Counseling While Keeping My Addiction Secret

Here is a great perspective from one of our staff members here at Narconon Suncoast on his experiences with drug counseling and why seeking treatment ended up being the best solution for him in the end.

Working in the field of addiction, I have gotten a little frustrated seeing someone go through the same difficulties I did. When someone is reaching out to get help for their daughter, son, brother, or sister, the apparent solution to their drug abuse problem is “let’s take him to get some counseling.” Now before I go any further, I am not bashing on counselors or anyone in the mental health industry. The whole idea of this is to give reality on misdiagnosing, and hopefully, you can help someone handle their drug addiction and not waste any time.

Essentially, drug or alcohol abuse is a solution to a problem in life. No matter the circumstance, you can usually dig deep enough and find something down the line that led them to use drugs as a solution to a problem.

I started smoking weed at a very young age and was hanging out with the wrong group of friends. I was unaware of these people’s characteristics and their true intentions. Fast forward after following this trend for 10 more years, I was taking Xanax, Ambien, muscle relaxers, alcohol, stimulants, and anything that could dissolve in my mucous membrane.

Since I was zombified and not a true human being at this point, I started to have suicidal thoughts when coming off drugs, and my family did not know exactly what was truly going on and were very worried. So of course, the next step was to take me to counseling. Every time, I would sit in the waiting room, dreaming about how I was going to get high when I was done with the counseling session. The whole idea of these counseling sessions was to evaluate what exactly was causing these problems I was having, and figure out a solution to make it better, and improve day to day life. The problem with bringing someone who has a drug abuse problem to counseling sessions, is very often the person using drugs is going to keep it a secret, because of the risk of judgment, and most of these street drugs and the activities that coincide with this lifestyle are very illegal. So essentially, we are addressing all the problems that are going on as a result of drug use but never really pinpointing the real issue. Unfortunately, you are then susceptible to being put on an anti-depressant, or other psychiatric drugs. Now we have a drug abuse problem with a side of psychiatric drugs. This can be scarring to someone’s mental health.

Thankfully with the love of my family, they were able to pool together, end this cycle, and find me a long-term treatment center called Narconon Suncoast. Here I was able to get all of these drug residuals out of my body and get down to the root of what has been troubling me all my life, handle it and rebuild the relationships I destroyed throughout my drug addiction.

My advice to anyone wanting to help someone with an addiction is to reach out to someone who specializes in addiction and shoot for a long-term treatment program away from their location, tailored to help them directly handle these issues. If you have a loved one struggling, do not hesitate to make that call.

Devin B.—Narconon Suncoast Staff Member