Kim Bienvenu on why her BR+NAD treatment has inspired her to fund it for others
“For most of my adulthood, alcohol was part of my life,” Kim Bienvenu says. “Living in New Orleans, it’s just what you do: dinner parties, nightlife, football games, parades. Alcohol is a featured part of it.”
A high-functioning drinker, most of her friends and colleagues figured Bienvenu had her consumption under control. But Kim knew it was a façade.
“I had everything I wanted: the husband, the family, the house, the car, the travel. But I was one Jenga pull away from the whole thing coming down, and I knew it,” she says. “I’d tell my husband—who was in the same boat—our drinking is the one thing in our lives that defies reason. We say we’re going to stop, and then we don’t.”
It was when she realized that her mother and daughter were both scared for her that she vowed to quit. “My mother told me she wouldn’t call after 5:00 because she was afraid to hear in my voice that I was drinking,” Bienvenu says.
“And seeing the fear and disappointment in my daughter’s eyes was my rock bottom. I couldn’t handle it. I still can’t. My daughter is my life.”
She learned that a friend’s son had quit drinking through a 10-day program at Springfield Wellness Center, and although she was skeptical, she thought, “Why not?”
She came to the clinic, met Paula Norris Mestayer, our founder, and signed up for the 10-day detox program. As she explains in her testimonial video (link), she and her husband, Charles, both got “the eraser effect.”
“It was like I’d never had a drink in my life,” she says. “I had no desire to drink whatsoever. I still don’t. Neither does my husband. Every morning he wakes up and says, ‘Thank you, Paula.’”
“About a week or so after my treatment, I became ashamed of myself for not telling the world about the miracle of my experience,” Bienvenu continues. “And I also wanted to do my part to make sure that no one who truly wants treatment is denied it for lack of funds.”
So, she began to “pay it forward” by underwriting BR+NAD treatment for others. She was a member of a group of donors who funded a pilot program in St. Bernard Parish to get treatment for six people who would otherwise have undergone detox while in jail.
“We hoped to make that a permanent program,” she says, “but it’s just not possible until the treatment gets FDA approval.”
She and her husband have also funded treatment for a friend with Parkinson’s, whose amazing testimonial is here (link), purchased treatment chairs for the new clinic, sponsored the golf tournament that raised funds to treat veterans, and donated to help other patients in need.
“BR+NAD treatment changed my life,” she says. “Now, there is NOTHING I would change about it. I want to give that feeling of freedom to as many people as possible.”
If your life, or the life of someone you love, has been changed by BR+NAD treatment and you want to ‘Pay it forward’ like Kim, please click on the link to donate, or call us at 844.334.4727.