From a grateful mother...

Drugs and alcohol had a devastating effect on our family. Finding LifeStyles for Recovery was our path back to healing. LifeStyles gave my daughter the tools for building a new life; one in which she is in control, not the drugs. She designed a personal program including AA, other meetings, school, work and volunteering in the community with the help of the dedicated LifeStyles counselors that will make her successful in her endeavors and enable her to become a productive member of society. Thank you LifeStyles for helping to give my daughter a second chance at the promising life and career she so much deserves.

My name is Jennifer and I just celebrated 4 years clean and sober. I can honestly say that the true foundation of my recovery came from my stay at Lifestyles. The education that I received was far beyond any other recovery center I had been in (and there were many)! Lifestyles taught me how to re-enter society as an upstanding person. This month I will celebrate one year with one of the women I sponsor. I am also following in the footsteps of one of my Lifestyles mentors (you know who you are) by becoming an intern which will hopefully be followed by a certification for alcohol and drug counseling. Lifestyles also taught me to give back the gift of recovery that was so graciously given to me. As I look back on one of the most difficult times of my life, I do so with a smile because of the strength I gained as a result of an incredible staff and environment totally conducive to a long and successful recovery. I will forever be grateful to Lifestyles!

The Lifestyles program, based in Mission Viejo, California offers a specialized dependency treatment program that focuses on personal responsibility. The Lifestyles program addresses all aspects of the dependency: physical, psychological, behavioral, social, and family. Treatment includes education, group therapy, multi-family groups, relapse prevention plans, and individual counseling.

I completed the intensive care program in January of 2002, and then entered the extended care program, which I stayed in through April 2003. My participation in the program was a complete success. I continue my sobriety now for over (4) years and counting. Mr. Danny Truax, owner of Lifestyles… I could never say enough about him. I truly believe Danny changed and saved my life.

Kevin C.

There was a time in my life when I lived on the other side of a line in the sand. I did not know the line existed, where it was, and if I was moving towards or away from it. That side of the line was full of fear, self loathing, desperation, and demoralization, but also ego, arrogance, and attitude. For all my efforts - which had gotten my a lot in my life - I was struggling and sinking in the quicksand of my own making.

It took living with others just like myself - accept they had found that line and crossed it - to pull myself to safety. It took daily reminders - both positive and negative - to remind me where the line was. It took daily exercises in awareness, self-growth, and in humility to move away from that line I had crossed. Lifestyles was that place for me in 1999. Danny Truax was person who saw what I had long given up on - hope, faith, and a future. It was in groups run by Danny and individual counseling that I became aware of my relationship to that line and what direction I was moving.

After leaving Lifestyles, I've continued a friendship with Danny over the years. I've done weekend relief at another house he ran - hoping to give back a little of the gift he had given me. I've returned to house meetings - usually because of troubles in my life - but also with the hope that it helps others to know that they too can live on this side of the line and enjoy life. Danny has been a great example as he has passed through great personal and professional hardships and survived to come out better than before.

I can not say enough about how Lifestyles and Danny have changed my life - saved my life. For this I am truly thankful.

Mike B.