No One Can Take Away My Freedom—25 Years Sober

Growing up, I was a pretty smart kid. I was an overachiever in school and did very well there. We didn’t have much as kids. My family was lower middle class, but I didn’t miss what I didn’t have. I was happy. I enjoyed wrestling with my dad and brothers and sisters when I was young. We didn’t get to spend much time with him as he worked two 8-hour shifts, so it was special when we did.

I started smoking cigarettes when I was very young—about 8 years old. I didn’t consider it a drug until I tried to quit. Then in 6th grade, I started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. This progressed to amphetamine pills and LSD.

Initially, I thought drugs had a positive effect on my life. I became very popular at parties. It wasn’t until high school that negative things started to occur: arrests, car crashes, and people dying. I got in a lot of trouble as a juvenile and had a lengthy arrest record before I was 18 years old.

There were periods of time that were so bad and the consequences so horrifying that I would vow to stop. It usually coincided with being arrested or forced to go to rehab.

After 22 years of using, I realized that it was a dead end. I wasn’t going to be successful while continuing to use drugs. I had many times decided I was done. I went through multiple traditional treatment programs and only managed short periods of sobriety. The idea that I was an addict and always would be one became a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn’t until I had run out of options and was about to spend the rest of my adult life behind bars that I found out about the Narconon Program.

When they explained to me the Narconon process and how they could rid my body of the residuals that caused cravings, it was the first thing that I had ever heard about addiction that made sense. The idea that it was a disease that was putting thoughts in my head and telling me to use never really sat well with me. I never felt that I was a bad person. I was just doing things that were beyond my ability to control.

Aside from a renewed belief in myself and hopes and dreams again for the future, the thing that Narconon gave me that was most important was the ability to control my life, my thoughts, and my decisions.

One of my biggest gains was from the sauna process. I felt so amazingly good when all the drug residuals and other toxins were out of my body. I didn’t realize I could feel that good physically. It was amazing.

Then something occurred during the next step of the program. I knew positively that real change was occurring for the first time in any treatment process. That actually made me decide that I wanted more of that, and I really applied myself to the rest of the program.

The thing the program gave me most of all was the ability to move forward, no matter the mistakes I made, to pick myself back up and clean myself off and set myself back on the right path without needing intervention by some other party. I knew what to do.

Now I have the ability to have integrity. It’s doing the right thing over a period of time enough for people to trust you. To be viewed as someone that can be trusted. Prior to that, I didn’t even trust myself.

“Now, after being drug-free for 25 years,
I know no one can take away my freedom.”

Now I help others caught in addiction. I help them understand the difference between who they are and how addiction affects the body. What I have discovered is that being of maximum service to others gives me everything I need. I don’t have to plot and plan my own survival. It just seems to work out. I have a purpose for my life and much of what I learned the hard way so to speak, is something that I now can use to help others.

Narconon Arrowhead Graduate