I Have the Confidence That I Can Live a Drug-Free, Fun Life

 

I was born in London and raised in Brighton.

I had a pretty normal life. I played football and cricket—it was a pretty normal suburban upbringing.

One of the happiest moments in my life I can remember before I started doing drugs was going on holiday to the Isle of Wight just before my parents split up and having a really nice holiday.

I started smoking weed when I was about 13 or 14. I started hanging around with the wrong people, people that were older than me and started doing what they were doing. And then, after a while, I realized that I wasn’t hanging around the wrong crowd—I was the wrong crowd.

The first impact I think drugs had on me was that I think I skipped a whole stage of childhood because I was hanging around with older people and doing the things that the older people were doing. I skipped a good two to three years of what should have been the end of my childhood. That turned me into someone who was lying about what I was doing and normalized that behaviour for me as I grew older.

Before I came to Narconon, I’d given up lots of drugs, but I’d never been able to give up being addicted to drugs, and I had kind of accepted that I was just a drug addict. A good friend of mine told me my life doesn’t have to stay that way, and he introduced me to Narconon.

I felt nervous coming here, but everyone made me feel welcome. The students and staff became like a family, I made really good friends here, and I feel I made friends for life.

One of my biggest wins was realizing that alcohol was a big problem in my life and the realization that my problem wasn’t unique, and that there are a lot of other people with similar problems. And probably my biggest win from being at Narconon was that it built confidence I could live drug-free and still have a good, fun life that I never had before that confidence.

I feel happy to be graduating, I am looking forward to seeing my family, and I am looking forward to the future, which I haven’t looked forward to for a long time.

My proudest accomplishment is probably the realization that some of the things I have done in my life have been wrong—looking back on it with a clear head has made me re-evaluate some of the things that I have done in my life.

“My relationship with my family has improved massively since I’ve come to Narconon, and I’m starting to restore some of the trust I’ve lost over the years.”

My relationship with my family has improved massively since I’ve come to Narconon, and I’m starting to restore some of the trust I’ve lost over the years. Completing the course has shown my family that I am willing to change.

My favourite thing about being drug-free now is having a clear head and being able to make decisions with that clear head. There is not a fog around my thinking.

The advice I would you give to someone who is in active addiction now is to get help and to not think about it too much but to just get help when you need it.

—J.P., Narconon United Kingdom Graduate