Learning How to Smile Again after Addiction

Addiction destroys a person’s emotions, his ability to experience life to the fullest. Drug and alcohol addiction turns a happy person into someone morose and isolated, unable to be productive or face the normal problems that life throws his way.

David knows exactly how a life can be messed up when addicted. He said, “When I was addicted, I really didn’t have a life at all. For twenty years I had been abusing everything from alcohol to methamphetamine to prescription drugs. I was living as a blank. I had no emotions at all. I wasn’t experiencing life at all.”

The Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation program can change all that. It did for David. This effective program addresses addiction from all sides, supporting the recovering addict in his recovery. The treatment addresses the reasons that cravings can come back to haunt someone even after he has stopped using drugs, and provides knowledge and tools that help a recovering addict discover why he began using illicit drugs in the first place. He learns how he can repair the damage done in the past and improve situations in his life.

David said, “When I got into withdrawal, I was scared like most people are going to be when they get into a situation like that. But the staff in withdrawal just made it incredibly easy for me.” He added, “I remember everybody around me was smiling. I thought that’s strange. How can anybody be that happy? What I came to realize was there wasn’t something wrong with these people. It was ME! They were the ones who were normal. I was the one who had forgotten how to smile.”

Narconon treatment also has a unique detoxification program for those in recovery. It flushes out the residual drugs that have built up in the tissues in the body. These toxic residues are known to be involved in the activation of cravings, even long after someone has ceased drug use.

David stated, “The first time I saw a real change in myself was about mid-way through the sauna portion of the program. I had been a dead person for twenty years. I had never even noticed how beautiful things were, how things smelled. And as my body cleansed, I came awake. I realized I was a person worthy of living.”

On the final phase of the program, each participant studies special life skills information given in the form of short but powerful courses. These courses provide important material that give reliable tools for a recovering addict to use to remain drug-free and improve and rebuild his life.

David commented on his gains from this study. “I got something from every part of the program, but the thing that stands out is the day I learned why I started drugs in the first place. Had I not figured that out, what would have prevented me from making the same mistakes again? Now that I’ve finished the program I can’t even explain how my life is going to change. For the first time in my life I can look anybody in the eyes and hold my head up high. I know now that regardless of what comes upon me in my life, what kinds of difficulties I face, I can handle them without turning back to drugs. I can have a happy, productive life - for the first time in my life.”

The Narconon program is one of the most successful recovery programs in the world and has saved thousands of addicted lives. David knows. He now has a new life without drugs. He can smile again.

David graduated from Narconon Arrowhead in Oaklahoma.