Helen said that ever since she can remember her life was chaotic. She said that she would have periods of calm, but she compared these times to the quiet before the storm. Helen said that when she was a small child she remembers her parents fighting and her dad leaving. She said that he was supposed to be going on a business trip for a few weeks and he just never came back. She said that she remembers waiting for him by the door of her house everyday, thinking that he would just walk in at some point. He never did.

After her father left, her mother began leaving her with a babysitter that watched some of the other kids in her neighborhood. He was a twenty year old man, and he would watch porn when he thought the kids were sleeping. He eventually got arrested, but not before he did some damage to young Helen’s mind. Helen eventually went to live with grandparents when she was five because her mother lost the desire to care for her.

Helen’s Introduction to Drugs

Helen said that when she lived with her grandparents, she really missed her mom and her dad, but that her life was normal and she was able to do well in school. She said that for that period of time, things were good for her, even though she was not very happy.

When Helen was eleven, her mother decided that she wanted Helen to come back and live with her again. Helen said that as soon as she did, her life took a nose-dive. She had been going to private school while she had been living with her grandparents, which they continued to pay for when she moved back in with her mother. Helen had been used to a strict routine with her grandparents and her mother pretty much let her do whatever she wanted. Helen said that she did not want to do homework or study so she didn’t. She began to make really awful grades, going from an A and B student to a D and F student. Her mother decided that probably the best thing for Helen would be to go to a new school so she was able to get a fresh start. The new school was a public school and it turned out to not be very good idea. Helen was shy and withdrawn and gravitated toward the people in the new school who where the same. There were a couple of girls who stood out amongst the rest as outcasts and Helen quickly befriended them. They were the only people in the seventh grade who were using drugs and it was not long before Helen was using drugs as well.

Helen spent the next three years using as many drugs as possible. By the time she was in ninth grade, she was smoking crack and snorting cocaine. She said that she was also using whatever other drugs she could get her hands on. She said that she was trying to get so high that she no longer existed, but she was unable to do so. No drug was strong enough for her. She snorted anything that she could snort, from Ritalin to over the counter medication. If she could crush it up and put it through a straw up her nose, she would. She said she loved snorting things up her nose.

Helen Gets Clean For the First Time

Eventually Helen’s mother and grandparents found out about what she was doing around the time she was fifteen. Helen says that she is surprised that she was able to hide her drug use as long as she did; her mother and her grandparents where very naïve and thought her strange behavior and attitude where just a part of adolescence. When they did find out, they sent her away to a wilderness school. Helen spent three months there and was able to get clean. She said that when she came back home and started her next year in high school she felt good. She had done lots of hiking and exercise and she felt healthy.

Helen did eventually start using drugs again, but she said she would just smoke pot on occasion. She said that she was able to stay away from harder drugs and that she did not smoke marijuana compulsively, just a few times a months or so.

Helen eventually got involved with harder drugs again, this time prescription opiate pain killers. She said she was not like a lot of other teens she knew. Her teen prescription drug use was mainly confined to snorting Ritalin or taking the occasional valium. She had never used opiates before. She said that when she used opiates is was unlike any other drug she had ever done. She said that it was the drug that she had been looking for when she was heavy on drugs as a young teen. She said she loved opiates as soon as she started taking them. She was going through a very bad emotional crisis at the time because of a mentally abusive boyfriend. He was the one that gave her the pills. She said that the pills numbed all her pain and she was able to get so high on them that nothing bothered her. She took the pills everyday for a year.

One day she woke up and decided she did not want to take the pills anymore. She left her boyfriend and went to stay with her mother. She went through withdrawal and said that she felt terrible for about five days. She started to feel a little better everyday. She eventually reached a point where she did not get any better, but that point was not a good place. She thought about pills constantly. She said that she was able to stay clean for a year, but felt physically terrible everyday. She also suffered from severe depression on and off and said that she felt she had ruined her life. She worried that she would never feel normal again without the pills. Finally, Helen relapsed.

She went on a two month binge and finally called her grandparents and told them she needed to go to a rehab. She told them she needed one that had a detox. They looked on the Internet and found Narconon reviews that explained how the Narconon program helped people feel physically good again and also dealt with the emotional issues that led to a person’s addiction in the first place. This was the program that Helen needed.

