591+ Patient Reviews

Medical device sales at 29, cocaine at 31 when a colleague introduced it at a conference. For nine years the drug and the job felt inseparable — the energy, the confidence, the social ease. When I started using alone I k...Read more

Twenty-three years in corporate HR, VP level. Retired at 54 because I had to — couldn't access enthusiasm for anything, chronic fatigue that sleep didn't fix. My internist suggested burnout but had nothing specific to of...Read more

Serious rollover accident at 31 — wasn't driving, one passenger didn't survive. PTSD onset within weeks. Seven years of CBT, EMDR, and somatic therapy, each offering partial improvement. The hypervigilance in cars and th...Read more

Divorce at 38 and I used alcohol to get through it. Eight years later the amount required to feel okay had become concerning even to me. I hid it from my adult kids through careful timing. Two outpatient programs — each...Read more

Traumatic brain injury from a rear-end collision at 47. The acute phase resolved but cognitive fogging, chronic headache, and mood disruption three years later were not. My neurologist had tried everything standard — I w...Read more

Managing director at a Miami investment firm. Fifteen years of building something and then one morning I couldn't remember why. Not depression exactly — more like the complete absence of meaning. Psychotherapy for two ye...Read more

L4-L5 fusion at 39, pain management for six years post-surgery. The surgery was necessary; the prolonged opioid course was not. Every taper attempt sent pain spiking — whether real pain returning or withdrawal, I couldn'...Read more

Social anxiety from childhood, agoraphobia after a panic attack at 23 that humiliated me in a restaurant. For twelve years my world had been shrinking. Tried benzos (helped but created dependence), CBT, exposure therapy....Read more

Shoulder injury at the warehouse at 34. OxyContin for four months post-injury, then street sources when the prescription ended. By year two I was on fentanyl. Three hospitalizations, two for overdose. My mom and sister s...Read more

Paxil from age 22 after college anxiety. Three failed taper attempts, each producing protracted discontinuation syndrome that lasted months — brain zaps, electric shock sensations, severe rebound anxiety, depersonalizati...Read more

Heroin addiction from 22 to 32, methadone clinic from 32 to 41. Stable, employed, functional — but still dependent on the clinic and the daily logistics. My partner wanted to move abroad for work. The clinic wouldn't be...Read more

Tremor diagnosis at 62, confirmed Parkinson's at 63. My neurologist managed the motor symptoms effectively but the emotional dimension — the grief, the loss of identity, the daily awareness of progression — wasn't part o...Read more

Cannabis and alcohol from 17. Cocaine in my mid-twenties working in promotions. Prescription Adderall through my thirties. Opioids after knee surgery at 42. Never saw myself as an addict — each substance had a justificat...Read more

Fibromyalgia diagnosis at 31. Kratom suggested in a fibromyalgia forum as a non-prescription option. Six years later I was at 35 grams a day and couldn't manage a 48-hour work trip without planning my dosing schedule aro...Read more

Paramedic for 18 years. Didn't recognize PTSD as the problem until year twelve. By then I'd been self-medicating with alcohol for four years and had isolated from my family. Worked with a trauma therapist for two years —...Read more

ER nurse for twenty years. Alcohol started as stress management in year eight. Twelve years later I was drinking before every shift and believed I'd hidden it. I hadn't — my supervisor had documented concerns for two yea...Read more

Roofer for 22 years. Rotator cuff surgery at 44, OxyContin during recovery. The prescription ended but the need didn't. Three years later I was buying fentanyl patches on the street. Narcan twice in one month — my wife c...Read more

Postpartum depression after my second child that technically resolved but left a residue — flat affect, reduced motivation, difficulty being present. Four antidepressants over five years, each partial. My psychiatrist re...Read more

Pain management prescriptions after a motorcycle accident at 36. OxyContin for three years, then the clinic closed and I was finding pills on the street. Heroin eventually, then fentanyl. Fifteen years total, four treatm...Read more

I worked emergency medicine for 15 years and something finally broke. The hypervigilance, the dreams, the way I couldn't be fully present anywhere. Tried everything the VA offered. My psychiatrist had run through six med...Read more

The accident that killed my best friend while I was driving has been with me every day for six years. The hypervigilance, the dreams, the way I couldn't be fully present anywhere. Tried everything the VA offered. My psyc...Read more

Paxil for 18 years. Made 8 serious attempts to discontinue. Each one ended with reinstatement because the symptoms were unbearable. I'm a pharmacist and understood the mechanism, which didn't make it any easier. Disconti...Read more

9 years of it. Started as wine that became anything available. I'd had two DUIs and lost my license. Did AA twice, inpatient rehab once, was on naltrexone for a year. All helped partially. Nothing held. My daughter sent...Read more

Kratom was how I managed anxiety and pain without a prescription. What I know now is that kratom acts on opioid receptors and the dependency is real. When I finally decided to stop I went through three weeks of acute wit...Read more