A Heroin and Cocaine Addict Learns to Take Control
of His Life
At 20 years of age, Vincenzo has already been through the horrors of drug addiction. Starting in high school with marijuana, he soon progressed to shooting heroin and cocaine. He describes his life like this:
“I started abusing drugs in high school. I was an athlete—I did wrestling and played football. I had a lot of friends and was very successful in sports. Then I began experimenting with marijuana and drinking alcohol every day.”
He continued:
“In my senior year, I got into painkillers because I got an injury from wrestling. As soon as I started the painkillers, everything spiraled out of control. I started taking them every day and I couldn’t get enough so I moved on to stronger painkillers like OxyContin. Then my money started diminishing and I started selling drugs to support my habit. I started robbing people. My life was slowly going into the gutter.”
Vincenzo describes how his relationships were destroyed. His family didn’t trust him because he stole from them. His friends stopped hanging out with him. He lost girlfriends. Finally, he decided to get help. He got into a Twelve Step program but got high again as soon as he got out. A few months later he tried another Twelve Step program that lasted 30 days. He also got high again, this time while in rehab.
After getting involved with gangs, dealing drugs and getting arrested a number of times, he tried yet another rehab program and feared he wasn’t going to succeed. So he asked his mother and she found Narconon Louisiana and got her son on a plane. Immediately upon arrival, he was optimistic. He could see this was different than other programs.
Narconon is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program that is one of the most successful in the field. One of the numerous positive points about Narconon is that the individual is not simply told what is wrong with him or that he will always be an addict. The staff at Narconon know that addiction can be overcome, that cravings can be reduced or even eliminated and that a person can live a life without turning to drugs or alcohol ever again.
One important phase of the program is a series of life skill courses that educate a recovering addict about how to live a drug-free life. The materials presented in these courses teach a student how to improve conditions in life, how to choose friends and associates that will support a sober life and how to gain back high personal values and integrity. There are many life-changing tools on these courses that improve chances of lasting recovery. According to Vincenzo, “I started learning new things from the material, like how to live on a day-to-day basis and how to interact with people. This program helps you take control of your life.”