Helen says that Narconon gave her life back to her. She said she thought she would never be free from the physical aspect of her addiction and she now feels physically the way she did before she ever used drugs. She says she is happier than she has ever been in her life and she knows that she is going to be able to accomplish whatever she chooses.

• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Prescription ADD/Medications
• Prescription opiate pain medications
• Prescription benzodiazepines such as xanax
• Prescription muscle relaxers

Designer Drugs

The use of harder illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin in teens these days has dropped dramatically, but there has been an increase in the use of designer drugs which are legal to buy.  Most of these designer drugs that are being purchased by teens these days are made to mimic the effects of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Teens are using them because there is no drug test currently on the market that tests for them and also because if they are caught with them in their possession they will not face any legal consequences because they are not illegal to possess.

The designer drugs that mimic cocaine or meth are sold as bath salts or plant food in head shops or gas stations. One does have to be a legal adult to buy them, but teens have gone around that rule for cigarettes and alcohol for decades and do the same for these designer drugs. They are often bought by a legal adult who is then paid a little extra by the teen who is trying to get them or the teen may have a fake ID in their possession. The teens that want them do whatever they have to do to get them.

The worst thing about these designer drugs is that they are so new to the scene that there has not been time for conclusive research to come out about the long term effects of them on a person’s body and brain. It is known that when someone does them over a period of time it is not uncommon for the person to become delusional and start to hallucinate. The have been cases where people under the influence of these drugs got to the point where they were hallucinating constantly. Even when forced or voluntarily admitted to a rehab where they underwent long periods of sobriety, some of these people still continued to suffer from hallucinations.

Spice

The other popular designer drug that a lot of kids are using to avoid getting into trouble, is a marijuana substitute that is known as Spice. Spice is usually a mixture of herbs or dried out plant material that is sprayed with a chemical solution containing synthetic cannabinoids. The use of these drugs has been known to cause effects that natural marijuana does not. These effects include

• Visual and auditory hallucinations
•  Extreme anxiety
•  Rapid heart beat
•  Feelings of suffocation
•  Distortion of size perception
•  Inability to speak
•  Feelings of throat constriction
•  Feelings of inability to exhale all smoke from lungs
•  Impending doom.

There have been quite a few cases of kids smoking Spice that thought that they were going to be affected the same way as they would be from marijuana, only to be rushed to the hospital by parents or friends. Many parents had no idea that their children were even using drugs until their child came to them begging to go the hospital because they felt like they were going to die. There have been a lot of kids who went to the hospital under these conditions and had to be put on respirators to help them breathe until the effects went away. One child had to have his heart restarted twice because it stopped while he was under the influence of Spice. It is not really known why this drug is having this effect on some people. Authorities speculate that it may because the chemicals that are sprayed on the plant material are not regulated and it is not known what the chemicals that are used are. There may be some batches that have more than just synthetic cannabinoids in them. The other thing is that natural marijuana has a chemical in it that acts as a natural anti-psychotic which tones down the psychoactive effects of the natural cannabinoids found in the plant. Scientist believe that without this certain chemical that is found in natural cannabis, more people would have a more dramatic and intense experience when using marijuana that would be similar to the extreme case and experiences that are becoming more common when using the drug called Spice. Yet, because Spice can be bought in a store, it seems like a safer option than smoking natural marijuana to some. Lastly, it has been found that when someone smokes Spice over a long period of time and quits, they are likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. Because the product is sold with a warning that states it is not for human consumption, the FDA has no regulations on it. There is no telling what is actually in the mixture.

Parental Involvement

It is very important that parents educate themselves to the dangers of the array of drugs that have become available to the youth of America. It is important to discuss these risks with ones children. One of the best things that a parent can do with their child is to have open discussions about drugs and alcohol before they ever become in issue. It is important to discuss these things without guilt trips so that the child feels comfortable talking to their parents about it.

The internet can be a very good resource for information on drugs in the present day but while doing so it is important use discernment because there are many urban legends out there that are made to scare parents more than they already are, like the vodka tampon legend.

In addition counselors at ones local Narconon program can be very helpful and send information to parents about good techniques to use when talking to ones child about drugs. There are Narconon all over the world from Narconon California to Narconon Johannesburg, so it is very likely that one can find one close enough in their area.

