girlEach drug or alcohol-addicted individual has a personal and unique story in telling what happened to them, and how they reclaimed their life from addiction. In the telling of a personal story, a former addict can reach out to others who are still struggling with addiction, let them know there is a way out; and give them hope for a chance to live a drug-free life once again.

Amanda

Before she arrived at the Narconon Arrowhead drug rehabilitation center in Oklahoma, Amanda says her life was in ruins; and that she had pretty much lost everything. Her house was being taken away from her. Her relationship with her family had deteriorated to the point where she had not talked to them in more than five years.

Amanda says that if she was not on pills—she was “kicking”, and going through withdrawal from the pills. She says it was awful. She would stay in bed “for weeks on end”. She vomited a lot when withdrawing, and would frequently end-up in the emergency room.

“It just got unmanageable”, says Amanda.

Changing Her Life

Amanda arrived at Narconon Arrowhead, and started the first step of the Narconon program: Drug-Free Withdrawal.

She says the staff was really caring; and that staff gets you “up and moving at your own pace.” The staff makes you feel really good about what you are doing, she says.   Ordinarily, she would spend a week in bed when trying to come off the pills, but the Withdrawal staff got her up–and got her moving.

To her surprise, Amanda found that by the third day of being in Drug-Free Withdrawal, she was able to laugh again. It caught her off-guard, as it was not something she expected to be able to do.

Within five days, Amanda was out of Withdraw, and she “felt incredible.” She adds that by the time she go out of the withdrawal phase of the program, she already felt a huge improvement over what she felt like when she walked in.

The Changes

Amanda notes that when she first started seeing big changes in herself as she went through the different phases of the Narconon program was on a Life Skills course she did immediately following the completion of the New-Life Detoxification Program, also called the Narconon Sauna Program.

Doing the course made her realize the parts of her past that bothered her; and doing the course helped her to “get it out of my system”, she says.

Another big point of change for her was another Life Skills course she did shortly thereafter. “I got to write-down all of the wrongs I had done to myself, to my family—and to everyone around me.”

Doing so allowed Amanda to realize just how much she affected everybody else—that it wasn’t just the pills affecting her and taking her down. She realized that with her addiction to the pills, she was taking her whole family down, along with everyone else who loved her.

After the Narconon Program

Amanda shares with the reader that after completing the Narconon program at Narconon Arrowhead, she feels really confident that she can use the tools given to her while on the rehab program in order to have a successful life—and to not go back a use again.

It is the first time she has felt that way in over 10 years, she says. Before that, Amanda really felt like she “was a slave to the drugs”, and that she “was never going to get out of it.”

As a result of getting through the Narconon program, she now feels confident and excited “to get back out there”; to regain the trust of her family, “and to just succeed without drugs—on my own.”

If you or someone you love is still struggling with addiction, please contact us at www.narcononarrowhead.org. We can help.