ANY RECENT REVIEWS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

I was at Milestones for 30 days in early 2015. While in the past I struggled with severe bulimia, I have more currently struggled with binge eating disorder. I was obese, and could not put the food down. My quality of life was non-existent. I knew I needed a residential program to be able to break the bingeing cycle. So I went, even though it was an incredible financial hurdle for me, and I’m still working my way out of debt. It helped me immensely.

That being said, it helped me mostly because of providing a structured environment, as well as peer and professional support.

The program itself I would describe as mediocre. The dietician is excellent, and two of four therapists are very good. The medical doctor is a joke (for my medical exam, she checked my lungs with her stethoscope for about 1 sec, and looked down my throat for about 1 sec and declared me healthy).

There is a lot of down-time between groups, and the groups are NOT process groups. One person talks to the therapist while everyone else listens. Feedback and interaction are not encouraged.

You meet with your therapist once per week for 30-45 minutes.

You go to 12-step groups every night. Before I arrived, I wasn’t looking forward to that aspect, but they are helpful in providing a feeling of support and connection with others.

You must be self-motivated to recover. There is very very little staff monitoring, so if you need more support to break your patterns, this is not the place for you. If you wanted to, you could EASILY engage in ED behaviors. That being said, they try to make it as real-life as possible, so if you do have a slip, you let them know and talk about what happened.

I would say the staff are not skilled enough to deal with significant emotional disturbances. I was quite stable when I went there, but if I think of my less-well times (strong BPD symptoms), there is no way that would have been a safe environment for me.

So in summary, I would say it’s a good option if you’re struggling with BED or bulimia and are ready to get well, are emotionally fairly stable and physically well, and believe you have a physiological food addiction.

I would say it’s not a good option if you are anorexic (good foods/bad foods treatment approach), needing medical treatment for ED symptoms, emotionally volatile or other issues also needing to be addressed (e,g, trauma), or know you would be too tempted to engage in ED behaviors and not let staff know.

Read ‘The Body Knows’ by Kay Sheppard – if you jive with what she says, you’ll probably do well at Milestones. If not, you probably want to take a different approach.

I hope this helps someone make an informed decision.

Any recent reviews? Especially about their food addiction track.

Hi ,
I was at this program when it was open long time ago under another name by same director/ owner. I got sent there from a hellacious very strict inpt ed only unit. I have no clue why they choose that place and I was not underage but my parents dint know any better at the time and took advice of Ed unit ( stupid ” COR- HELL ” those of you from the east cost will get reference 😉
So since it was quite some time ago I can’t answer specifics – but just wanted to make sure that you knew that even though they advertise as an ed facility it’s all people primarily with addiction and then much lesser ed issues. Hence why it’s all 12 step based. So just be aware that that’s the focus and even if eds are seen as ” addictions ” when talking cause / theory by some people it’s really NOT the same thing as recovering from an Ed with an addiction based model – more specifically AN by using the 12 steps. So …..unless you have true addiction that is just as big if not more of an issue in your life- I’d say run.
Also, I’d really caution you if you have AN rather than BN. Bc when I was there ( so I’d ask to this to program or someone else can answer , but when I was there they followed the AA / OA ” Brown book ” rules for food. Meaning the program then philosophy of 12 step hard core OA -which means no sugar, white bread and other things they see as triggers for people who binge or binge and purge. So it was a giant confusing mess for me not having any alcohol or drug issue and being AN and coming from Ed unit where they were using the ” no food is a bad food” philosophy and trying to get people to overcome fears of sugar or carbs , not keep certain food out of their diet . So I get to the program and I’m taken food shopping by my roommates and go to buy the some cereal that we were allowed to eat in the Ed unit and I’m in complete shock he I told I can’t buy it bc ( forget what it had In it ) so it was not allowed . And so bc of other odd things that didn’t work for me ie : like on outings after a meeting – I could NOT get regular ice cream but had to get sugar free fake chemical crap ( very similar to tasti delight – which if you are not familiar with is filled with No nutrients and is all chemical stuff you can’t even pronounce and basically just fills you up with air so you get no calories – as you may imagine it was not great if your used to restricting . Sounds like it really worked for the person who wrote the review you are responding to ……but it is odd these all of a sudden showed up and do take note that many mention exactly what I say – addiction or multiple types of Eds……not AN
So def check that part out as well – the whole food types not being allowed. Oh, I forgot- we also had to weigh and measure our food ….so since you mention you have OCD I would ask yourself if that would be an issue or not for you . I recall one girl in my apt crying hysterically and freaking out bc she was convinced she had not measured correctly and had eaten like 2 extra peas than she was “supposed to “. ????????? I was put in her apt bc she was only other person there at time who had AN rather than BN and she also had a drinking issue), Re your specific question as to OCD help- I’d say no way In hell – but check the credentials of staff on website -when is there it was mainly staff who were with certified addiction counselors or if they were therapists of any type they we’re recovered addicts ( which is great if your an addict ) but am not and I felt they had their own agenda to push at times. And this was after there own alcohol counselor met with me told me I should ” be careful ” but no I was not an alcoholic. And when was there no good med supervision at all and became extremely depressed – probably bc I felt so alone – that I could it even get out of bed to do outing on the weekend and no one helped me or really noticed.
So don’t mean to be so harsh – but they are very limited and fixed in their approach and to me they only advertise treating EDs as way to get more clients and make more $$. Any real person that been there feel free to respond as to Ed help. And I can’t get on their site now but if M—- L—– still runs it it really felt like he was a bit shady ( just my own gut feeling )- I’d see him leaving half way thought the day driving away In his Mercedes …….
And the rest of out day was taken up with AA/OA meeting I the area.
AND if what I said is not enough- I arrived at a VERY high goal hospital weight and over a month lost 2 pounds and was ” asked to leave ( ahh maybe they should have realized that had not even been off the hospital unit for month was sent directly to them and they had mandatory mile long early morning walks 3x per week!!!) and their whole food philosophy was a 180 from where I’d been. I got no warning – just get on the scale and then ” you have to leave ” bc we don’t feel your giving the program your all. But when unless you had this horrible upbringing story tell in doing the steps you were I was told I was not being honest and not in a nice way – more of an accusation. And person I mention above was very solicitous to my dad to get me to come ………… I got there and none even knew who I was and my1st roommates ” boyfriend ” drove me with my luggage to the apt complex and I never saw him again bc he went out a relapsed on crack that night. So clearly it was not for me, they were I’ll equipped for my issues AN, depression and OCD. Lastly, it kind of says it all that a day after I was asked to leave ( which was almost a relief if I had been older and not been able to see it was them not me and felt like I. ” failed” ) ………what do you know they announced they were closing In 3 weeks. So as far as I know same program in basically same area under different name. So don’t let the website fool you. Even where they say they are ” located ” is not exactly correct and feels like they just used to make it sound more upscale. And again can’t access there info now but if I understand from seeing it before it’s only ” transitional.” Live at apts and go to center during day. So as I said seems to me same exact program which closed ( which should raise red flag to at least look into why ) and same person reopened under another name. And In all the years I’ve Been dealing with this illness – I’ve never have any ed professional mention new named one or even be even a bit familiar with old one. Bit strange if you ask me.
As well as what other person pointed out – why did all these glowing posts suddenly appear? They sound pretty scripted to me.

