Before attending Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness, my life was slowly falling apart and I didn’t even recognize it. At age fourteen I began drinking and doing drugs. If you were to look at my high school transcript from freshman and sophomore year and line it up with the timeline of when I started drinking and doing drugs, you would see my grades slowly declining as I fell deeper into the negative lifestyle I started living. I thought that sneaking people into my house, sneaking out of the house, running away from home, skipping school, and partying nonstop were all normal teenage behaviors. My parents thought differently. I became such a threat to them and to those around me that on June 3, 2020, at the age of sixteen years old, I found myself at Blue Ridge. I am grateful today that my parents did what they did because without them choosing to do that, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
Finding Myself in the Wilderness: How Blue Ridge Changed My Life
Jessica, BR Alum
Learning to Love Myself Again
My time in the wilderness was scary, amazing, powerful, and enlightening. I was always the type of person that would hide my emotions and stuff them deep down because I was scared of being vulnerable. I didn’t know how to express my feelings without feeling some type of embarrassment, but I learned how to do that at Blue Ridge. When I think back on those three months of my life, I always smile. It is by far the best treatment center I was ever in and was the most memorable and impactful.
During my time in the woods, I learned more about myself than I had ever learned before. I was introduced to adoption trauma and became aware of where my fear of rejection and abandonment come from. I met my best friend while I was there, who is still my best friend to this day. I learned how to form true relationships and realized where I went wrong in my relationship with my family. I learned how to take accountability for my actions and let myself feel. And most importantly, I learned how to love myself and love the people around me.
How Far I've Come
I remember my last day in the wilderness and dreading leaving. I honestly was not excited to get back to the real world with all the chaos and noise. I truly enjoyed the amount of peace and self-acceptance I had achieved in the wilderness. I missed my friends there and wondered if I would ever stay in contact with them. But life goes on and we experience things and grow from them. That sixteen year old that went to Blue Ridge almost five years ago was scared, lost, hopeless, and didn’t want to be alive anymore. I can say today that that same girl, now twenty-one years old, loves life and looks back on those three months in the woods feeling more grateful than ever for the time she had there. That girl is me, and I can tell you today that my life looks incredibly different. I faced many more challenges once I left wilderness and struggled for a bit but what I learned there always stuck with me.
I now have over a year and a half sober off of all mind-altering substances, I have a son that I have an open adoption with, and I live with the same family that couldn’t live with me anymore all those years ago. I work in the recovery field, helping high school students find their pathway of recovery and achieve long-term sobriety. I visit my best friend from wilderness and call her on a weekly basis because the bond we formed in our time there is stronger than any other bond I’ve ever created with someone. Last summer, we both went down to Georgia to visit our old wilderness therapist. We also went to the mountains for a night and camped there in one of the exact same spots we had camped at when we were attending Blue Ridge. It was a surreal experience to see how far we’ve come in life since then.
Life-Saving Treatment for Adolescents
There are many adolescents out there struggling. They either don’t want to be alive anymore, are abusing substances to avoid feeling their feelings, or they have a negative relationship with family members. There are a variety and range of different struggles, but there is a way out and many different programs that can help that adolescent. If my parents never made the decision to send me to Blue Ridge, I know for a fact that with the way I was living, I would either be dead or in jail right now.
Blue Ridge saved my life and to anyone reading this, whether a parent or a teenager struggling, it can save your life or your child’s life too. I will never forget my time there and I am forever grateful to the staff, therapists, and everyone there that helped me find myself again and gave me an experience I don’t think I will ever have again in my lifetime.
Blue Ridge will always have a special place in my heart and I will remember my time there until the day I die.
About Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness
Located in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Georgia, Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness is the leading nature-based therapy program to integrate a family systems approach, whole body health and wellness, and holistic, assessment driven, clinical treatment for troubled youth with anxiety, depression and other mental health challenges.