ADD/ADHD Medications

One of the main types of drugs that teens are using to get high these days is ADD/ADHD medications. Most often these drugs are stimulant or amphetamines. The kids crush the pills up into a powder form and snort the powder up their nose in a similar fashion to a coke head snorting cocaine. The feeling that these kids get is even similar to that of cocaine or even methamphetamine. Their appetite is decreased, their energy level is increased and often they feel that their concentration is enhanced. There are even a lot of college kids that are doing this to stay awake to study for test or using these drugs before class because they feel that it improves their mental abilities.

The problem with this practice is that because these drugs are stimulants, they affect the body the same was as amphetamines do. They cause vasoconstriction which causes strain on the heart. There have been cases where kids have died from a heart attack or a stroke from using these drugs in excessive amounts. There have also been cases of kids dying of heart failure from using these drugs in the proper manner. When a kid is given a prescription for ADD/ADHD medication they are given physicals regularly to make sure that the drugs are not having adverse effects on their bodies. These physicals do not always detect underlying cardiac problems that the child may be experiencing even when they are done regularly. When kids are using these drugs and getting them off the street or from friends without a prescription, the danger to the person is increased even more because they lack the supervision of a trained physician.

Other Medications

There are many other medications that kids are taking these days to get high in addition to the ADD/ADHD medication that they are getting from friends. Some kids use whatever prescription drugs that they can get their hands on; some even have gone so far as to snort Prozac to get a buzz.

Some of the favorites amongst teens and young adults are benzodiazepines, prescription opiate pain killers and muscle relaxers. All of these drugs are very addictive as well as having a high potential for overdose, especially opiates. Again because of the misconception that these drugs are safe because they are given by prescription from a doctor as medication, there have recently been many teens who have been admitted to the hospital due to overdose, or even worse death.

Many parents are not even aware that their child is using these drugs because they are so easy to get because they are legal. There have been parents whose children have died from drug overdose who did not even realize that their child was using drugs. Because the are some parents who are so naïve about this situation, a lot of kids are not given the needed precautions about these drugs and so they go on in their happy little world thinking that using their drugs in the way that they do is perfectly safe and acceptable. Plus many kids are used to taking drugs or “medications” on a regular basis anyway because they have ADD/ADHD. Our society has become severely overmedicated.

The Solution

If a parent does come to the conclusion that their child has started abusing prescription drugs, it is important that the parent address the situation right away. Parents need to do research on the subject so that they have the correct information to give to their child. Because many of these drugs are addictive, the parent may need to look into having their child admitted into a rehab facility. Sometimes just giving the kid the proper information about the dangers of these drugs can be enough to persuade the child to stop, but often times it is not. There are many types of rehabs available for teens and some of them are quite effective. Parents need to be very diligent in their research of different centers and try to find the best one that fits their child’s needs.

Narconon rehab centers offer top of the line treatment for teens that are sixteen or older in some locations. Narconon is one of the most effective methods of treatment to date with success rates upward of seventy-five percent. The Narconon program helps the teen overcome their physical dependency and cravings by getting the residual toxins and metabolites out of their system through a specific regimen of vitamins, exercise and sweating in a dry heat sauna. Once the physical aspect of their addiction is taken care of, the teen then goes on to learn the tools necessary to confront life and the other emotional and social aspects of their addiction and why they got started using in the first place.

In addition to providing treatment, Narconon also has many resources that are helpful to parents when addressing the topic of drugs and treatment. Narconon counselors are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Thomas was born in an upper middle class family in the suburbs of a big city. He had a pretty happy childhood for the most part. He says that he remembers that he got along better with his father than with his mother because she was so strict, but overall most of his early memories were good ones.

When Thomas was thirteen however, his parents decided to get a divorce after spending the year before in constant arguments. Thomas’s father had offers for a good job out of state around the same time, so when his parents got a divorce, his dad moved some five hundred miles away. Thomas said that that was the point where he started to fall apart. He and his mother and his sister moved to new neighborhood shortly after the divorce was finalized and Thomas was then located in a different school district. He said that between the divorce and having to find a whole new group of friends he became overwhelmed with pressure.

