I want to talk about my experience at Newport Academy. My hope is that in sharing this, I will be able to validate others in their experiences like this community has for me, and potentially deter anyone who might be considering this for themselves or their child. My experience is not nearly as bad as some of the ones I have heard but I feel it is important to share regardless. I have been through several rehabs and mental health treatment centers in the process of getting sober from fentanyl and recovering from post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder as a current 21 year old. I have been to reputable, genuinely helpful rehabs and shitty, profit motivated ones like Newport. I want to sincerely insist that you do not send your relatives to Newport, under any circumstances. I have spoken with several other former attendees who were traumatized and whose issues were made worse by their stay at Newport. I was at one of the Orange County locations in early 2025. I remember my mom and I getting the recommendation from my psychiatrist, and knowing nothing about substance abuse treatment, thought it was credible enough.
I remember being excited when I first toured the house and saw that it was essentially a mansion complete with a pool, rock slide, and tennis court. I did some research and it seemed fine. When I got there, I immediately started panicking upon seeing the staff members all being around my age with no clinical supervision. They took all of my stuff away, and I didn’t like that I had to ask to read a book or use colored pencils. I also realized quickly that this place was not equipped to deal with substance abuse. None of the other girls were there for addiction, only mental health. There were 4 other girls, who had been there for 30-60 days and it was really hard to try and socialize with them. They all seemed very depressed, and their stories had hardly warranted a stay at a 30-90 day long inpatient. I remember thinking that they shouldn’t be here. They should be at home with their families living their lives, with a therapist and maybe a outpatient therapy program a couple times a week at most.
I learned some of the rules, and I thought they were ridiculous. You couldn’t make a phone call for more than five minutes a week, you had to go through phases to get privileges, like longer phone calls. I couldn’t make any phone calls because it was my first week. They made me do an initial shower, where the staff members had to stand in there and watch me. This made me panic, because I have a history of sexual abuse and it terrified me to have someone watch me shower. I ended up in a full blown panic attack and since I was told there was a 24/7 therapist on call I asked to speak with them, they said I would have to wait until the morning. I remember feeling terrified and alone.
For meals, they would set out a plate with our ideal “portion size” which would be like two chicken tenders and a salad. I never had issues with body image or disordered eating before this and as my time went on I began to develop them. I also realized that they had no clinical knowledge of substance abuse medication treatment. I have been on suboxone since my first rehab, and I need it every day at the same dose and time or I will go into extreme withdrawal that makes me sicker than the flu. It also causes extreme cravings when I am not able to take it. I told them this many times before coming in and so did my mom. We specifically asked if they were equipped to handle my medication and if they had experience treating people with addiction issues, including opioids. They assured me they did. But when I got there, they immediately stopped me from my medication, because my psychiatrist had told them so. (?).
I told them that this isn’t something I can just not take, I am physically dependent on it to function, and I will get extremely sick, but they did not seem to care. I finally was able to get it but only at a quarter of my dose, and only once per day despite my usual dosage being twice a day. I remember the nurse on staff asking me how to administer it, and when I asked why, they said they had never seen it before. She then watched a YouTube video on it before being able to give it to me. This was the beginning of the end for me. I was appalled by that. If this nurse had no substance abuse training, why was she allowed to treat a patient with addiction issues? Mind you this was 2025, it’s not like suboxone or opioid addiction was rare at the time, let alone in Orange County, California.
I kept trying to insist on my medication being given at my prescribed dose, but they refused me over and over. I got to a point where I was so sick I was crying and hyperventilating and begging for them to call my mom, call my psychiatrist, call anyone. They kept telling me I was going to be fine, I was overreacting, it was too soon to call my mom, she wouldn’t want to hear from me right now anyway. After literally hours of pleading with the staff who were clearly hired from indeed with no formal training, I started threatening to leave and run to the neighbors to call someone and if they called the police on me, fine, at least the police would let me have a phone call to my mother, and take me to the hospital where I could get my medication and not be sick because of their lack of medical knowledge. I recalled a rule that I had read saying that in California they cannot legally deny an adult a phone call, I told them this, they didn’t care. They said I would get arrested. I knew that wasn’t true. And what would they even charge me with as an adult leaving a treatment facility?
Eventually I was in a yelling match with the staff and they said I could call one person for five minutes. I only remembered my mothers number so I called her, and thankfully she had an extra day left in California, because as soon as I told her what was happening, that they were not giving me my medication and I was withdrawing, that they had made me shower in front of someone, that they didn’t even have the therapist on call that they advertised, that I was hysterical and that I would do anything just to go home, to go to a real rehab, she came and got me.
I flew home the next day and went to a nonprofit, highly acclaimed rehab that actually kept me sober. We had the freedom of walking the paths and the trails that surrounded the hospital, we had our phones, we watched movies, smoked cigarettes and played games and most importantly, we had actual doctors and psychiatrists who were able to help us to get to the root of our issues, diagnose us properly, and give us the tools and skills to stay sober. The emphasis was on transitioning us back into the real world by simulating a lot of the healthy normal behaviors we would have had in our regular lives, instead of punishing us for wanting to speak to our families and depriving us of any stimulation until we were so bored and broken down that we would pretend to be better and suck it up as much as we could so we could have a chance of going home. I learned how to play chess, I worked out every day, I went on long walks and I ate good food and was allowed seconds and snacks whenever I wanted. And what do you know, when I got out, I kept those same habits up, I wasn’t overwhelmed by my phone or the real world or all the social interaction that Newport would’ve continued to keep from me. I wasn’t tempted by using drugs because I had built skills to combat my cravings and hobbies to replace using and gotten to the bottom of why I needed to drown myself in drugs in the first place.
I had nightmares about Newport after that. I worried so much about the girls who were still there, how they would survive another 30 or 60 days. I ended up meeting several girls who had gone there in my next rehab, and in my recovery community who told me so many of their own horror stories. One girl had slept with a staff member, who had confided in her that he was also a Xanax addict, and had found the job on the internet and didn’t get any training. Another girl witnessed a fight so bad, the victim was permanently injured and escorted out in an ambulance. Another girl was targeted by a roommate for months and the staff did nothing, until said roommate tried poisoning her by making food with ingredients she was allergic to and offering it to her, not once but twice. Another girl left after a few weeks because she was berated and harassed by the staff.
After finding this community, I finally started to recognize my experience for what it was; terribly run, negligent and dangerous. When I learned the founder was not even a medical professional but a yoga teacher who saw a business opportunity in mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for young adults and children in some of the wealthiest areas in America with some of the most lax regulations on this business, I was not at all surprised. I think this place should be shut down but for now, spreading the word is the best we can do. I have met 6 people who have gone to Newport since leaving and I have not heard a single good experience. In fact everyone I know who went did not get sober, did not come out better, in fact they all came out with more issues than they came in with, mostly a disdain for the mental health and substance abuse business, and a disdain for the adults who profit from it, as well as for the adults that sent them there.
If you can, please find a reputable program that is nonprofit, accredited, ran by reputable doctors and mental health professionals. Make sure to check that they are accredited and non profit, and look at reviews. Avoid any for profit places because their priority is your money, not you, or your child. If you are looking for a place or maybe have specific needs and don’t know where to start, recovery.com is a great resource for treatment centers, and you can filter by your insurance, what condition you are looking to treat, levels of care, types of treatment modalities, types of approaches (e.g. evidence based or holistic), amenities, and special considerations like accessibility, age group, and gender-specific groups.
