Amir Amsalem knows how great the economic price of a heavy drug addict is in Israel. “It is very expensive to be an active addict or user, and it requires a lot of money. It can reach 4,000 shekels a day. At the beginning it is 500 shekels. Very quickly it rises to 1,000 shekels, and as they deteriorate, the numbers are higher. It also depends on the types of the drug”.
and quit?
“It is not financially expensive to be a clean addict, but it is very hard work. We work mainly on emotion, on boundaries, on lifestyle and changing a way of life, we surround ourselves with support groups, a mentor and clean friends, and all the time we take care of a healthy shell around us.”
And it’s not expensive?
“A rehab center can be cheaper or more expensive. In my time, the expensive ones did not exist. After the rehab center, I moved to a day care center through the state and welfare. For that, you need a symbolic amount and there is not much financial investment.”
Amsalem knows what he is talking about. The impressive and coherent guy, a real personality, was addicted to drugs, weaned himself and now established a new rehab center “The Path to Life” in Be’er Ya’akov with the approval of the Ministry of Health. In this center, he makes sure that the price is accessible to every pocket as much as possible.
The rehab center in Beer Ya’akov, the path to life (Photo: Niv Smithline)According to him, the corona virus did not help addicts. “The corona has joined an abrasive lifestyle, working long hours, a tense security situation and economic survival. There were those who felt that the ground was falling from under their feet and fled towards everything that could dull the senses: drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling and even marathon and obsessive watching of television or porn.”
From soccer to balls
The new rehab center, a dream of years, was founded by Amsalem, after his life was saved thanks to another rehab center that believed in his abilities to return to life. As a child he was disciplined and quiet, liked by the teachers. From the age of 6 he played football and felt that the game brought him out as a gentle and shy boy. Amsalem was always the smartest kid around and a master of crosswords and word games. With the head of an entrepreneur and having developed business skills, he helped his father in the family business, the Polish company, already in his youth.
Rehab Center, Pathway to Life (Photo: Niv Smithline)At the age of 14, his dream of becoming a soccer player was cut short due to an injury. He left the league in Ramla where he played, and the way to deteriorate into soft drugs was paved for him, after he had to give up his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Amsalem was 16 years old when he started using hard drugs.
Against all odds, Amsalem managed to finish 12 years of schooling. Over time, he was no longer able to work or be part of a setting, because the drugs controlled him. In between he would open stalls in the markets to generate income and help at home. He managed a bus stop on the boardwalk in Eilat to work there. During all the years of his addiction, he never asked his parents for money, but worked and supported himself.
Over the years he tried countless times to wean himself off drugs, but was unsuccessful. He was 30 years old when he suffered a stroke from prolonged drug use, was admitted to day rehabilitation and realized that he had to decide between life and drugs. He had plenty of time to think, after being forced to spend about a year in a wheelchair.
After 21 years of being an addict, it happened. “Probably until then I wasn’t sure that I wanted to quit, and I didn’t understand the meaning of changing my way of life completely. Although there was a small window that allowed me to return to drugs, but when I was 34 years old I had fear, and I think that this fear fascinated me and kept me in the center of rehab and prevented me from To go outside and use. I tried that time to do something different – not to listen to my head, but to let someone I believe in guide me along the way. So they managed to accompany me to the rehab center for six months, and I immediately went to a therapeutic day center for a year. This was my real surrender to change my way I lived fundamentally and meaningfully.”
How did you feel when you realized you were weaned?
“It’s not easy. There are growing pains at the beginning, giving up a world that was part of us for decades. I didn’t feel it when I became addicted, and I didn’t feel it when I quit. Understanding to live a new life, get out of the street life and crime and start a new path with a lot of sacrifices is not an easy thing. You have to at the age of 34 To learn again, like a baby, to live a normative life that does not know what it is.”
Amsalem, 48 years old, originally from Ramla, comes from a very warm and loving family. Today he is married to Esti, the father of two children and lives in Rehovot. Of his wife’s family, only she knew he was an addict and kept it a secret. After ten years of marriage, the groom’s past was revealed to the extended family. “I opened the center and her father asked: ‘What about Amir and the rehab center?’, and she told him I was an addict. It was surprising, and he told her he was very proud of me,” he says.
After the wedding, Amsalem opened a building management and maintenance company in Ramla, and today it is one of the most stable and well-known companies in the market. He opened “The Path to Life” precisely at a time when the number of addicts is on a disturbing and constant increase, and the ability of the families and the state to deal with the consequences and provide an optimal healing process is small to non-existent.
The path to life, rehab center in Beer Ya’akov (photo: Alran Avisror)problem of life
At the rehab center wean off drugs, alcohol, gambling, medicines and painkillers. This is a spacious villa immersed in green and offers a living experience in a homely atmosphere. The staff is professional, skilled and knows the job. There is, among others, a narcologist, a registered nurse, clinical social workers, nursing staff and social counselors who are present 24 hours a day.
The center also includes fitness facilities, a fully equipped kitchen, a heated jacuzzi, clean rooms and a spacious living room. In the courtyard of a horse farm that is used as a therapeutic element. The daily routine in the complex is rich in effective activities and varied content, there is the option of individual or group treatments that take place several times a day, and the price is less than that of five days of addiction for a heavy addict.
“The rehab center is a dream I’ve had for ten years,” says Amsalem. “We do deep-rooted work – not necessarily physical detoxification from drugs, alcohol, gambling or anything that people are addicted to, but internal work on emotions, on changing the way of life and daily routine. In the end, we know that we do not have a problem with drugs or alcohol – We have a problem of life.”
The center was founded by Amsalem with a partner who prefers to remain in the shadows. “We’ve known each other for 40 years. We’re both family and we’ve used together, and we’ll remember that time.”
The center holds a license for up to 12 patients. “We reserve one bed for the indigent and those who do not have the money to pay, because we want to try to help them.”
You have no shame at all when you talk about it.
“Not anymore. At first it was. It’s not easy for me to reveal myself, but I understand the purpose and I talk a lot about my life experience, about what I’ve been through. I tell my life story in lectures, so that this mission helps families diagnose their loved ones and addicts identify with My story. And if I saved one more soul thanks to the story of my life, as far as I’m concerned, I’ve done my part.”
Do you have to be a strong person like you to successfully quit?
“A person should know what he should do. If he is tired of the catastrophe of his life, there is no reason why he should not build himself a backbone. In addition to the rehab center, I have been leading a step group for 12 years, and there are guys who have been with me for ten years. When I see Those who build stability, that’s my true happiness.”
The path to life, rehab center in Beer Ya’akov (photo: Alran Avisror)There is always a danger that addicts will relapse.
“True. The fear of this keeps me safe, but doesn’t paralyze me. As long as I get up in the morning and know what I have to do, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t stay clean. Beyond that, I don’t think ahead. They ask me: ‘What will happen if the children…? ‘, but I don’t think too far ahead. I live in the moment. What will happen in ten years? You never know. My children are healthy, I scatter them in the settings. I get up in the morning and know that I have to work, do my service, my mission.”