FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – As the opioid epidemic continues to plague the Pee Dee, one North Carolina man is using his recovery story to inspire others to choose life over drugs.
23-year-old Robert Bunch, who says he started abusing painkillers after getting his wisdom teeth taken out, attempted sobriety four times before going to Owl’s Nest Recovery Center in Florence in January.
He says he made the decision to get serious about getting sober in December 2017 after receiving an ultimatum from his sister.
“A lot of it had to do with my nephew being born. If I didn’t stop doing what I was doing, I would have no part in his life. It really hit me hard that night and probably two weeks after that, I was here,” Bunch said.
Bunch says his fall to addiction was due to a mixture of character flaws and peer pressure.
“It begins before picking up that first drug. I was a selfish, egotistical person before I even started doing drugs,” he said. “I already had friends who were in active addiction and when they came to find out the prescription that I had, they recommended me, ‘take so many, you’ll feel this type of way.’ And me being the yes-man that I was took their advice. I was like Superman in a sense.”
Bunch says he felt empowered by the drugs and couldn’t function without them. He later realized that false sense of strength was destroying him. He eventually dropped out of East Carolina University after one semester and says he got to the point where he thought he had nothing to live for and felt his death was imminent.
“I thought my legacy was going to be to die from addiction and that was going to be how I inspired other people to seek help. Because I was this kid in high school, I was in all the sports, I had these scholarships, I had all these things going for me and then fell into addiction,” he said. “I had people that looked up to me. I felt that I was at a point that I knew I was going to die from an overdose and that was going to be how I helped somebody. That somebody was going to learn from my mistakes. And that is not the case at all.”
Since rehabilitation, Bunch has revisited his high school to share his recovery story and talk about solutions for addiction. He says he has another opportunity to speak at a larger venue next month.
“Hopefully, somebody will see this and hear this and see that there is hope for people like us. You don’t have to live that way anymore,” Bunch said. “I thought that if I changed who I was, nobody would like me. Nobody would like who Rob really is. And that’s not the case. I have more friends today that I can actually rely on than I ever had before. There is hope for people like us and change is good.”
Owl’s Nest Recovery Center has been in Florence for about 11 years and serves people from all over the country. Right now, there are 78 residents going through the rehabilitation programs. Owl’s Nest offers a short term program that lasts 28 days and a 90-day long-term program. Both programs focus on clinical therapy, life skills coaching, and job training, with the goal of integrating participants back into society. Owl’s Nest directors say the road is recovery is long and sometimes, for life.
“A parent sends their kid to a $20,000, one-month rehab and then they expect them to come home and be healed and everything’s going to be gone and done,” said Program Director Andy Patterson. “I think that’s why so many people are so frustrated. They don’t necessarily have all of the information about the disease. As we have come to understand from a scientific level, it is a disease that originates in the brain that stretches to the body. Until people start to really understand that and know that, I don’t think we’re going to tend to move forward in what solutions are working and what aren’t.”
Owl’s Nest Recovery Center is located at 2528 West Palmetto Street directly across the street from House of Hope Mission Mart.