Written in Partnership with Tedfuel
Addiction is a disease you never see coming. It comes in gradually and you keep thinking that you have it all under control, until one day, you don’t.
That’s what happened to Chris Dreisbach too. Addicted to alcohol at age 13, his addiction only grew from pharmaceuticals, psychedelics, cocaine and even heroin. During this time, he was convicted of multiple crimes and had been to rehab over and over again, with it leading to no success.
And the cycle continued for Dreisbach until a judge sent him to the halfway house in Lititz – a place that finally worked for Chris and offered him effective treatment. After completing the program, he soon found a job waiting tables at Lyndon City Line Diner in Manheim Township, which marked the beginning of a new life for him.
Since then, Chris Dreisbach has gone on to become the CEO of several licensed medical facilities, all with the aim to support the fight against addiction and provide treatment that works.
When asked about his life before sobriety, he responded with, “When you’re locked in a cage [jail] for several hundred days [like I was], you begin to feel like an animal, and you begin to feel like somebody who doesn’t deserve good things…. The reality is, no matter who you are, where you come from, it does not matter: You deserve great things, and you can achieve great things, if given the opportunity.”
One of his greatest ventures include Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, which was founded with a goal to provide mental health services and treatment to not only addicts but their families too, who also go through enormous pain.
Blueprints for Addiction Recovery runs several social programs, including Pathways to Recovery and Gateways, with the partnership of the local DA’s office and the local office of behavioral health and developmental services, as well as Second Chance PA, which is supported by over twenty-four local police departments in Lancaster County. It focuses on offering a pre-arrest diversionary program for treatment instead of incarceration.
With addiction specialists made available ‘round the clock, it’s clear that Chris is doing everything possible to make treatment more accessible and efficient for all patients.
Recovery has been a long road for Chris Dreisbach, with over fifteen years being sober, he’s a drug warrior who knows the addiction too well. From quick, ineffective treatments to having no support system after the program is over, fighting addiction is a battle that one’s often left to fight alone when in fact, it’s a disease where having a solid support system to uplift you is perhaps the single-most important thing that one could have. That’s what Chris does through his organizations and that’s what he wants to get better at day by day.
Chris Dreisbach is dedicated to providing the best rehabilitation services out there. And he’s not just a supporter but someone who’s been through the journey himself, making him well-equipped to know the ins-and-outs of addiction.
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