Newport wasn't just a treatment center to me...it was a turning point, a breath I didn't know I'd…read morebeen holding finally let go. I came in carrying years of weight, layers of trauma, and a heart that had almost forgotten how to trust healing. Inside those walls, I found more than therapy. I found safety, compassion, and the courage to meet myself fully. A therapist who cried with me during session, staff who werent there just on degree but because they had lived experience and I think thats a beautiful way to help people.
The staff saw me not as broken, but as someone worth rebuilding from within. They are trained to see trauma over Behavior..The skills I learnes there, Especially how to hold myself through crisis, how to look at pain without running from it, have become part of my daily survival and growth. They gave me tools, but more than that, they gave me hope.
Leaving was one of the hardest parts. The instant loss of community and friends is so hard, It's easy to slip back into old patterns, to get lost again in the comfort of what you've always known. But that's okay. When I started to spiral, and started to fall back, I realized it was my time to use the skills Newport taught me. And though it's been hard, it has been easier than it was before. This place isn't meant to heal you all the way...it's not supposed to make you feel "ready" to leave. If you want to run out the door, it probably means the work is still working. Some of the resistance is just that part of you holding onto the familiarity of your old life. Turn around, get back up and let the place give you that help.
My advice is to give this place the chance, and to walk in as an open book. If you do, it truly has the ability to change your life in ways you can't imagine. I stayed at the Echo Lake house in Snohomish :)) no regrets. It was the best decision of my life. There's also the Railroad house for all girls, which I heard wonderful things about (aside from the usual girl drama haha). The staff I met were extraordinary. We'd gather at Railroad for 12-step meetings and mental health talks, and it created this sense of connection..and community, which i learned is a huge part of healing, and with community, you don't feel so alone when you realize you're healing together.
And yes... they even have GOATS. Somehow, even that became part of the healing. Hehe. You'll see.
Newport gave me back pieces of myself I thought were gone forever. I'll always carry gratitude for the place that reminded me what hope feels like. The place that saved me from myself, but also reintroduced me to the new me. You all got this!
~Serahlyn