At InnerBalance Health Center, we know our unique
approach to treating drug and alcohol addiction works because we've
experienced it firsthand. Here are the personal stories of just two
of our staff members:
Joe Eisele, CACIII, NCAC -- Clinical Director
The need for Biochemical repair in sobriety:
I would like to share some of my history to help you
better understand my passion for treating alcoholics and drug addicts
with biochemical repair.
When I was 14 years old I myself started into what
would become a 20-year devastating addiction to drugs and alcohol. These
chemicals negatively affected every area of my life making it very difficult
to finish high school and stopped my college education in the second
year. The chemicals were becoming the most important thing in my life
and eventually would destroy every important relationship including
family and friends. I lost every job I ever had, and over the next 15
years I was in and out of mental hospitals, jails, and sanatoriums.
To make a long story shorter I ended up in Colorado
28 years ago were I entered a 30-day inpatient program. I worked hard
in this program but six months out of treatment found myself relapsed
back into alcoholism, and for the next three and a half years the dread
and terror of this illness returned.
I felt like an absolute failure in life going in and
out of Alcoholics Anonymous but not being able to stay sober for more
than a few weeks at a time. The fellowship was very supportive, but
the depression, anxiety and sleepless nights would drive me back to
the bottle. I again entered treatment for 30 days thinking this time
would be different but after only a few short weeks again living a nightmare
of drunkenness. Then came the bottom and an awakening to the fact that
I was either going to get and stay sober or never find the answer to
my depression, anxiety and sleepless nights.
I got a sponsor committed to two A.A. meetings per
day for the next year and this started my sobriety. After six months
of sobriety I started looking for answers to why I still did not feel
normal. The first book I read was Dr. Broda Barns' book on hypothyroid,
and the symptoms fit me perfectly. I found a Doctor to test my thyroid
and found that it was not working normally. Fixing this helped lift
some of the depression and sleep problems, but I also wondered what
more might be out of balance.
This started my journey into biochemical repair, and
over the next several years I sought help from doctors that helped me
repair my adrenal glands, correct my hypoglycemia by changing my diet
to get off sugar, caffeine, junk food and incorporate more vitamins,
amino acids, and fish oil. I also started to exercise, even eventually
running a marathon.
The job I have been doing for the last 22 years is
working in the field of chemical dependence, helping others come out
of that dark desperate life into the freedom of sobriety. And what I
have been doing for the past eight years is using this biochemical approach
to help people become more successful by eliminating depression, anxiety,
fatigue, sleep problems and other symptoms that often remain if biochemical
repair is not implemented.
Because of the tremendous support of A.A., and the
personal investigation of biochemical repair to the body, today I have
been sober for 24 years, have a onderful wife and three beautiful grown
kids, great friends and a job I love doing.
Ron Graham, MS -- Business Director
Over the years I have heard many horrific and devastating stories
of personal destruction.
The one story which made a lasting impression on me
is about a young man who started drinking and smoking cigarettes at
the age of 12. By the time he was 14 he added pot to the list. By 16
he had tried most drugs and was drinking and smoking pot daily, having
fun partying. He lead a secret life by lying, hiding, and pretending
he didn't have a problem. He also, continued isolating himself from
his family and friends. At 18 he was driving home after a long night
of partying. He blacked out behind the wheel of his car going over 75
miles/hour he veered off the road rolling his vehicle 4 ½ times.
He laid pinned under the wreckage. The first person on the scene was
a nurse, who was able to work her way down the steep incline to the
mangled car. She reached into the overturned car and checked the drivers
pulse only to find none. When the nurse got back to the top of the road
a highway patrol officer pulled up. She reported the driver dead. The
officer asked if anyone else was in the vehicle and the nurse wasn't
sure. The officer slid down the steep road side passing debris from
the wreckage and looking for others that might have been thrown from
the rolling car. Seeing the car, the officer knew no one could have
survived the wreck. He flashed his light inside and was startled to
see the driver emerge from the passenger window, cut, bleeding and confused,
but alive.
This story had a lasting impression on me because
it is my story. You would think this would have cured me from ever drinking
and doing drugs again. Wrong. I continued to use and even increased
my consumption. In my twenties I started using cocaine heavily. I stayed
stuck for over 25 years, lost, empty and out of control. Amazingly after
having three other accidents, including another roll over, I am still
alive.
I tried a traditional approach to overcoming my addictions
for three years, following an experts advice and going to group counseling,
support meetings, and individual counseling. I would be sober for a
short period of time, only to fall back into my addiction.
Reaching my forties, I began to think of myself as
a weak willed person who was never going to get his life in order. I
struggled with depression, anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia. I had one
last plan to take care of the problem: I was going to check out of life
with an overdose of sleeping pills. I was lucky -- I went to a doctor
who saw through my story of insomnia. He advised me to stop sitting
around talking about my disease but rather to take action and do something
about it. He said, "if you had diabetes or cancer we would not
try and talk you out of your disease; we would take an aggressive attack
on the illness in order to get you healthy." To this day I don't
know if that doctor realizes he saved my life.
Today I have over 12 years of recovery without relapse.
I attribute my success to the biochemical approach you can learn about
here at the InnerBalance website. I'm happily married and have two wonderful
children and enjoy each day working with others who struggle with the
same type of imbalances I struggled with 13 years ago.
