A former NBA player who battled addiction for years opened a holistic addiction recovery center in Virginia.
“It started with alcohol, probably 13; went on to marijuana 14; cocaine 18; 22,23 OxyContin; and then transitioned to heroin, and heroin unfortunately had a grip on me and my family for a good six, seven years,” Chris Herren said.
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For a short time, Herren had his dream job playing for his hometown Boston Celtics, but his drug habit quickly put an end to that.
“Suffering from multiple overdoses, and sobriety didn’t seem real to me,” Herren said. “And the thought of sobriety, it didn’t seem necessary, to be quite frank. I thought that I’d fallen so far, I didn’t feel like it wasn’t worth getting back up.”
Herren has been sober for 13 years. The birth of his youngest son convinced him to turn his life around.
“The gratitude and gratification of living one day has time has brought peace to my life that I never thought I was attainable,” Herren said.
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He founded Herren Wellness and just opened a wellness program in Warrenton where they help counsel addicts back to sobriety.
Herren Wellness at Twin Oaks is a 21-bed facility on 50 private acres of a former equestrian farm. It features private and semi-private rooms, a fitness facility, walking paths, a pool, a chef, a tennis court, private spaces for recovery meetings, meditation, acupuncture, yoga, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
It’s the second Herren Wellness center, following one in Massachusetts.