Donate to help with our daughter's recovery

Message from Jim and Sally Thompson, parents of Sara E Thompson:

If you already know us or know our daughter Sara, you’re familiar with Sara’s struggles with anxiety, depression, sensory dysfunction and mood regulation for nearly her entire life. We can only imagine her suffering, except to say that as her parents who love her unconditionally, her suffering is our suffering. It’s agonizing and it’s exhausting. We’ve been on a painful and costly journey of psychiatric care, therapeutic care of all kinds, therapeutic schools, hospitalizations, and far more than we have room to post.

Within the past 10 years, she has resorted to self-medicating which has progressed to heroin addiction. In January of this year, Sara was living in a rooming house and just days away from homelessness when she overdosed and experienced a serious psychotic break. She made 3 attempts at checking herself into different hospitals, only to be hydrated and sent away. She survived only with the help and mercy of the mental health community, a police department with officers trained in mental health crisis management, and selfless family members who took her in and kept her on suicide watch until a recovery center could be found.

Proust said, ”We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it in full.” In Sara’s own words, she had reached rock bottom.

Treating a dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction is a vicious cycle. It’s not possible to treat one without treating the other. Over the past few years, Sara either voluntarily or involuntarily entered several 28-day recovery programs in which her sobriety lasted only a few days after discharge. We’ve had to face the fact that hope for long-term recovery after 28 days of in-patient detox and group counseling only scratches the surface. Why? Because there is no follow-up care in terms of psychiatric monitoring and one-on-one counseling. There are no monitored transition programs.

Sara lives on SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) which barely covers her rent. In Illinois, Section 8 housing has years-long waiting lists. Medicare is her primary healthcare provider with Medicaid as her secondary insurance. We have been unable to find any long-term dual diagnosis centers in the entire country that will accept public health care assistance.

By some miracle, we discovered a 90-day program at Northern Illinois Recovery Center in Crystal Lake, Illinois. It is a dual diagnosis center with a highly educated and credentialed staff, with an in-patient detox and recovery center, a restrictive women’s sober living facility, transportation back and forth to the recovery center for full days of classes on coping skills, habit-building, living skills, 1-on-1 counseling and targeted group therapy. They will help with finding housing, employment, and any number of other community outreach programs. It also offers a generous payment program which has allowed us to get Sara started on what we hope will be the start of a happy and productive life.

These types of facilities are prohibitively expensive, even with good insurance. Our mental health system in this country is broken. It has been broken for a very long time. Psychiatrists in this area do not take insurance and there are months-long waiting lists for an appointment.

At NIRC, Sara has established herself. As an existing patient, she will be able to continue seeing the same psychiatrist she has been working with for the entire 90 days.

Jim and I have exhausted our financial resources. At this point, we’ve maxed out our credit cards just to get Sara in the door. The cost of this program does not include her psychiatric care and will not include individual therapy after the program has finished. Sara has completed 1 month of the program in detox and recovery. She is now in a restrictive sober living facility and Sara is very happy there.

We need to raise a minimum of $50,000 to pay the balance at NIRC and also include the following 3 months to get her back on her feet. She will need housing, transportation to and from her job, appointments, and AA meetings. She’ll need food, psychiatric care and treatment, and ongoing individual and group therapy. We believe that once she is settled into a job and a structured routine, she will be able to access the skills she needs to live a productive and happy life on her own. We’re not saying this is the cure-all. For an addict, sobriety is a life-long struggle and this is our last attempt to resolve this. We do not have the financial, emotional or physical ability to put ourselves through this again. We can’t do it without your help, it is humbling to have to ask.

If you can contribute, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Otherwise, we appreciate your continued friendship and unrelenting emotional support. Please consider sharing this post. Those with mental illness have been stigmatized and marginalized for far too long. Let’s at least get the message out to as many people as we can.

There is a lot more to this story and we are willing to share it with anyone who asks.

Message from Sara E Thompson:

There have been many times when I have disappointed my family, friends, and my children. I take full responsibility for my actions and words that were unkind and harmful. My mental health and my drug addictions are no excuses. Understandable maybe. Certainly not justifiable.

I have been at Northern Illinois Rehabilitation Center (NIRC) in Crystal Lake, IL since February 20, 2023. I am in a 90-day rehab program. I have completed 30 days and I am now out of residential rehab, and in a transitional housing program. During my stay in residential, I have grown a great deal. I am back to my normal weight. I am back in tune with my happiness, and most importantly, I am back to my old self. I attribute all of the positive changes to NIRC for providing the best care for their patients by having groups that specialize in not only substance abuse but mental health as well. No longer do I view myself as someone whose life is a constant struggle, now I view myself as a warrior whose emotions no longer overpower my intelligence.

As many of you may know, I have spent a lot of time in several rehab programs, however, this is the rehab that saved my life and helped to rebuild my foundation to live life to its fullest potential. Every Saturday, we have fun outings, whether it’s brunch, a movie, laser tag, or painting pottery. It feels so wonderful to be a human again, and have genuine fun while participating in these activities. I have now been sober for a month. I could not have done this without the help of NIRC.

I cannot wait to see all of my supporters at the finish line. I am eternally grateful for your help, positive thoughts, prayers and financial help that will help shape me into my full potential. NIRC is truly saving my life for all things positive and productive that I now can look forward to.

With sincere gratitude, Sadie (or Sara, Sarabeth, SB, or by whichever name you know me)