Thomas said that he was shy and often had a hard time talking with people he did not know very well. When he went to his new school he was able to spot the people that were the least intimidating and these were the stoner kids that did drugs. He said that they were outcast from the popular kids so they were always looking to meet new people that could be potential outcasts as well. Thomas said that his self-esteem was so low at the time and he was so shy he could not really find the guts to talk to any of the popular kids.

Thomas Drinks Alcohol and Uses Marijuana for the First Time

Thomas began hanging out with druggy kids and within two weeks of him attending the new school he went to, he was invited to a party at one of the kids who did drugs houses. He said he told his mom that he was spending the night with one of the kids from school on a Friday and she did not really look into the situation. He went there and got drunk and smoked marijuana. He said that he loved the feeling right away and it made him forget about all of his problems. He said that night his fate was sealed; Thomas was to be a drug addict for the next twelve years.

Thomas loved pot and he loved drinking. He said that he would get drunk and stoned as often as possible. He said within a year he was using cocaine and pills. He said that within two years he started smoking meth. He said that he started selling it as well for a few guys who were around nineteen or twenty years old.

His mom eventually found out what Thomas was doing and she sent him to what is called a wilderness school for juvenile delinquents. He said that while he was there he was sober and when he got out he tried to stay that way for a while but it did not work out. He eventually went back to selling and using meth. His mom would find out and she would send him to a rehab or another school or somewhere. Thomas said that it became a pattern; he would go to rehab or some other facility, he would get out and do well for a while, finally he would relapse and then the cycle would repeat itself.

Goes to Jail, Gets a Job

This pattern continued until Thomas was about eighteen years old. At this point he was finally busted with a couple of his friends with a large amount of methamphetamine. Because it was his first offense, the judge took it easy on him and sentenced him to rehab after a few months in jail. When Thomas finally got out of rehab he did really well. He decided that he was not going to go back to selling meth; he was going to get a real job. He ended up working a Wal-Mart and after a couple years became a manager there. While he was working there he also got his GED. He started taking some night classes at the local community college. It finally looked like his life was going in the right direction.

One night however, Thomas went to a bar with a couple of friends. He got drunk while he was there and someone offered him some cocaine. He did it and then he started to crave meth. Within a few days he was using meth again. He tried to keep it together at his job and he was able to do so for a while but eventually the using caught up with him and he got fired. At that point he started using really heavily and started selling meth again. This went on for years until his family did an intervention.

His family had found Narconon on the internet. They had noticed there were facilities all over the world, from Narconon Vista Bay in California to a Narconon in South Africa. They hired an intervention specialist who worked with people who had gone to all different Narconon locations. Thomas’s mother called him and told him that she wanted him to come over to her house for dinner. When he got there, he was met by the intervention specialist. She was able to convince him to go to Narconon. His family chose the one is South Africa because they had family there and they wanted Thomas to go very far away from his environment. Thomas said that the decision to go to Narconon was simple one for him. He knew that his life was out of his control and the intervention specialist was able to convince him that Narconon was the program that would probably be able to help him. He said that the Narconon program was the best thing he ever did for himself. He said that it helped him to return to the person that he was before he ever did drugs. He said that it helped him to regain control over his life and that the Narconon New Life Detoxification Program helped his body feel the way it did before he ever used. He is very happy and has been clean for over eight years now.

Twelve Step Model

The twelve step module was started in the early part of the nineteenth century by alcoholics for alcoholics. It has been proven to be successful for those people who use the steps and accept the fact that they are an addict or alcoholic and they have lost control of their lives due to their addiction. Twelve step groups get their guidance from the Big Book which contains the principles by which the groups adheres as well as personal stories of alcoholics who are in recovery and are succeeding.

Twelve steps encourages the person in the program to take a look at all the misdeeds that they committed and come to terms with them by talking about them with another person that they trust. Once the person does this, they are then encouraged to help other people find their sobriety as well. The person is in a sense making up for the damage that they caused from their own addiction by helping others get through theirs. Most of the people who are involved with twelve step get a lot of gain and personal satisfaction from helping other people. Most of them say that they get just as much, if not more from helping a person, than the person gets themselves. Most twelve step programs have a success rate of about two to twenty-four percent, depending on the center.

