Being able to send our daughter to AFR was the best thing we could’ve done for her, it was the exact right place for her to get the help she needed.
It didn’t take long after she arrived at AFR for the changes in her to become visible. For starters, I hadn’t had a single conversation with my daughter in over 5 years where she wasn’t calling me just to ask for money and getting into a fight when I wouldn’t give her any. When she finished her detox and called home, I was able to talk to her without her asking for money or having any kind of disagreement at all. Which was a really nice change.
After she’d been at AFR for 3 weeks, my husband and I went to visit her and the physical changes she’d gone through were just amazing. She’d lost a lot of weight because of her drug use and she had started gaining that weight back. Her skin was clearing up, and she looked and sounded so much happier.
As a parent, you worry about your kids. Having one of them start to use drugs is awful. Watching as your kid becomes completely dependent on a drug like heroin, when there’s nothing that they will let you do to help them, it’s a horrible thing to have to deal with. Your watching your kid choose to hurt themselves, knowing that until they make the decision to get help, there’s not much you can do to help them.
Having that kid finally get the help they need and watching them come back and start acting like the person you love in amazing. Because my daughter went to A Forever Recovery, because of the help my husband and I received before our daughter had even agreed to go there, she’s now off everything, completely sober and has been for 5 months.
My daughter has been vigilant in continuing with her aftercare since coming home. She speaks with her aftercare specialist regularly. She knows that just because she went to treatment, that doesn’t mean that her dad and I instantly started trusting her again and since she’s come home, she has done a lot of work to earn our trust back. We knew that she needed to start working and doing something with her day but, we were worried that having her own money again wouldn’t be good for her. So, when she got a job 2 months ago, she worked it out with her dad so he’s in charge of her money. When she goes out to lunch, she brings him the receipt so that we know exactly what she spent her money on. Doing that, it isn’t something that she had to do, it is her money but, she knew how worried we were and is doing it to put us at is. Showing that consideration for her dad and I, it shows just how far she’s come since going to AFR.

When I went to A Forever Recovery, I was ready to start a new life. I was completely ready to stop doing drugs. When I got to AFR I was this weird mix of being hopeful yet, jaded. More than anything, I wanted to get off drugs but, I wasn’t convinced it was something that I could really do. Just the fact that I really did want to get clean helped me while I was there. AFR was the first rehab I’d gone to that I actually wanted to work. Because of that, I was more receptive to doing the program and doing the work I needed to. While I was at AFR I learned how to navigate my life and my choices so I wouldn’t fall back into old habits and things I learned while at AFR is that reason that I’ve stayed sober. I finished my program 6 months ago and while I’m still sober, I also feel truly stable now. I learned a lot about myself going through the program. I learned why I’d been making the choices I’d been making, why I’d been doing certain things and where my reactions came from. I learned how to stop when things were getting harder in my life, how to take a step back, reevaluate things and then deal with them the right way, before I got to the point where using seemed like the better option. One of the hardest things about staying sober after rehab for me, was that I always had, in the back of my mind, the thought that every bad day I have, everything I didn’t like would be swept away if I used. I knew the problem wouldn’t go away if I used but, I wouldn’t care about it anymore. That was a hard thing to get past. It takes much more work to deal with a problem than it does to pretend like it doesn’t exist. So, while I was at AFR, I learn how to deal with things before I got to the point where I wanted or felt like I needed that escape. While I was going through my program, I decided that I didn’t want to go home to my parent’s house. With everything I learned at AFR I could have gone home and stayed sober but, I had family in Colorado, and I decided that starting over somewhere new would be easier and less stressful for me. I’ve always had a hard time asking for help, I always felt like if I asked for help, I was failing at whatever it was. So, I’d try to do everything on my own and I’d fail anyways. When I was going through my program, I realized that staying sober was something I wasn’t going to be able to do without help and that the bigger support system I had, the easier it would be for me. That asking for help wasn’t failing but, making sure I could succeed. So, while I was at AFR, I asked my aunt and uncle for their help and they’ve been amazing. My parents were behind my decision to move away from them because they knew that me starting over somewhere fresh was going to be easier for me than trying to do it with them. My uncle helped me get a job and I started working there 5 days after I got to Colorado. I’ve been doing good at my job, I got to work on time every day and haven’t missed a day or anything. It’s the best record I’ve had with something like this. I’m also paying all my own bills and generally acting like the adult I’m supposed to be. Before going to AFR I would have thought this life was possible. As much as I wanted to get sober, I didn’t believe it was possible. Being around the people at AFR helped me to see that even though my life had been completed messed up by my addiction, I could get it back to rights. The counselors really helped me while I was there. Sometimes, it was being to talk to me or help me work through whatever issues I was having. Sometimes, it was calling me on my bull and not letting me get away with something. They didn’t let anything, whether it was me or something else, hinder my recovery. I’m so grateful for that, going to AFR was life changing.

