Narconon Gave Him Back to Us: A Parent’s Story of Hope

 

Our son was a kind, sensitive, extremely honest, hard-working and intelligent young person. He loved reading and was accepted to several colleges with a scholarship.

His drug use started with drinking alcohol and doing marijuana in high school and he moved on to more serious drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and Xanax in college.

It became apparent to us as a family that something was very wrong, as he became disengaged from us and the rest of the family. He spent too much time in his room alone, started to lie and make poor choices as to his friends, driving, and school. We felt that we no longer knew him and had no control of the situation and would lose him to an overdose or accident. We also felt that he was not happy with his life ― he knew he could do better, and he had lost self-confidence but the addiction and dependence on drugs had taken over, and he was no longer capable of quitting.

Then one day he took our car on an expressway ride while we were out of town and had an accident which it is a miracle that he survived. That was the turning point for us, we knew we had to do something different. He had been in both residential and outpatient drug rehab facilities in the past, (one psychiatrist put him on antidepressants which only added to the list of the many substances in his body). AA, residential programs, counselling. . . we had tried many, but nothing had worked when he had the accident.)

In desperation, my husband searched the internet for a residential program that was completely different from anything we had tried. We wanted a program that would not release him until he was better, (rather than after a pre-determined amount of time)

We chose Narconon because it had a different approach and because Narconon did not release the patient until true progress had been made. We liked the concept of the sauna part of the program to detoxify cells and fatty tissues of the harmful residuals left from many years of abusing substances.

Our son also attributes this and length of time in the program to his success in staying off drugs. He said in other programs he was just “biding his time ― Narconon helped him “reset” his life. Also, the concept/process of “detoxification” seemed as it might help. The amount of time he stayed at Narconon was a big factor in him staying off drugs.

The staff that we met seemed to understand addiction at a level we had not encountered in other programs, and as our son moved through the program he became healthy and fit for the first time in many years. He returned to being the person we knew and loved before the drug use started. He gained confidence in his ability to have power over addiction, make healthy choices, and he had the drive to work towards achieving his goals in life. Our son continues to thank us for sending him to Narconon.

Since leaving Narconon his life has gone well. He found employment that was a good match for his personality, his employer paid for him to complete college while working full-time, he graduated Summa Cum Laud, is successful in his career, owns a house and has a lovely wife and child. We have a great relationship with them.

“Narconon taught him that he can have control, and he has the power to end the addiction. Narconon gave him his life back!”

To quote our loved one: “other programs tell the alcoholic/addict they are powerless. Narconon taught him that he can have control, and he has the power to end the addiction.” Narconon gave him his life back!

Our advice to other parents who have an addicted child/family member is to never give up hope, and to be open to programs that may be different than those commonly recognized by the medical/psychology/counselling fields.

M.P., Mother of Narconon Graduate