Local meetings are free to attend for anyone. The Twelve steps are often incorporated into other drug treatment programs that have different methods as well which lead us to:

Dual Diagnosis

Some programs offer dual diagnosis services. This is when a person is diagnosed with some type of mental disorder and they are often prescribed medication. The Narconon program does not offer these services because there are a lot emotional problems that are caused by addiction and many of these resolve once the person handles their addiction and have some clean time under their belt. Many people who are addicted to drugs get diagnosed with depression or dual diagnosis disorder. When the person is on drugs they are in their manic stage and when they come off of them they are in the depression stage of these disorders. When someone is taking drugs it often disrupts the balance of the chemicals in their brain that make them feel good naturally. When the person comes off of them, they no longer have the drugs in their system and they often do not have as much of the naturally occurring chemicals that make a person feel good in their brain either which can throw them into a depression. It is very easy for a person who is coming off of drugs to be misdiagnosed with some type of depression or dual diagnosis because of this.

It usually takes the person about a month to a year for their brain chemistry to get back to normal. Any diagnosis that is made before that time is likely to be inaccurate. When a person also deals with the underlying issues of why they got started using in the first place, it can help them deal with emotional issues that they are having. It is normal for a human being to experience a different range of emotions depending on environment, circumstances and other factors as well. When a person feels sad because something sad happens that is appropriate. If a person does not deal with their sadness in a healthy way, the feeling can linger for longer than is appropriate. If a person does something against their own moral code, they are likely to have feelings of guilt. This is also appropriate. Human beings are emotional creatures; that is what makes us human.

The Narconon Program

The Narconon program deals with addiction in a different way. The first thing that person does upon coming to the program is deal with the physical aspect of addiction. This is done through a regimen of vitamins and minerals and sweating in a dry heat sauna and it is done to help the person to eliminate all the drug residuals and toxins that have accumulated in the person’s body from their drug use. The only way that a person’s body has to eliminate these toxins is through the sweat and urine. Once the person gets these toxins out of their body, it has been shown that their physical cravings will be dramatically reduced and often the person will no longer have using dreams either.

Once this is done the person then deals with the emotional issues that got them using in the first place. After this point, they then learn the tools that they need to function in life in a sober capacity. Many reasons that a person has for using stem from not having the abilities to deal with difficult aspects of life. Because of this, the person often makes mistakes and they often do not know how to fix these problems. This can cause them to want to numb their emotions and the fact that they are upset. They hide behind their drug use; drugs numb a person and work as a distraction. Once the person deals with their emotions and learns how to deal with life, it is shown that their need for drugs is reduced, often times to nothing.

Below is list of life skills courses that the person will take:

• · Learning improvement course because most drug addicts can use study skills while pursuing any new endeavor in life
• · Communication skills course because most conflicts in life can be handled through communication
• · Personality traits course which teaches the person social and antisocial characteristics of different people they will come across in life and better equip them with the knowledge of how to pick their friends
• · Personal values course; this course teaches values and also helps the person come to terms with their past misdeeds so that they can move on into the future free of guilt and remorse. It some ways it is similar to the inventory that a person does while in a twelve step program
• · Improving conditions in life course; this course helps the person repair damage in all areas of their life and gives them the tools to continue to improve in all areas of their life from this point forward continuously.
• · Way to Happiness course; this course teaches the person basic moral guidelines that will help the person to succeed as a productive and honorable member of society.

The Narconon program has a very good track record of success. The success rate of most Narconon centers is anywhere from seventy-two percent to about eighty percent. Most Narconons are private pay centers and there are centers located all over the US as well as in many other countries as well.

There are many other ways to approach addiction. These are the most popular methods that are used in today’s society.

In addition to overdosing, many teens may mix prescription drugs that could have negative interactions with other medications that they may be taking. Because many of these teens get these drugs from friends or drug dealers or even their own parent’s medicine cabinets, they are often not given the proper information and warnings on how to take the medications safely and correctly.

