A Young Woman's Recovery from Devastating Addiction

This is the story of a young woman I recently met and had a chance to interview on her recovery from addiction: Three short years ago, I was smoking crystal meth and snorting OxyContin every day. I was completely hopeless and out of control. My life was spent dancing on a pole in a nightclub, just to be able to afford the next hit that I was going to take in the club’s bathroom.

Self-respect did not exist. Instead, it was replaced by a false sense of confidence that I exhibited to all those who came in contact with me. I hated my parents, my life, and myself. I thought that drugs helped me feel “normal.” I didn’t realize that the drugs just kept the more basic problems out of sight.

On October 9, 2005, I hit that "bottom" that you hear addicts talk about. That moment is as fresh for me as yesterday.

That moment came when I was all alone, sitting in a hospital emergency room. I was covered in blood and looking through my cell phone for someone to come help me. I saw the other people in the ER all had family or friends with them. None of the “friends” I had been getting high with for years would come help me. My family refused to have anything to do with me.

I’d started bleeding heavily a few hours before. Just before I drove myself to the ER, I shot up crystal meth and OxyContin. In the ER, I found out that I was four months pregnant and miscarrying. I was so out of touch that I didn’t even know I was pregnant.

For hours, the nurses monitored my hormone levels as I waited for my unborn child to die inside me. Finally, the doctor came in and let me know that last hit I had taken had killed my baby. Trembling and hysterical, I called my mother. She didn't believe anything I told her because, like a typical addict, I had been lying to her and manipulating her for years.

That was the moment I hit bottom. Instead of calling anyone else to help, I turned my cell phone around and took a video of myself, makeup smeared down my face from crying. I told myself in that video, “Remember this moment.”

For the rest of this story, please visit: A Young Woman's Recovery. Or visit the website for Narconon Arrowhead.

The Road to a Miracle: From Hell’s Angel to Helping Addicts Achieve Drug-Free Lives

It was a long road from being a Hell’s Angel addicted to amphetamines to finally becoming a productive drug-free individual spending his life helping others get off drugs.

The road started in New Jersey where George Veliskakis grew up. It then led through the Hell’s Angels and amphetamines and then through a heroin addiction George battled while running a boxing gym. Fortunately, the road finally arrived at a drug-free life in which he could help others overcome the addiction problems he had suffered from.

George’s first encounter with drugs came after he lost an eye while being abused by other kids. “They were teasing me about being Greek and one of them accidentally stabbed me in the eye with a knife,” George explained. While in the hospital, one of the nurses convinced George that he needed a painkiller for the eye injury. “I only realized years later what happened,” he went on. “The nurses wanted to get some morphine for their own use so they got me to ask for a painkiller when I wasn’t even in pain. They gave me a little, laughed when I got high then they got high themselves. Many years later when I got injured and actually needed painkillers, these memories came back to me and I figured out what had been going on.”

In his 20s, George joined the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club. He began to use and sell amphetamines and other drugs and spent two terms in jail. After the second jail term, he decided to get clean and return to the athletic world that had helped him succeed when he was a young man.

To read the rest of this article, please go to: From Hells Angel to Helping Addicts Achieve Drug-Free Lives. Or visit the website for Narconon Arrowhead.

Young Vancouver Musician Restores His Goals After Overcoming Cocaine Addiction

I recently had the opportunity to interview one of our graduates, Jordan Field. Jordan is a very talented young musician from Vancouver, British Columbia. His story is a reminder that is it possible to leave addiction behind if you have the right program. Here's the beginning to his story. To finish the story, just click the link at the bottom.

Like a lot of teenagers, Jordan Field was rebellious in his teenage years. However, not every rebellious teen becomes addicted to cocaine when they hit their early twenties, but Jordan did. Fortunately, Jordan found a drug rehab that taught him the life skills he needs to live drug-free from now on, freeing him to concentrate on his musical talents.

“I’ve been a musician and a dancer most of my life,” Jordan said. “But when I got into using cocaine and ecstasy, I lost sight of my goals completely.” Somehow, Jordan managed to keep his drug use a secret from his family. “I was staying up for three or four days at a time on cocaine. Finally it hit me that if I want to succeed in life and in my musical career, it won’t involve drugs.”

To finish this story, please go to: Young Musician Restores Goals. Or visit the website for Narconon Arrowhead.

