Spotlight

The Bridge

Are you constantly over-committed and running behind? Is your appetite for accomplishment insatiable? Do you keep a note pad beside your bed? Is it always your goal to be the most valuable player, the valedictorian, or the top salesperson? Is your self-esteem built on outworking everyone else? Do you try to juggle more than one thing at a time – all the time? Are you constantly competing with the clock? Is it that the more impossible the goal, the more determined you are to do it? Do you get really irritable when interrupted or restless when not busy? Do you feel guilty when relaxing or having fun? When taking on a task, can you not quit until it’s done? Do you find yourself conversing only about your work? Is your identity your job? Do you think living like this is normal?

If you’ve ever been told by someone that you are the most driven person they’ve ever met, this could be a compliment or it might be a warning sign. If this sounds all too familiar, you might be a workaholic suffering from “the hurry disease.” Don’t laugh. It’s real!

Paul and Carol Cannon, founders and current administrators of The Bridge, a treatment center for dependency disorders located in Warren County (Kentucky) since 1975, say just like drug addictions and alcohol addictions there also can be real and unhealthy addictions to “good things” such as achievement, food, relationships, religion or even physical fitness.

Just as people with drug or alcohol addictions need rehabilitation and follow a twelve-step treatment program, the Cannon’s use the same twelve-step program at The Bridge to treat people suffering from “clean” addictions.
Their treatment programs address the pain in adulthood that comes from being wounded in childhood by abuse, addiction, or family dysfunction. This condition, known as codependence, is considered the psychological foundation of compulsive and addictive behavior. The Bridge offers a sixteen-day codependency workshop as well as extended care for the treatment of codependency. During the workshop, clients begin to change self-defeating habits into attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that contribute to their emotional well-being and to healthier relationships.

The Bridge is available for anyone suffering from a variety of non-chemical addictions such as perfectionism, relationship addiction, sexual addiction, compulsive care-giving, controlling, and martyring. The Bridge’s treatment plan is also available as a form of relapse prevention for individuals who have been previously treated for alcoholism and/or drug dependency. Often once an addict or alcoholic has brought his/her primary addiction into remission, other compulsions arise such as gambling, overspending, or overeating, etc.

The Cannons’ dream of starting The Bridge began in Michigan when Paul was a professor at Andrews University and Carol owned and operated a preschool. One evening, a student who worked for Carol, asked her if she could stay with them for a while because she was discouraged, had limited finances, and found herself facing addiction. She was the first of 35 students to follow. The Cannons then felt that they needed not only more room, but to move away from the school to a more rural setting where they could devote full time to helping troubled young adults.

The Cannons were looking for a central location east of the Mississippi. After looking at over 50 locations in other states, they chose Kentucky. They found Bowling Green to be not only beautiful but extremely well located for travelers.

Clients have traveled to The Bridge from as far as Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Virgin Islands, Canada and from various parts of the United States. Many then return home and tell their family and friends – and others follow.

The Bridge is especially helpful to those whose negative habits and addictions are on the verge of costing them more than they can afford to lose--their lives, health, career and/or family.

The Bridge, Paul and Carol Cannon,
1745 Logsdon
Bowling Green, Kentucky 42101
(270) 777-1094
Email: just4today7@juno.com Web: thebridgetorecovery.com