The Other Side of the Mirror

As a child who grew up with parents who are addicts, I constantly found myself wanting to give up all hope that they would ever change. It was a constant battle between my head and my heart, deciding whether or not they deserved yet another chance. It eventually got to the point where their addictions were now affecting every single aspect of my life.

The thing with drug addiction is that not only does it affect the individual who is using, but it also affects the people around them. In some cases, it even affects their community. I believe that is something that my parents never fully understood. They had a selfish type of mentality to where regardless of what they did; they let themselves believe that they were the only ones being affected. When I had realized this, I was so angry with them and, unfortunately, I stayed angry for a long time. Because of my lack of ability to truly understand my parent’s addiction, my personality and attitude turned bitter. I was convinced that my relationship with my parents was permanently damaged because their drugs were more important than I was. From then on, my relationship was very challenging and I constantly struggled to understand their addiction.

Since working at Narconon Arrowhead, I have gained a better understanding of drug and alcohol addiction and it has given me some insight on ways to help my parents, and how to better sympathize with what they are dealing with. Not only do I get the privilege of helping people to turn their lives around, but I feel as though working at Narconon Arrowhead has given me hope again at repairing our broken relationship. My time as an employee here at Narconon has been remarkably rewarding and for me, that is substantial.

Kelly, Narconon Arrowhead Staff Member