My Life Completely Revolved Around Drugs and Alcohol
Before coming to Narconon Suncoast, my life completely revolved around drugs and alcohol. My addiction evolved from an after work activity to using just to get through work, to a full time job in of itself. I began taking pills to wake up and start drinking in the morning. I took more pills in the afternoon to continue drinking and then took even more to finally go to sleep at night…just to do it all again the next day. I’m lucky to still be alive.
Even with the amount of drugs and alcohol I was already consuming, I still wasn’t numb enough, which resulted in me shooting up heroin to try and completely shut out the world.
Before arriving to Narconon Suncoast, I had not left my apartment in weeks and throwing up blood was just an ordinary occurrence before my daily drinking would even commence.
Each portion of the Narconon program had its own significance in aiding my recovery. Sauna was absolutely vital. I began eating right and exercising, slowly regaining normal habits that I had forsaken while using drugs. By the end of sauna, after purging all the drugs from my system, I’d regained energy that I had not had for years and physically felt the best that I’ve felt in as long as I could remember.
The Objectives Course gave me a great sense of control, something I had lost along the way. By working with another person, I also gained a sense of understanding of other people and stopped being selfish and started having considerations for others. The Objectives Course also took me out of the past and into the present, something that I had a difficult time with on my own.
The one-on-one counseling and Life Skills Courses were beneficial in that I took an unbiased look at the people in my life and my actions. It was of no big surprise that while using, I had only surrounded myself with people who wanted to bring me down, I shut out my family and only had evil intentions. These courses also forced me to examine my relationship with my family. While I had previously simply blamed drugs for everything being the way it was, I found there were issues stemming from a lack of communication the whole time. Upon having these realizations, I was then able to actually hold a conversation with my family for the first time in months.
Finally, I figured out a battle plan that would help guide me toward staying clean and sober. I found a job that would provide me with good support and put together an overview of all the tools I had gained that I would continue to use when I left. Though I came to Narconon broken and unsure of who I even was anymore, I’ve regained my confidence in my abilities, have a strong sense of self, regained my relationship with my family and finally feel able to go out and be productive and lead a fulfilling life!
C.J.—Narconon Graduate
