Monthly Archive for: ‘July, 2012’
Meet the Staff: Lamonica Garret
Lamonica Garret (Director of Operations)
PRC Employee Since: 2001
Bio: Lamonica was one of the Pasadena Recovery Center’s first employees. As Director of Operations he is primarily responsible for creating a safe environment that is conducive to recovery. He also manages the Program Assistants (PA’s or techs) and handles client movement in and out of the facility. With over a decade of experience, Lamonica has witnessed thousands of motivated individuals achieve sobriety.
Lamonica appeared on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew.
Prior to PRC, Lamonica spent twelve years as a mental health professional at the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco. He also served in the US Military as a Spec-5 Medic before being honorably discharged.
Quote to live by: “You can’t control how other people treat you or respond to you but it’s important that you treat everyone the way you would like to be treated:”
Checking In With PRC Alumnus Elias Luna
Elias Luna’s life story is one for the movies and he’s only 43. He says he knew he was “different” or gay when he was five. He met his first boyfriend at 18. The next year his partner told Elias he was infected with HIV. A test later confirmed the same fate for Elias. The year was 1989.
Amazingly, Elias responded by grabbing life by the horns. He led a productive life working for a Fortune 500 company and then, at a young 32, enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles. His love of fashion, skill and dedication shined earning him a full scholarship and his own clothing collection.
He was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He was profiled on TV as an up and coming fashion designer.
And then, at 35, Elias tried Crystal Meth. Hooked immediately, he would spend the better part of the next eight years watching his life slip away. Finally, after a bad breakup a friend convinced Elias to get help at the Pasadena Recovery Center.
Elias says today, half jokingly, “HIV won’t kill me but Crystal Meth almost did”.
After 32 days at PRC, Elias was renewed — even drawing for the first time in five years. He’s grateful for PRC, the staff and his fellow residents. “I was here at the right time,” he says.
Elias also had some heartfelt words for PRC Program Assistant Rhonda Silas. “She listened to me. I listened to her. She was a great person to talk to”.
So inspired by his stay at PRC was Elias, that he left a note (see below) under his pillow for the next resident to read.
Elias had one more piece of wisdom he wanted to pass on to addicts considering treatment: “If you’re scared, don’t be, because you are going to find happiness.”
Pasadena Recovery Center Welcomes Will Smith’s Newborn Son!
Friday was an exciting day for us at the Pasadena Recovery Center as Will Smith, whom many will recognize as the Rehab Resident Tech from Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, stopped by with his wife La Shonda and their newborn son, Lance. The future USC Trojan is off the charts adorable (see photo). Welcome to the PRC family little guy!
Recent Testimonials on Yelp
Below are some recent testimonials about the Pasadena Recovery Center on Yelp:
Hadley V:
The people at Pasadena Recovery Center care. The setting is not lavish, but it is not expensive. It offers human decency and a lot of old-fashioned sobriety. I thank PRC for everything and I recommend it without hesitation.
Kelly S:
I will never be able to adequately thank the compassionate staff at PRC. I recommend this facility without reservation for everyone who is ready for sobriety.
Donna W:
I was on the street spending every dime I had on crack, and the Pasadena Recovery Center literally saved my life. But for the caring, supportive staff and fellow patients I’d be dead right now. I’m certain of it. I felt like all of us were a family with the same goals of staying sober and I felt safe. I admired the counselors that had long term sobriety and were always giving us insight on how to achieve that. Now I’m 6 months sober after a 6 week stay at PRC. And I’m so thankful.
Richard N:
In the end it was the best thing i cound have ever done for myself and the staff at the PRC enabled me to find and discover within myself that i was indeed a person worth getting my head screwed back on straight again.
Shannon M:
My brother was here for treatment towards the beginning of this year (2012) and the Pasadena Recovery Center definitely did their job. My brother has been sober since being released and the staff was always very helpful when I called. I hope he never has to go back there but I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a great rehab facility.
How Eating Healthier Helps Fight Addiction
Dr. Drew Ramsey posted a fascinating article at the Huffington Post on the importance of healthy eating in 
the fight against addiction. He points out that the effectiveness of the 12-step approach is minimized without also adopting a healthier diet:
Without dietary change an individual attempting abstinence and recovery is needlessly more vulnerable to relapse. At the heart of the problem are a new set of dietary choices. Americans mainly eat highly-processed foods — food not designed by nature but in a lab. Their main ingredients are sugar, refined carbohydrates, and vegetable oils, and they are designed to taste great. When we eat these foods we light up the same pleasure-rewards areas in our brains that are activated by drugs like cocaine and heroin as well as by a variety of addictive behaviors. Ingesting dopamine-triggering foods, in other words, subjects your brain to the ups and downs, highs and lows, of any addictive substance or activity since you are stirring the same neurochemical pot (no pun intended).
But the problem actually runs deeper for drug addicts and alcoholics whose very diseases almost always lead to nutritional deficiencies:
Alcohol dependency, for example, can lead to thiamine deficiency, and increases the risk of deficiencies of vitamin B12, vitamin D, and magnesium — all nutrients needed for optimal brain function.
Hence, it is imperative that addicts – who already face so many challenges in their recovery – eat healthier:
Recovery, in fact, depends in part on developing new chemical pathways by which the brain overcomes habitual behaviors. You owe it to your recovery to nourish the brain, to poise it for better learning, stable moods, and less intrusive cravings.