Physical Addiction

Teen prescription drug use can lead to teen prescription drug addiction. Many of the medications that these kids are taking are physically addictive. This means that if a person takes them over a certain period of time (different times for different drugs) the person’s body gets physically dependent on them. When the person tries to stop taking the drugs or no longer has access to them they will go into physical withdrawal. Different drugs have different withdrawal symptoms ranging from mild discomfort to sometimes even death. If a teen becomes physically addicted to prescription drugs they may be too scared to go to their parents for help depending how close of a relationship they share. If this happens the teen may become more and more desperate to obtain access to more of the drugs that they became physically addicted to without their parents finding out. They may even begin stealing money from their parents or other family members to pay for their habit and may become withdrawn into themselves and their problem. When a child starts using drugs there are certain telltale signs that a parent can look for. These are as follows:

• Acting either more listless or more agitated than usual, depending on what kind of drugs are being used
• Changes in appearance and desire to take care of personal hygiene
• Disinterest in things that child is usual passionate about
• Drastic changes in sleeping patterns
• Sudden obsession or complete disinterest in school work
• Changes in normal behavior
• Sudden withdrawal and disinterest in family life
• Sudden despondence and depression
• Changes in appearance of eyes i.e. glassy, heavy lidded, inappropriate or extreme dilation or constriction of pupils

The main thing that parents should look for is a change in normal behavior patterns in their teenager. Intuition is not to be disregarded either. If a parent suspects that their child is using prescription or other drugs the best thing to do is to ask them. If one feels that their child is not going to be honest about it, watch their behavior and see if there are any clues that are pointing to the fact that their teen is using drugs. Although teens do need a certain amount of privacy, it is not beyond the right of the parent to search their room or car if there is a suspicion of drug use. Addiction is a very dangerous situation and is not to be taken lightly. It is also good to monitor the internet history on a teen’s computer.

Addiction Treatment

If one does find out that their teen is using drugs it is very important to address the issue right away. There are certain Narconon centers that provide treatment for teens that are sixteen years of age or older. Narconon is one of the most successful treatment centers for addiction that is available in this day and age. Narconon treats the physical aspects of addiction as well as the emotional and social aspects as well. One of the biggest reasons that teens start using is due to social pressure. Teens may feel self conscience in front of their peers or may feel that they have to use drugs to fit in. This social pressure can then lead to addiction and the teenager may get to the point where they no longer have a choice to use drugs because they are addicted. It is very important to have an open line of communication with ones teen so that the teen feels that they can be honest with their parents about these types of issues. If parents are so judgmental that the teen feels that they cannot confide in their parents it can lead to very dangerous situations that the teen will need parental guidance to get out of. If they cannot ask for this guidance it could potentially cost the teen their very life.

Talk to your kids about drugs and open up the lines of communication about this topic in a safe and non-judgmental way so that your child always feels that they can talk to you about these issues. You will thank yourself later. If a situation has gotten out of control and you do not know what to do, call Narconon and get the advice that you need from a trained counselor. There is also information and techniques that Narconon can provide to parents about successful ways in educating their teens and younger children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Counselors are available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Please do not hesitate in asking for help if you feel you need it. Drug addiction is a confusing situation to be confronted with and there is no shame in feeling that one needs help in handling it.

Willy had the hard life of a drug addict for many years. He went through a few marriages and prison sentences before he was able to quit. The last time he went before a judge as a convicted felon, he told the judge that he was going to overcome his addiction and make something out of his life. The judge saw something in Willy that made him believe him and gave Willy the shortest sentence that he possibly could for the crime that he had been convicted of.

The Birth of Narconon

While Willy was in the holding cell, one of his friends brought him a pile of books to read to pass the time. One of the books was called Fundamentals of Thought by Hubbard. It was a self help book and when Willy started reading it, he realized that it was what he had been looking for to help him get sober and sober for good.

When Willy was put into the main population of the prison, he continued to read the book on a daily basis and work on the issues within himself that had kept him from getting sober and staying sober. Willy often described addiction not as a disease, but as a disability. He said that people who were prone to getting addicted to drugs did not have the abilities needed to succeed and deal with life. He said that the key to recovery was to teach them the abilities that they needed to handle themselves and their environment in life. He said that when a drug addict is faced with a problem that upsets them they turn to drugs because they do not know how to find the solution. He says if you teach them how to find solutions for their problems they no longer need to use drugs.

He said that once he learned the tools that he needed to deal with life, he decided that he was going to help some of the other inmates in the prison do the same. Many of the guys who were locked up with Willy were there for drug possession charges, so it was not hard to find many people who were in need of the help.

