I Look Forward to Every Day Now

I had a good childhood but I fell into the wrong crowd and started hanging out with people who were using, and it all went downhill from there. I started using pot and pills when I was about 15.

Drugs affected me horribly. I lost everything. I cut myself off from my family and friends. I thought I was just doing my thing. I thought I had everything under control.

When I first moved to Northern Florida, I ended up using meth with a needle. I remember one day I was trying to get high and I couldn’t. I was praying to God to help me get high but at the same time praying to God to help me get off. That’s when I Googled rehab and found Narconon.

I avoided it for three months, but nobody ever gave up on me.

One day, my mom came into my house and walked in on me trying to clean my arms off. I had blood running down my arms and must have had about 60 needle pricks. She took the needle from me and hugged me.

She had come with my daughter, who saw me in the bathroom. A friend told her to “give mommy a minute,” and she responded, “That lady in there is not my mom.”

I had hit rock bottom. I was out of my mind.

I didn’t want a rehab that would put me on Suboxone. I thought if I was going to quit, I had to quit fully. So I found Narconon, and it completely changed my life.

When I first got to Narconon, I was very open-minded to the process.

One thing I liked was that everybody I encountered there had been through the program. I wasn’t sitting there talking to a counselor who had never smoked marijuana before. They knew what I was going through.

And I never for a moment felt like they thought down on me. It was like they were the family I didn’t know I had.

Completing Detox was a win. I was finally sober. For the first time, I was actually clean.

A big thing for me was also learning to be okay with myself and the things I had done.

My favorite part of the program was Objectives. I learned to forgive myself. I learned a lot about myself like that it was okay to just be still. I didn’t have to always be running around finding something to do. It was fine to just be myself.

I feel that graduating was one of my greatest accomplishments. I never fully committed to anything before and finished it.

Narconon is totally different than any other rehab.

I changed my life on my own. I had help for sure. But I made a decision to change my life forever and I completed it.

I look forward to every day now. I can be the great mother that I know I can be. I am now learning substance abuse counseling so that I can help other people get through the same thing I went through.

My relationship with my family is good now, and they trust me. I am able to be present with my children and in their daily lives.

I had to just focus on me and put myself into it. And now in April, I will be 4 years sober.

“To anyone caught in addiction now, there is help out there. If you want it, you can achieve it. There are people out there that can help. Never give up. It is possible to have a life on the other side of addiction. And it is wonderful over here.”

To anyone caught in addiction now, there is help out there. If you want it, you can achieve it. There are people out there that can help. Never give up. It is possible to have a life on the other side of addiction. And it is wonderful over here.

Be mindful of what people you allow yourself to stay in contact with and of the behaviors you allow others to bring into your life. Keep boundaries, and be completely honest with yourself. Just keep going. Stick it out. So many more good days are on the other side.

—Lisa M., Narconon Suncoast Graduate