When I sent my daughter to A Forever Recovery, I was hoping that it was as good as I had read about. I prayed that this rehab would be the one to change thing for my daughter. A Forever Recovery turned out to be everything I could have hoped for. My daughter started using heroin 10 years ago. When she started using, things got bad so much faster than I could have anticipated. It doesn’t take very long to become addicted to opiates and I saw that firsthand with her.
For the last 10 years my ex and I have sent her to recovery center after recovery center. We’ve sent her to so many, that going to rehab had become something of a joke to her. She never made any kind of improvement at those places and she continued to go to rehab when her dad and I pushed her to only to humor us. Meanwhile, every time she relapsed it devasted her dad and me.
From the beginning, when I started talking to someone at AFR about my daughter going there, I was impressed with them. Even though I was sure about how effective AFR would be, I still wanted my daughter to go there because it was the first place I had found that treated addiction and recovery with the attitude that they treat it there. I was refreshing to have someone to talk to who was as honestly earnest about helping my daughter as they were. They helped me get everything set up so that as soon as my daughter agreed to go, I could get her there and started on her program before she had a chance to change her mind. When we got there for me to drop her off, I was impressed all over again with the level of care they showed her.
As I’ve said before, my daughter’s gone to rehab so many times that going to a new rehab become something of a joke to her. She wanted to get clean but, the more rehabs she went to, the less effort she put into her programs. After a few they all became the same to her and she stopped seeing a point in trying anymore. Saying it was a joke to her isn’t quite it, it was more that she went to humor her dad and I, instead of going because she taught it would help her.
AFR became different for her before she even got settled into detox. As they were checking her in, the staff explained the program and what she’d be doing while at AFR. The explanation of the program and the way the staff spoke with her about all of it gave my daughter a guarded hope that AFR would be different and so she agreed to put the effort into the program.
The staff were understanding and patient with he throughout her program. A Forever Recovery has the best collection of people working there. I’ve done 10 years of research, 10 years of talking to different rehabs and sending my daughter to those rehabs and I can honestly say, that the staff at AFR were the best people I’ve come across in the field of addiction and recovery.
They helped my daughter become a better person. She learned how to life her life again without using drugs as a crutch when something didn’t go her way. She learned how to keep herself sober there because the program she did at AFR was one that interested her and was a program that she could understand the philosophy behind.
This time when she came home, it was different. She came home with a confidence in herself that I hadn’t seen since before she started using drugs. The progress and personal improvement she made at AFR and the progress and improvement she made since coming home have amazed me. She’s working hard to improve her life and turn it into something she can be proud of.
Before my daughter went to AFR I knew that if she didn’t clean up her life, she wouldn’t live much longer. I sent her there in desperation because it was different than the other rehabs she’s been to. It was and now, now I have my daughter back. Our lives have changed so much since I first called AFR and I’m so grateful for the help they’ve given my daughter.

Private Facility
Insurance Excepted
Clients Accepted With All Types of Addiction
Inpatient Facility
Five different Modalities of Treatment used
MRT Therapy
Medically Supervised Detox Available
24 Hr. Treatment