Dennis James Hewitt’s Testimony – The Salvation Army Belkin House

Drug addiction eventually leads many to the same situation, homeless, hungry and seemingly hopeless. Recovery Centers deal with the here and now of addiction, they make its sufferer aware of the physical mental and emotional reasons that led to our addictions. They help us to formulate tools to assist us in the prevention of relapse.
Yet few realize the importance of helping us to regain self confidence and self awareness when we leave the safety and control of a Recovery Centre. Sure we’ve learned about all the things above, but how do we carry these things into a productive and responsible future? How do we rebuild and reshape ourselves after so many months or years of societal dormancy?

It may sound easy to someone who has never known addiction, reliance of something outside of ourself that controls, not only our actions, but that affects our morals, relations, our jobs as well as our own physical well being. Something that hinders every course of progress and happiness, a cage from which we, as addicts see no escape, forbidding us from the realization of goals we wish to fulfill.

From what I personally have experienced here at Salvation Army Belkin House I can see that its facilitators and counselors realize that recovery from addiction only begins at the Recovery Centre. It’s the starting line to a new path in life.
Once we come to the acceptance that we need to escape the addictive cage, we then must face a world very unlike the one we simply existed in as an addict. Now it’s time to live.

I feel that Belkin House is a facility that is a necessity, a much needed second stage in the recovery progress. Self actualization programs such as Life Skills and Living Skills assist us to regain knowledge of who we are and how to better our communication skills so that we become compatible with others involved in our New Future.
We can alleviate emotional distress through participation in various courses, such as Stress Management and Grief Recovery. We can make others aware of our “weak days” in groups such as Recovery Support or when we communicate in our one on one sessions with our counselors.

For me, though I came to regain my Spiritual Self at the Paetzold Centre Valley of Miracles, programs such as Purpose Driven Life and Christian 12 Step have strengthened my personal beliefs and relationship with my higher power. They have also helped me experience fellowship, which is also important in giving me direction throughout my New Future.
Since I arrived at Belkin House I have rediscovered something very important, and that is that “I can”
With the assistance of those around me I can reconstruct a life and a lifestyle in which I can find happiness, accomplish goals and maintain inner peace. I realize some days will be difficult, but here it’s easy to find help in many forms.
So it is with great honor that I give this praise to those involved with Belkin House, for I feel immense appreciation to those that helped me rediscover hope and a new future.

Stay hungry
Stay strong
God bless

Dennis James Hewitt