This past week marked 13 years of sobriety for Bryan Fikes, now 29 years old.

Born and raised in Tupelo, Bryan was one of the top tennis players in the state, a talented soccer player, active in his church and had a strong academic record. But after being introduced to drugs through older siblings of friends at the age of 12, Bryan spiraled into a severe addiction which led him and his family down a path they never expected.

Faced with Bryan’s shocking admission that he was unable to make it through a single day without using hard drugs, Bryan’s family sought help from a local non-profit addiction organization. Bryan, however, was still unwilling to seek the professional treatment the organization insisted was necessary.

As a result, Margaret and Jeff Fikes, Bryan’s parents, were forced to have their 16 year old son arrested, detained in a cell for 10 days and court ordered to a rehabilitation center in Texas.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done but I knew if I didn’t do it, I would lose him,” said Bryan’s father, Jeff Fikes.

Fifteen months later, Bryan graduated from 2 recovery programs and returned for his senior year at Tupelo High School.

After graduating from high school, he went on to receive a degree from the Patterson School of Accountancy at Ole Miss and began his career in financial consulting.

This week, the Fikes family is grateful to celebrate 13 years of Bryan’s successful recovery, but they are also passionate about the countless families whose similar paths end in heartbreak.

With a heart to help adolescents and families facing addiction in the Oxford community as well as others throughout the nation, the Fikes family developed a plan for a premier recovery center which would treat only adolescents. They then assembled a tenured team from the industry to make their dream to help other families come to fruition. Executive Director of Stonewater is Mark Stovall, a former Director of The Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Services for the State of Mississippi.

Pursuing lifelong recovery

Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center opened six weeks ago with a vision to help adolescents develop the skills necessary to find new purpose and live lifelong recovery.

Stonewater, named for the foundational importance of stone and the cleansing and restorative properties of water, offers fully supervised withdrawal management, a primary residential program and intensive outpatient programs to provide the treatment today’s youth so desperately need.

On a pastoral property surrounded by 65 acres, adolescents are able to receive cutting-edge clinical treatment at a state-of-the-art facility intentionally designed to feel like home.

•Experiential treatments include:

•Adventure Therapy

•Nature Therapy

•Art Expression

•Music Therapy

•Yoga

•Mindfulness Therapy

•Equine Therapy

•Volunteerism

•Leadership Training Program

•Family Therapy

And numerous forms of outdoor recreation to promote staying healthy and active.

To achieve effective results in understanding why the adolescent is using and how he/she can live out abstinence in the future, Stonewater’s clinical treatments use evidence-based programming like:

•Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

•Biofeedback

•Motivational Interviewing

•EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Response)

In addition to their experiential and clinical therapies, Stonewater has a private school which allows adolescent patients to remain in school or recover failed class credits, a private chef who prepares registered dietician-designed meals and an on-staff medical team with medical doctor and nurses.

During their journey through healing and recovery, the Fikes family clung to Genesis 50:20 – “For you intended to harm me, but God meant it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

The Fikes family, along with the entire Stonewater team made up of many who are actively in recovery, believe in the promise that, through the haven they’ve created, their authentic passion for struggling adolescents and a comprehensive treatment program, lives can and will be saved.