The first thing you notice when you pull into Charleston Recovery Center is the crowd of people. It’s mandatory in the house, no matter how bad the weather or what time of the day or night — everyone comes out to greet the newcomer. The second thing you notice, as you step out of your car, is how light everything feels. There’s a sense of hope in the air and on the faces in the crowd. Not on everyone, the newcomers still look a little rough around the edges, but people with a certain amount of time seem to radiate a sense of peace that’s infectious. I‘m not saying they have rainbows shooting out of their eyes, but I’m not saying they don’t. You get a feeling, good things happen here. People change. They get better. They give back and start connecting in ways they never knew possible. It’s magical.
Charleston Recovery Center is filled with hope. And let me be clear, hope is not an easy thing to come by for an addict who’s lost everything to alcohol or drugs. Families also give up on hope after years on end of the lies and bullshit that walk hand in hand with addiction. For recovering addicts and their families, hope is like a mythical creature in fairy-tales, it’s elusive and almost impossible to find.
However, for some reason, hope lives here in abundance. In fact, the informal name of the Charleston Recovery Center is the Ashley Hope House. It got the name because it’s located on Ashley River Road, but the name reflects much more than it’s location. If you stay here for any length of time hope gets under your skin. It gets in your head like a favorite song. The tune is catchy, and before long, you know all the words by heart. But the best part about the Ashley Hope House is that if you’re open and ready to embrace recovery, that feeling of hope can turn in to a belief. Addicts and their families start to believe that maybe, just maybe, they or their loved one can change for the better. They can become the kind of person they want to become. Or perhaps even a version of themselves that they never imagined possible.
You may wonder why I know this. I know this because this is the place where my oldest son, Austin (recovering from an opioid addiction) and our family found that hope. We were the newcomers a few years ago that the crowd waited for while standing in 4 inches of water, for us to arrive. You see we drove through the torrential rain and wind of Hurricane Matthew to get Austin there. We were searching for any possibility of hope. After all, as parents, hope is all you really have. You hope that your children are happy, that they’re healthy and that they’re safe. When drug addiction comes into the picture, most of the time you just hope they’re alive.
Charleston Recovery Center is not for everyone, if you’re looking for a 5-star high-end premium treatment center, keep looking, this ain’t it. The house is older and has survived the rising tides of many floods. Sometimes it’s a little crowded because they try to make room for anyone that really needs to be there. They try to make it affordable, because if you’re like us, our insurance didn’t cover treatment. Ronnie Byers, who is the founder and heartbeat of the house busts his ass every day to keep things running with donations from people and businesses in the community. And if you’re researching treatment centers, their website looks like it was designed when the Internet was first born. But so what, most people who hear about them, hear about the Charleston Recovery Center through word of mouth or from detox facilities and other treatment centers. They have a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Google Reviews. This place has an excellent reputation from the people that matter. From the families and recovering addicts whose lives have been saved.
“Bottom line: if you’re looking for real people with real recovery who can help you deal with some real addiction issues then this is the place for you…or your loved one.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for real people with real recovery who can help you deal with some real addiction issues then this is the place for you…or your loved one.
Hope lives at the Charleston Recovery Center. We know. That’s where we found it.
For more information call Intake Director (843) 263–9551 or Ronnie Byers, Executive Director (843) 270–1588.