An Exhilarating Center for Treatment and Recovery

Alcohol, drugs, gambling—as many as one in eight Americans are addicted to a substance or activity to the point of self-destructive behavior. And although addiction may start as a means to numb or dodge distressing feelings, how it ultimately intensifies the loss of self-esteem, anguish, and suffering is, sadly, only too well known.

There is nevertheless a center out there where serenity reigns and where, day after day, professionals contrive with nature, that high priestess of everything that is invigorating in life, to thwart all the misery that addiction conjures up. That center is Hawaii Island Recovery (HIR), and it sits by the shores of the inordinately majestic Pacific Ocean, three thousand miles away from the maelstrom of activity that is the US mainland.

To commemorate HIR, a superb video was made by a European TV team who travel across the world to make a movie of top-tier treatment centers in the US.

Selected among the top 10 facilities in the US, Hawaii Island Recovery is a groundbreaking addiction recovery and residential center where clinical experts are serious about teaching you life skills that you will inevitably need if you are to heal and recover.

Emotional turmoil wreaks havoc on the user’s best intentions in recovery. And although getting drunk or high is what you’ve learned to go for when struggling with your emotions, a big thing that you’ll learn in treatment is that riding out the waves of sadness, anxiety, and fear is a part of life—as long as you apply the new adaptation skills you acquire at Hawaii Island Recovery. That in a nutshell is a big part of healing: it seeks to get your emotions back on a more even keel and reassert the balance you so need in recovery.

Being wrapped up in the chaos of your own mind, you come here and you’re given every opportunity to embark on the process of healing and recovery. The big island of Hawaii is a special place for that. The aloha spirit is effortless and infectious, the people friendly and authentic. It’s the kind of place where you just want to bask in that measured return to a sense of peace and tranquility within you.

It is also a place where innovative treatment techniques have proved successful: 67% of folks who come for treatment at Hawaii Island Recovery remain sober after one year.

Talk about innovative techniques: in the bay near the center, you come face to face with the world’s only wild dolphin therapy program for users, and their equine-assisted therapy as well—techniques that have now been in use at HIR for several years.

Elisa Wille, Program Director explains that through their experience of using, people become numb to life’s joys and forget how to have fun. When they then swim freely among pods of dolphins and witness how those enchanting mammals engage with one another, the experience impacts them holistically, evoking in them unrestrained feelings of bliss and serenity.

It is also associated with how users pull themselves out of their support group of family and friends and become isolated. Being then exposed to how dolphins support and care for each other in group settings can be really moving for addicts, stirring a sense of what they’ve missed during their years of using.

With many users, these insights—that often come as a shock—become significant cornerstones in their recovery. They are reminders of our birthright and innate capacity to experience exquisite beauty and love.

One of the most compelling treatment aspects at Hawaii Island Recovery is that the center takes only eight residents at a time. This makes for optimally individualized healing programs that HIR’s doctors and therapists use, including medically-supervised detox, and a whole range of other therapies to support long-term sobriety.

Furthermore, because addiction is invariably accompanied with co-occurring depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions, mornings at HIR are dedicated to the heavy lifting part of the day. This comprises individual and group therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Other treatment modalities are also used for the holistic treatment of the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual dimensions of addiction.

By contrast, afternoons are typically devoted to restoring the user’s physical health, with body work that can include gym sessions with a trainer, yoga, massage, acupuncture, and long walks across a superb landscape.

Naturally, it is the chef-prepared lunches and dinners that the recovering clients also look forward to the most. Practiced with utmost attentiveness and caring, this comprehensive approach attempts to restore to each person a balanced frame of mind together with a positive outlook.

This superintendent, at a large construction company came to HIR for recovery from abuse of Oxycodone. Like many others, Sean’s story of addiction started when a doctor prescribed the opioid for a painful back situation. Not surprisingly, when the addiction caught up with him, he gradually forgot all about living a normal life, caring, and any notion of what fun was like.

Then followed what every user is only too familiar with: the covering-up, the shifting of blame—how “it’s not my problem; it’s everyone else’s problem”— the lies, the manipulation, and coming real close to criminal behavior.

Then at HIR came the meetings, the therapy, and the support that he knows well he could never have gotten on his own. “I had a job previously; I was in charge of 20 people, in charge of an $8 million project,” explains Sean, “I thought I had the world by its tail, but it actually had its thumb on me.” He takes a breather and then continues, “For all of you out there who think you can do it on your own, you don’t need to. There’s people who care and love, unconditionally, and that is how I feel about this place.”

For other stories like Sean’s, check out HIR’s Testimonials Page.

HIR is convinced that if you come here with the right kind of motivation, wanting to heal from your addiction and the other bad things occurring in your life, we can provide you with a chance to get your life back. The doctors, the support staff, the residents—you get to be among some of the most incredible people at HIR.