Willy went to the prison officials and asked them if he could start a program. He was at first met with resistance, but he persisted in his cause and was able to finally overcome all opposition. He also wrote to Hubbard and asked for permission to use the information in the book that he had read. Hubbard wrote back enthusiastically and told him that he was happy to give permission and he also had some other information and recommendations that he thought would help.

Willy started with a group of about ten or twenty guys at first. They all did so well that many other guys asked if they could join program as well. The prison was so happy with the progress of the men that they asked Willy to start another program outside the annex walls for people who were on a work release program. There were even other inmates that were in the jail that did not have drug charges who asked to join the program as well because the aim was to teach people the skills that they needed to succeed in life.

Narconon Grows

Willy continued to help the people in his program in the prison until his release. He actually stayed in prison for longer than he was required to make sure that everyone in the program was doing well. When he got out, he and his wife went to Arizona and then on to California to start the first Narconon that was outside a prison. Narconon has since gone to be one of the most successful rehabs worldwide. There are Narconon rehab centers all over the US as well as all over the world. Narconon Arrowhead is the leading Narconon for training, with people traveling from all over the globe to learn how to start new Narconons and get the proper training for running one.

Narconon’s mission is still to help people overcome their addiction by teaching them the tools needed for success. Narconon now also helps people deal with the physical aspects of their addiction as well. Narconon has been very successful in its mission and helps thousands upon thousands of people every year conquer their addiction. Narconon has one of the highest success rates for all treatment centers to date at seventy six percent and that success rate has not changed with the changing drug trends. Narconon also has a very successful drug education program with resources for children around the world.

One of the main reasons that teens are using prescription drugs to such a high extent is because they feel that because they are “medicines” they are safe to use. The problem is that these teens are not reading the side effects of these medications and do not know what dosages are safe or not. Even though one would feel that medications that people can get prescribed to from a doctor should be safe, in some cases they just are not.

Pharm Parties

There is a new type of party that kids are having where pharmaceuticals are the drugs of choice. Kids will go through their medicine cabinets, their parents medicine cabinets, go to the drug store and get whatever prescription drugs and over the counter medicine that they can get. The kids will then go to one of these parties and bring what they were able to find and mix them all together in a bowl or a dish or a pot or whatever and then each person that comes gets a handful of pills to take. They do not look to see what kind of drug interactions these medicines may have with each other, sometimes people do not even know what kind of drugs they are taking. The kids call the parties pharm parties and they call acquiring the medications pharming.

The kids that attend these parties do not know if they are going to get high or not, they also do not know if they are going to die or not. It all just depends on what combinations of drugs that they get. These kids are obviously not thinking at all about what they are doing and it is probably safe to say that they must be pretty bored to be willing to go to such extreme measures to have a good time. There are a lot of parents out there that have no idea what their children are up to, and the kids themselves may not even think that what they are doing is a bad idea since a lot of these medications are so easy to get. In some places it is easier for a kid to get prescription opiate pain killers than it is for them to find a hook up for marijuana. While marijuana is illegal and not a good thing for a kid to use obviously, nobody has overdosed on marijuana and died, but many people have overdosed and died from using prescription drugs.

There are millions of kids who take different prescription medications for many mental disorders every year and using prescription drugs has become a way of life for many of these teens. It almost seems like there are more people that are taking medications for some thing or another than are not. Our society is seriously overmedicated, and while these medications have to list the side effects that they may cause, it does not seem like many people are taking heed to these warnings.

Alcohol

In addition to using pharmaceuticals, there are many kids who are drinking to excess these days as well. This can be a very dangerous practice, because some of the medications that kids are taking do not have good interactions with alcohol, but again, kids are not paying attention to the warning labels on the medications if they are just reaching their hand into an unlabeled bowl to get their dosage. There have been quite a few cases of kids dying by mixing some of these medications and alcohol.

There are many parents who are not aware of what is going on. Schools and teachers are often more concerned about telling kids the dangers of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines. The anti-drug movement is not completely up to date with the times and the fact that many of the drugs that kids are using these days are not illegal, but legal and easily obtained from the medicine cabinet in their own home is causing this problem to be overlooked. The parents that are aware of what is going on really need to talk to their children about the dangers of all drugs, not just the ones that are found on the corner and sold to them by a dope dealer. Kids who’s parents talk to them about the dangers of drugs and have an open communication line about this issue are less likely to become addicted to drugs because they have the facts that they need and know the dangerous possibilities.

