Stories from Narconon Arrowhead Graduates

The following are stories from our Narconon Arrowhead graduates. We thought you might appreciate seeing how the Narconon program can totally change a person’s life around and enable them to live a drug-free life. Here are some reviews from our graduates:

Lou’s Story

This Narconon graduate describes “the guilt feeling of how I hurt my family and of course, how I hurt myself” that kept him trapped in his addiction. Lou described his life before drug rehab by saying, “I felt lost, I felt depressed, down and out and basically hopeless. The only way to get out of the guilt feeling and depression was to use more drugs.” Each time he went back to using cocaine, he wouldn’t feel the guilt or depression anymore, but of course, he was continuing to destroy himself and his relationships.

This is a common trap for those who become addicted. Depression and guilt are natural results of abusing drugs. There is a physical effect of the depletion and toxicity from the drugs themselves that can help cause depression, and it is understandable also that a person would feel depressed when his (or her) life is crumbling around him.

Guilt results from the harm one does to oneself and others. Every act of buying more drugs, of using the money that should benefit the family or the business for drugs instead creates more guilt. But of course, that next use of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, alcohol or prescription drugs seems to make that guilt go away.

Finally, his family insisted that he find help. It wasn’t easy for him to make the decision to go to rehab, but when he did, it was a complete turning point for him. When he went through withdrawal at Narconon and got clean, it was the first time he had been free from drugs for more than a few days at a time in several years. As he proceeded through the rest of the Narconon drug rehab program, he had a chance to flush out the old drug toxins that could contribute to cravings and depression on the Narconon New Life Detoxification, one phase of the overall recovery program. In the life skills phase of the recovery program, Lou found relief from the guilt of the past and learned how to repair the relationships that were damaged by addiction. When he graduated, he finally was able to proudly say, “Narconon has given me a new life. My family loves me and I love my family.”

Amanda’s Story

After repeated injuries, Amanda became addicted to her pain medications. Use gradually turned into abuse and she relied on prescription fraud to support her addiction when her doctor cut her off.

When Amanda became a prescription drug abuser, she joined seven million other Americans in this habit. And like most others in this situation, the abuse of opiates resulted in a deterioration of her health, relationships, and personal integrity.

She was well on her way to losing everything when she found the Narconon program. As she completed this drug rehab program, she found a way to finally turn her life around. Amanda states: “My life was in ruins, my house was being taken away, I hadn’t talked to my family in over five years. If I wasn’t on pills, then I was going through withdraws. It got unmanageable. Now that I have completed the Narconon program, I feel really confident that I can use the tools that were given to me and not go back and use again. And that’s the first time I have felt that way in probably over ten years.”

After completing the Narconon program, Amanda returned to the work she loved—training horses. Like many other Narconon graduates, she found that once she had the tools she needed to face the challenges life presents, she was able to deal with them successfully and maintain her sobriety.

Gena’s Story

Gena was in the process of losing everything to her cocaine habit when she arrived at Narconon. She said, “I’ve been a cocaine user for twenty-five years, off and on. I would try to quit but I never could quit on my own. I’ve been to several rehabs. It was constant turmoil around the house, either with my parents, my children, my husband, whoever. My relationships were all strained because of my drug use.”

Because the rehabs Gena went to did not address the true causes of addiction, she was not able to stay clean afterward and so would return to drug use. Sometimes, the cravings for more drugs don’t let a person stay sober for long after they finish a rehab and return home. And sometimes it is some life event that is too difficult to face that causes a person to escape into drugs again.

Gena was far from being alone in her attraction to this drug. In 2009, nearly 200,000 Americans were admitted to drug treatment with cocaine being their primary problem. However, since the current trend in substance abuse is polydrug use—for example, using heroin and cocaine together or abusing alcohol and cocaine at the same time—many more people are trapped in abusing cocaine than the treatment statistic might indicate.

In 2010, nearly four million people were current cocaine users, meaning they had used the drug in the prior month. This is a drug that is, for some, can be highly addictive. Cocaine also places intense stress upon the body each time it is used, especially the cardiovascular system. This creates the risk of heart attack or cardiac arrest among those who use the drug.

After she completed the Narconon program, Gena reported, “My relationship with my kids now is great. They are proud of how far I have come. They really feel like we are on the road to recovery. My life is back on track. I have more self-confidence than I have had in years and years and years and a lot more self-respect. I feel like I have accumulated a lot of skills that I can go out there and use in life.” Her new life skills served Gena well as she returned to life after drug rehab, using those skills to stay sober for the long term.

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