Taking Responsibility for My Life

I was born and grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, in the area known as Motor City. I had a good life growing up. I was a good athlete, played hockey, had lots of friends, and even built and raced my own race car when I was 17. Life was fun.

I did drink a bit on the weekend and dabbled in marijuana, which was a common drug for teens at that time, but drugs really became a problem for me when I was 29. I had a back injury, which started me down the opiate painkiller path, followed shortly by the loss of my father and grandparents, all of whom I was close to.

I started using heroin, and my life went downhill fast after that. I lost my house, my job, and most of the people in my life, including my kids and their mother. I went from being a productive member of society with a family and a good job to living in an abandoned house, begging and stealing every day.

Fortunately, my mother and my son’s grandmother stuck with me. My ex-girlfriend’s brother had earlier had a drug problem and had gone to Narconon, and had been sober for about 10 years, so they knew this program worked, and they told me that if I was serious about handling my addiction, they would help me get to Narconon.

“They knew this program worked and they told me that if I was serious about handling my addiction, they would help me get to Narconon.”

I went through the program, but I did not take it seriously the first time, and within a month, I was back on drugs. My mother and my son’s grandmother agreed to give me another chance, and this time I was ready. I knew this was my last chance to get my life right or die.

The staff at Narconon were great. I confessed that I had not really done the program the first time, that I just did it to get through it, but that this time I was going to do it right. The Narconon staff did not make me wrong for going back on drugs. They could see I really had made the decision to handle my addiction and told me that we were not going to worry about the past; we were just going to go forward. And that is what I did. One of my biggest wins on the program was taking responsibility for my life and for what I had done to myself and my family, and taking the steps needed to change that forever.

My graduation was great. I had just found out the day before that I had been accepted by Narconon to train to help others. I had also just had to go to court to deal with an old criminal charge, and this went very well, with the judge happy to see that I had taken action to handle the addiction and was actively working to be part of society again.

I worked at Narconon for a year, helping others get off drugs. I then got back the same job that I had before the drugs took over my life, and am now the head of my department. I am very close to my kids, who have grown up and have good careers, and I am happily married to a lady I met while working at Narconon.

My advice to others who have drug abuse problems is this ̶̶̶̶ life is precious and full of possibilities and accomplishments to be had, but not if you are doing drugs. Don’t throw it away.

R.P., Narconon Graduate