Narconon Salvages Lives from the Grip of Addiction

Your support of the IAS is helping to save lives every day with the Narconon program. This is just one of the vital programs funded by IAS grants. Advance your status today! DONATE NOW

Thanks to the dedication and support of IAS members worldwide, grants from the IAS are making possible the establishment of model Narconons on every continent of Earth.

Every day, these centers are helping to rehabilitate and save lives from the destruction of drug and alcohol abuse. Here are recent successes from Narconon graduates:

“When I arrived at Narconon I was a broken man, I had given up fighting my addiction and was basically preparing myself for homelessness and from there an even darker existence. After arriving I was still hesitant to have any faith in myself, but the Withdrawal staff helped me gain back a portion of myself because they wanted to help and I could tell. In my experience that was a rare trait.

“I made gains and started feeling better. At that time, I decided to put my all into working the program to the best of my ability. I wanted what this program had to offer desperately and did everything I could to get it. Fortunately, the people here were more than happy to help me with my goals.

“After finishing the sauna, I felt immensely better physically and Objectives cleared me mentally. I was worried about writing my life story and overts, but wrote what I could remember and wrote truthfully. Never once did I feel like I was being judged or that others were looking down on me. It was a fantastic and very freeing feeling. I will be forever grateful to the staff for that.

“Working the Life Skills portion got me much better prepared for the life I want and helped me relearn the person I wanted to be. While here, I have improved my relationship with my parents and started to repair my relationship with my wife and kids. They can see the change in me and are proud of me for the first time in a very long time.

“Narconon has given me something I was certain I would never have again: hope. From doing this I feel like a new person and want to see what my future can be instead of dreading it. I am so grateful, words can’t describe it, to all the staff and students for helping me regain myself through this. My goal now is to join staff and try my best to give back what I have been given.” —J.S., Graduate, Narconon Arrowhead

“There was a time in my life when I thought addiction was an incurable disease. No one knew I was using. Not my family, not my real friends—only a couple of so-called friends who didn’t really care.

“In a desperate attempt to get clean, I turned to methadone. I drove to a clinic far from my house every day to take it and, while it kept me from getting sick, it didn’t fix the real problem. I kept using, even while on methadone, which was incredibly dangerous.

“I remember one afternoon, waking up in a bus station restroom. I had a needle still stuck in my arm, and I had been out cold for several hours. My first thought when I came to wasn’t about my health or safety; it was about whether the drugs I had just bought were still in my coat pocket. They weren’t. Someone had come into that restroom, seen me lying there, possibly dead, and instead of helping, they stole the drugs right out of my coat.

“That was one of the lowest moments of my life. I had tried to quit before, many times in fact. The longest I ever managed was a couple of months, but I always ended up right back where I started. I knew I needed help. I couldn’t do it alone anymore. The next morning, I went to my father and told him everything. The very next day, I was on a plane to Narconon. If you know anything about methadone, you’ll understand how brutal the detox process is. It took me 30 days before I could even get a few hours of broken sleep each night. But slowly, life began to return.

“Narconon changed everything for me. For the first time in years, I felt better off drugs than on them. I stayed and completed the entire program, and something amazing happened—I realized I didn’t need the drugs anymore.

“A few years later, my life took a turn for the better. I met my wife, an amazing, beautiful and intelligent attorney. We got married, had a daughter who is now 13, and together we built a thriving law practice. Today, there’s no struggle in my life. I’m genuinely happy.

“It has been over 22 years since I got clean. Not a day goes by when I even think about drugs. I’m not the same person I was. I’m not a drug addict anymore. Narconon saved my life.” —J.G., Narconon Graduate