Victorian Success Stories

I came in to the Victorian House with paralyzing self hate and an intense fear of food; which both dominated & controlled my life. I was completely blind to the fact that I possessed deep rooted eating disorder.

Upon my arrival to the Victorian I was greeted with open arms by the most genuinely kind hearted staff and other women who were fighting for their lives, just like I was.
It was their unconditional love & support that allowed me to trust in the process & learn to love myself from the inside out. By connecting & aligning my spirit with the spirit of something greater than myself I was able to experience a deep surrender of my ideas & belief systems and move through resistance and into acceptance. I became able and willing to look at my body with out believing in the interfering judgments of my mind. Feeling my body from within initiated my healing process towards the road to recovery.

My stay at the Victorian House was the greatest gift I have ever received. Thank you for saving my life and connecting me to my true self. I can now see the radiance of my existence and the beauty that surrounds me. My recovery is a daily practice of connecting to the light within myself by practicing the spiritual tools of the program.

- K.K.


I arrived at the Victorian House following two months of intensive inpatient treatment. It was an ideal program for me because it eased me back into the "real world" step-by-step. When I arrived, I was greeted by an intelligent staff member who was truly interested in learning more about me. Although I was nervous to be in unfamiliar place, I did feel welcomed. By the end of the first week, I had met the remainder of the staff and realized how fortunate I was to have found this treatment facility. I was simply welcomed, loved, and cared for like a family member or close friend.

Needless to say, I had adapted to the new environment and schedule. The program schedule is organized such that it compliments our needs as clients. There are plenty of worthwhile 12-steps meetings, lectures, body image workshops, and process groups each week, which concentrated my focus on recovery and solution. In fact, I have completed formal treatment, but continue to participate in many of the same public 12-step meetings as I had previously at The Victorian.

I am grateful for my experience at The Victorian, as it introduced me the local 12-step support community and social network and provided me with a renewed spirituality. I also gained confidence in myself and my career potential. I now look forward to everything that awaits me ahead. Now when I smile, my joy comes from a real place!

- T.H.

When I was 15 years old, I went on a diet that drastically changed my life. I know now that it was my eating disorder becoming active because on my own power, I never could have done to my body what I did to it. I starved myself and threw myself into obsessive exercising for about a year. More than emaciating my body, my eating disorder emaciated my heart. It was soon after my year mark of the obsessive-compulsive behaviors that anorexic side of the coin flipped. It was in a matter of moments that I fell deep into binging. A surreal experience indeed, I felt like I was watching a horror movie that could not be shut off. Not only did I gain the weight back that I had lost, I gained back more and I did it rapidly. Within months, I was sitting in a body that I didn't know. Although destroyed and weak, my body was the least damage my eating disorder had done to me.

Please note that during this time, I had the gift of insight. I came clear out of denial when I switched from starving to binging. I sought out help: therapists, counselors, social workers, classes, books, everything. Not only did I seek out help (that did help and has been a significant part of my journey), but I tried beating this demon with all my heart. Everything, literally everything, gave me enough hope to go on, but nothing got the monkey off my back like the Victorian House.

I went to the Victorian of Newport Beach in March of 2005 in desperation. Looking for my quick fix, I wanted to be in and out, go back "home" to Michigan and pretend the the whole treatment thing didn't happen. However, like an alcoholic's drinking is never the same after an AA meeting, my life would not be the same after finding the truth, hope and support I found at the Victorian House.

The staff taught me information that yanked me up from drowning. Their gift of knowledge and her unique ability of knowing this disease forwards and backwards gave me solid, stable hope that I would one day be out of this fog I had lived in for years. The key was- I had to follow directions and do what they said.

And bless my heart, during that first time in treatment, I was not willing to do what they had advised. Whether it had been lack of willingness, severe codependency with my mom, or fear, I didn't listen to what they told me. 13 months later, after being that "alcoholic drinking", my life was torture. On my knees, to a God whom I love more than anything, I surrendered. By his merciful grace, I received a second chance at the Victorian House.

On June 14, 2006, I went back in the Victorian House, willing and ready to let go of my best friend: my eating disorder.

The Victorian House gave me structure. I could not and did not trust myself from breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner. They gave me that support to make it from meal to meal. They introduced me to the 12 step program where I found a sponsor and tools to live life abstinently. They gave me knowledge and unconditional love. The hope and the belief they had in me was undeniable and touching. I will forever cherish my days at the Victorian of Newport Beach, as hard and frustrating and confusing as they were. They also pushed me. They pushed me when I did not want to be pushed. But I listened because I was willing to do whatever it took to get me a life.

Today, because of God, because of support, because the Victorian House gave me a second chance, I am a little over 2 years abstinent. I have a job that I love, I am fully self-supporting and I'm learning how to live life on life's terms. It's scary and hard sometimes, but I would NEVER trade my best day in my disease for the worst day in recovery.

I believe in treatment if you want it. I believe in The Victorians' theories. I believe in God, and I believe in support. And I didn't truly believe in hope until after I went to the Victorian House. I share with you my story because I will do anything I can do to give back what has been so graciously given to me. Thank you for hearing my story.

- J.V.