New Booklet Supports Efforts to Conquer Addiction

New Guide to Addiction Recovery for a Lifetime Supports Senator Jim Webb's Efforts to Conquer Drug Abuse and Addiction. As acknowledged by Senator Jim Webb in this month’s hearing of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, America’s drug war has failed to curb the numbers of citizens abusing and becoming addicted to drugs.

The most recent National Survey of Drug Use and Health reported record-breaking levels of illicit drug abuse. Other federal agencies report rapidly multiplying numbers of Americans in custody and hundreds of billions of dollars spent each year in a vain attempt to curb the problem.

In 2006, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 23 million Americans aged 12 or older needed treatment for illicit drug or alcohol abuse. The Bureau of Justice Statistics cites more than half a million more were in custody for drug charges.

“These raw figures by themselves don’t tell the whole tale,” stated Gary Smith, the Executive Director of Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. “You have to look at the fact that those needing treatment have families and that more than twelve million of them are employed either full-time or part-time."

For the entire press release, please go to: New Guide to Addiction Recovery for a Lifetime.. Or visit the website at Narconon Arrowhead.

SALVIA: Hallucinogenic drug legal in most states

While many people have never even heard of Salvia divinorum, an estimated 750,000 Americans not only knew about it but consumed it last year. Salvia divinorum is a variety of sage plant, fully legal in most states, that is used by those looking for a drug-induced altered perception experience.

Depending on how the drug is taken, onset of the effects may just take seconds and last for five minutes to half an hour. The Drug Enforcement Agency lists these effects of the drug: Perceptions of bright lights, vivid colors and shapes; distortion of body movements and body or objects; state of feeling unwell; uncontrolled laughter; a sense of loss of body; overlapping realities; hallucinations; incoordination; dizziness; slurred speech.

Salvia is acquired through the internet or from retail stores in states where it is not yet illegal. The effects are so powerful and uncontrolled that it’s recommended that new users or those about to use a high potency of the drug have a “sitter,” a person who remains sober and looks out for the safety of the drug user.

There are no federal laws controlling its possession or use. Twelve states have made this drug illegal or regulate its sale and use while thirteen more states have pending legislation. For the last two years, a debate has been waged online and in various media about the need to prohibit the possession of the substance. But once you’re outside the circle of those interested in taking or controlling mind-altering drugs, the name Salvia divinorum may draw a blank among parents, school officials and even some law enforcement personnel.

The most vivid way of finding out for oneself what this drug is like is to tune in to www.YouTube.com. Do a search for “salvia” and more than four thousand results will come up. Watch a few of these videos and then decide for yourself how you think the drug should be handled.

“Young people who are not educated about drugs and their dangers may try Salvia or other drugs just because they hear their friends talking about them,” said Ryan Thorpe, Director of Admissions of Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation and education centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. “Peer pressure is one of the biggest influences in the initiation of drug use and in the decision to continue to use drugs. Unfortunately, just a few uses of some of the drugs our young people use is enough to get them addicted. Preventing drug use initiation is far easier and less expensive than rehabilitation.”

For more than forty years, the Narconon network of more than 120 centers around the world has restored drug and alcohol abusers and addicts to a clean and sober lifestyle. The Narconon program was founded in 1966 by William Benitez in Arizona State Prison, and is based on the humanitarian works of L. Ron Hubbard. For more information on how you can help a loved one addicted to drugs or alcohol, contact Narconon Arrowhead at 1-800-468-6933 or visit the Narconon Arrowhead website. Or visit the Narconon Arrowhead website.

Understanding Addiction and How to Heal Addicted Lives

If you've ever been baffled by addiction, you're not alone. Family members and close friends are commonly baffled by the phenomena their loved ones go through -- often for years before they realize what they are up again.

The manifestations of addiction are very often missed by parents, wives and employers. All they know is that they are having problems with a loved one. They are missing work, money is suddenly in short supply, there are lost days and weeks and tempers are short.

To help educate the public on addiction so they seek help in time to save the addict, and to provide the true data about how addiction is truly eliminated, Narconon Arrowhead has published the booklet Healing Addicted Lives.

An article describing the availability of this booklet can be found here: Healing Addicted Lives article

The booklet can be read online at: HAL booklet