18: What to Expect Going Into Rehab with Johnny Pyburn

Steve Coughran: 0:00

Hey there, welcome back to another episode of addiction recovery. My name is Steve Coughran. I'm here with Steven Ginsburg. Steven, it's always great to be together with you again.

Steven Ginsburg: 0:10

Thank you so much. I am always excited we can take some time, step back and focus on the solution.

Steve Coughran: 0:17

Absolutely, and today we have a special guest on, Johnny Pyburn, and he's the operations manager at restore. Johnny, welcome to the show.

Johnny Pyburn: 0:25

Thank you, steve, it's great to be here.

Steve Coughran: 0:27

So, Johnny, what I want to dive into today is that you know we've done a lot of episodes about, you know a variety of topics as it pertains to recovery and treatment with drugs and alcohol. But let's go beyond that point and let's imagine somebody is. You know they go through the emissions process. They have their bags packed, they show up to the door. What can someone expect when they're walking into a facility like restore, like? Maybe you can set the stage a little bit and maybe calm some nerves or just answer some questions that they may be thinking in their minds.

Johnny Pyburn: 1:03

Yeah, we would immediately come to you and meet you outside. Outside the door there's usually one or two of us at least that will will bring you in and it's a home, so they feel like it is. There's nothing to be nervous about..

Steve Coughran: 1:17

s there's something that they should be like nervous about or like maybe you can, you know, explain a little bit more about that, maybe because they're coming Into it, they're broken, they're in a dark place and you know, just the unknown sometimes can create a sense of anxiety. Maybe you could calm their nerves a little bit by providing a little bit more context here.

Johnny Pyburn: 1:39

Yeah, you shouldn't feel nervous there. There are people that do, and that's completely understandable, but it's like a family here, so all of us are very loving. When you walk in, you're gonna feel that and that. That has been the experience of every client that we've had and that's the feedback that we've gotten. Of course there are those that you know. You know sometimes doesn't work out, but generally speaking, 99.9% of the time when you walk in here You're gonna feel comfort and and that's something that we provide, that's something that we want to provide and want people to feel when they walk through the door. So we'll immediately offer you water, something to eat, something to drink if you'd like. We'll get you set up in your room with your bed, just get you comfortable and introduce you to all the clients and the staff and house and give you a tour and you know, just just make sure you're you feel comfortable in a unfamiliar place.

Steve Coughran: 2:35

Yeah, that makes sense. That's very helpful Steven, switching gears over to you, because oftentimes you're involved in just that initial, early on onboarding process. What are some common concerns that people have or worries that they have when entering a facility such as ?

Steven Ginsburg: 2:56

Great question. There's so much that's unknown for many people. This is their first time even tackling or addressing the fact that they're owning addiction and alcoholism issues in their life. We and Johnny is certainly a humongous part of this. We do a really good job with something called pre-assessment, where they get a pre-screening call from either admissions head or from someone like Johnny or someone on the team. During that call, above and beyond finding out a little bit more about what's going on with them, we also give them a good thumbnail on what to expect, what to bring, what a day's like. A lot of the trepidation and reservations go by the wayside. Johnny's played a huge part in setting that foundation.

Steve Coughran: 3:43

That's great. I totally agree. I've been up to the house multiple times. Johnny's style is just so comforting. Like you said, it's a home, johnny, first and foremost, but also it's a place where there's an amazing team that's ready and able to support whoever. They do it in a way and you do it in a way that's very empathetic and very comfortable and it's not threatening and it's not scary at all. Once people get into the home, johnny, what does day-to-day living look like in a facility like Restore?

Johnny Pyburn: 4:20

When you walk in, you might wonder what. When breakfast is, when lunch is, when dinner is, what happens throughout the day. We do groups all day long. They start in the morning 9am and they go all the way into the night. Then, often during the nighttime, the swing shift will take the clients out to a meeting. You could expect to be busy for most of the day. When somebody initially arrives and they're going through detox, we understand that you're probably not going to be feeling well. We're going to give you some time just to drink water and watch TV and just relax and sleep. Then, when you come out of that fog, we'll get you involved in the day-to-day which is process groups yoga, fitness therapy, breath works, substance abuse groups and CBD and DBT you can expect to be busy.

Steve Coughran: 5:15

Okay, that makes sense and with this busy schedule I think it's really good, because then it takes her minds off a lot of other things and it starts establishing these healthy patterns. Turning the question over to Steven what about from like a life disruption standpoint, because I imagine going to rehab? You know people are worried about what about my job? Like am I gonna get fired? What about, like my kids? Like who's gonna watch my kids? Or drive you know little Billy to soccer? What do you say to people that are worried about the disruptions that are involved with getting help?

Steven Ginsburg: 5:50

It's absolutely one of the quintessential areas where we completely separate ourselves and Johnny's had even more extensive background at other facilities, but one of the things we pride ourselves on, because the disease is cutting, baffling and powerful, so people will look for any way, any reason to not come and get treatment.