When I arrived at Milestones, I had no idea that I was about to begin the greatest adventure of my life. I’d been trying to get abstinent from my eating disorder for 10 years previously, and due to the Milestones Program i learned a new way of eating and a new way of life. I practiced what I learned there, and have remained in recovery over the past thirteen years. i am a recovering compulsive overeater, bulimic, and restrictor, all wrapped together! The patient staff and loving Milestones Community brought me to a new level of awareness and taught me how to be a survivor and thrive. I can never thank them enough for all they did for me. If you are considering eating disorder treatment, run, don’t walk, to Milestones.

Milestones saved my life. I want to start off by saying that because I know a lot of people only read the first line of these things and I want to make sure that is heard. I first walked into the doors of Milestones in December of 2009 and I have been gratefully connected to Milestones in some way every day since. The staff is simply incredible. They really get it, and more importantly, they really care. I was a sick, sad, lonely, confused, mess of a child when I walked into Milestones and today I am a woman in recovery. I had been to a hospital type treatment center four years prior and that didn’t work for me. I needed to learn how to function in the world in recovery, not just how to get to a healthy body weight by eating whatever was placed in front of me, and Milestones gave me the opportunity to do that. Milestones taught me how to take responsibility for my own recovery, and as a result, staying sober in my eating practices became something I wanted to do for myself. Another unique and brilliant aspect to Milestones is the fact that the patients are brought to 12 step meetings every day. We got to see other people who had gone through the program and now had years of recovery. We got to see walking miracles every day and had the opportunity to become involved in the program ourselves. I embraced that to the fullest, and now I continue to be involved in the 12 step community to be there for the new people who come in, just like others were there for me. The people who were there for me in the beginning are now my best friends. Milestones introduces you to a family of people who love and care for you while implementing practical solutions to eliminating eating disordered behaviors. The nutritionist that they have at Milestones is nothing shy of an angel. I had been to many nutritionists and never trusted any of them. She makes the impossible possible and today I have a plan that I follow almost effortlessly. I never thought I could live without my eating disorder and Milestones taught me how. I am forever grateful to everyone there and I highly, HIGHLY suggest Milestones to anyone and everyone who is ready to get better and recover from their eating disorder.