Nicholas Mathews gets it. When a new patient walks into Stillwater Behavioral Health and meets with him for the first time, they don’t just find themselves talking to the facility’s CEO and co-founder. Rather, they find themselves talking to a former addict – someone who has hit rock bottom and understands what they are going through.

When Mathews was just 16 years old, he became a heroin addict.

“Overcoming this addiction required me to practice honesty and integrity every day to clean up the wreckage I had caused in my life,” he explains. “I continue trying to make amends every day, which takes courage and confidence.”

After gaining sobriety, Mathews dedicated his life to helping others recover from addiction, becoming a consultant for various treatment facilities. However, he wasn’t happy with the clinical care he found at these programs.

“I became determined to boost the effectiveness of treatment programs,” he says. “That’s why I founded Stillwater Behavioral Health, a dual diagnosis treatment facility that personalizes care for those struggling to recover from substance addiction and mental health disorders.”

When Mathews talks about addiction, patients at Stillwater Behavioral Health know they are receiving advice from someone who has been where they are — someone who has experienced the worst and can show them the path to sobriety.

Hitting Rock Bottom

For many addicts, hitting “rock bottom” is a necessary catalyst to recovery. One of the most common rock bottom experiences is when an addict faces personal health issues, which can range from being sick to overdosing. That’s when they may finally face the fact that the disease has become too big to handle alone.

Doctors told Mathews that he had a serious blood disease and his liver was shutting down, but it still wasn’t enough to get him to quit.

“When I received my diagnosis, I left the hospital thinking ‘I’m never going to do this again,’” Mathews admits….