Steven Ginsburg: 6:11

So there aren't any circumstances there aren't any professional or personal circumstances that we can't work around, that we can't find levels of accommodation for that. We can't come alongside Community members that's what we call people who are coming in there, members of our community so that they can get into the solution. It's about the willingness being there. Because the willingness is there on our part, we're realists, we want to and we strive to and we make sure to have the outside world Integrate and cross over with the world at restore, where they're getting into sobriety. So all that goes by the wayside because there's nothing we can't accomplish in a six-bed facility. With the way we're staffed and the fact that this is our culture and our outlook, there isn't any outside Circumstance that can stop people from seeking treatment. What stops people from seeking treatment is the disease trying to tell them there's a reason not to come in.

Steve Coughran: 7:12

Sure, and there's probably a million different reasons that people could come up with when it comes to why they can't get help. Let me turn back over to Johnny and ask you this Maybe you can share a little bit about your own recovery journey and how has it helped you to be empathetic to people who are worried about you know, going to rehab or the disruptions of life or, like Steven just alluded to, like the excuses that they come up with which prevents them from getting help. Maybe you can share just a little bit about you know, your experience, your story, your journey and how that all comes together to making you a great member of the, the team at restore.

Johnny Pyburn: 7:48

Yeah. So I first went to treatment in 2010. I had a couple of relapses, you know, went to treatment again in 2011 and you know my experience with treatment was good, although I felt like I had to be ready and I wasn't ready until about 2012. So it took me a couple years, you know I and like Steven said, you know, like I had I had all the excuses in the world. You know like I can do it myself. I don't need the help from the therapist or a 12-step program. You know like I had the ability and the willpower to do it on my own. And the truth is is that like I didn't. And the disease of addiction, you know, plays tricks on our mind and it will tell us things that that aren't true and it's set in the rooms a lot. You know, like we have, you know, as addicts, like we have the best ideas in the world that we can talk ourselves into anything.

Johnny Pyburn: 8:36

And you know, when I say that, I say a joke in me because they're the worst ideas in the world and we can justify and rationalize our decisions and, you know, think that they're the right ones, and sometimes we just need somebody to hold our hand.

Steve Coughran: 8:47

I love that. I mean, what about a parent, though, Johnny, who's thinking, okay, I'm gonna send my adult child to rehab, but they're a little apprehensive, they're a little nervous, they're a little anxious, they don't know what to expect? What would you say to a parent or a loved one who wants to get help for somebody who's struggling with drugs in it, in alcohol addiction?

Johnny Pyburn: 9:10

The most important thing you can do a hundred percent is to get involved in AI-Anon. My mom did that and it helped her tremendously. She was, she was able to set boundaries with me, she was able to come to terms with her own stuff and she was able to get help for her co-dependency and Oftentimes, like that's the case with parents and, you know, even adult children or adult children, is the co-dependency and that that needs to be taken care of. You know it needs to be intervened on and it's. It's super important that I would say every parent or every spouse or whoever it is, get, gets involved in a program like Anon.

Steve Coughran: 9:51

And how do they get involved with those? Is it just a matter of googling it and you sign up for an account? I walk me through that because I'm not super familiar with those resources.

Johnny Pyburn: 10:01

Yeah, there are just like there are AI meetings Anon meetings.. You can Google it. Sure you could ask the person at the facility because they'll probably have some insight as well and you go to a meeting and it's very much akin to the AA and NA meetings, where they work a program. They have support there from other people that are dealing with the same issues and they're able to get the help that they need.

Steve Coughran: 10:33

That's great. Last question for you, Johnny, Looking back on your journey if you could go back to the old Johnny, the broken Johnny, the messed up Johnny or whatever you want to call that Johnny, if you were to go back to him and say, Johnny, just like man, I love you, I wish you would do this or that. What advice would you give to your earlier self before you've made this radical transformation?

Johnny Pyburn: 11:00

Well, to preface that, I would say that I wouldn't change anything, because the experiences that I've had and that I've gone through have made me who I am today. If I had to go back and say something to my younger self, I would say don't give up. And it's important that you realize that you can ask for help and it's okay to ask for help, and if you don't, things could be so, so much worse.

Steve Coughran: 11:25

I love that and that's a great answer, and we'll go ahead and wrap there, Johnny, we could keep going for a long time, but we're out of time right now. So if you're listening to this episode, if you have any comments, any feedback for us, if you just want to connect and say hi that includes saying hi to me, Steven or Johnny you can reach us at hello at RestoreDetoxCenters. com that's a great email to keep in mind for anything that you need. Also, on the website RestoreDetoxCenters. com, we have a ton of great resources there for you as well, including some eBooks and the podcast, so be sure to check that out as well. And that's all I have. I'll go ahead and turn the time back over to Steven and thanks, Johnny, for being on the show.

Johnny Pyburn: 12:09

Thank you.

Steven Ginsburg: 12:10

Steve. Thank you so much. Johnny, just as I've always mentioned, and I'm going to mention it again, you are part of the living testimony at Restore. Your recovery, your trudge, your walk with purpose and what you provide for the community, for myself and for the team, your living example. It's so beneficial, it's so quintessential and I want to let people know out there who are struggling there is hope, there's a solution. A gentleman, johnny, who's on this call right now, on this Zoom right now, is the living proof of that. Sitting here with over 11 years of sobriety, working a program and then helping to save lives, he is part of the proof of concept that what we provide and what we offer and what we've been so freely given at Restore works. You don't need to stay where you are. You can come alongside with us and we can help you. Trudge just wrote a happy destiny. God bless you all. Have a safe and sober day. Thank you everybody for tuning in.