Treatment

There are some cases where a kid becomes addicted to drugs no matter what measures a parent takes to prevent this from happening. When this happens, the only option left is for the child to go to treatment. Narconon drug treatment and Narconon alcohol treatment is one of the most successful forms of treatment that a person can get. Narconon addresses addiction in a way that no other program does. Narconon does not victimize an addict by saying that the person is suffering from an incurable disease. Narconon addresses addiction as a lack of coping abilities for life and teaches a person the tools needed to succeed. Narconon also helps a person learn how to take responsibility for themselves and quit justifying why what they where doing was ok. Once the person learns how to be responsible for themselves, they no longer have to depend on others to be. The person will naturally begin to feel pretty good about themselves and confident in their own abilities in handling the problems that they come across in life. It is found that once a person is able to take responsibility for themselves and their environment around them, they no longer have the need to use drugs. Drugs are a way for a person to avoid confronting uncomfortable situations. If one increases their ability to confront problems and difficult situations they will no longer need drugs to cope. Narconon has a seventy-six percent success rate for those people who graduated the program.

In addition to being addictive, some of these drugs are very dangerous. There have been quite a few celebrities that have died in the past decade due to prescription drug abuse and overdose.  One especially dangerous combination that many people have died from is the usage of opiate pain killers with alcohol. That is a very dangerous practice indeed.

There are all types of prescription drug abuse. Listed below are the prescription drugs and OTC medications that are the most frequently abused

• Prescription opiate pain killers
• Prescription benzodiazepines
• Prescription study drugs (stimulants used to treat ADD/ADHD)
• Muscle relaxers
• Cold and cough medications

This is not a complete list of all the medications that can be abused but a general one that lists most of the commonly abused drugs. There are many people who are also addicted to anti-depressants. Most people would not consider these drugs to be addictive, but when someone tries to come off of them, they often go through horrible physical and mental withdrawal symptoms.

Some of the prescriptions drugs that people use are very physically addictive. The people that start using them to have a good time, often find themselves physically addicted after a short amount of time and sometimes don’t even know what they were getting themselves into beforehand. Two of the most physically addictive drugs are opiate pain killers and benzodiazepines. While the withdrawal from opiates is very painful, it is not nearly as dangerous as a withdrawal from benzodiazepines.

Benzodiazepine Withdrawal

People who are coming off of benzos really need to do so under the supervision of a doctor. The withdrawal is very dangerous and can be life threatening. Benzodiazepines affect the same area of the brain as alcohol and the withdrawal from them is in some ways similar. Benzo withdrawal usually last a much longer time however and has more emotional long term effects than alcohol withdrawal. Someone can start hallucinating and go into seizures when they are coming off of benzos, the same way with alcohol. Someone is also likely to experience the shakes, heart palpitations, nausea, vomiting, tremors, as well as suicidal or even homicidal thoughts. The person may also suffer from stroke, heart attack and even death. It is usually recommended that person get on a long wean down program through their physician so that they are as safe as possible. It is possible to come off of them faster, but it needs to be done under the supervision of a highly trained doctor.

Opiate Withdrawal

When someone is coming off of opiates, the symptoms are usually more physical. It is very similar to the worst case of food poisoning or stomach flu that the person has ever experienced. The person will suffer from nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cold and hot sweats, creepy crawly sensations on the skin, depression, muscle weakness and achiness amongst a list of others.

The main problem with opiate withdrawal as well as with other prescription medications and even other drugs, is that once the person comes off of them they often still feel effected or not as good as they did before they ever used the drugs. This is especially true with opiates. The reason that this probably happens is because when the drugs are being broken down in the body to be flushed out of the system, mainly through the sweat and urine, small amounts are sometime absorbed in the fatty tissues. These can later be released back into the blood stream if the person gets mentally stressed out, doesn’t eat properly, or does not get enough sleep. These drug particles or metabolites and toxins can stay stored in the fatty tissues for up to seven to ten years. When they are constantly giving the person cravings, this can feel like a lifetime to a recovering addict.

Narconon Treatment

A Narconon rehab center is one of the only treatments available to date that handles this aspect of a person’s addiction. The only way that a person’s body has to get rid of these toxins is through the sweat, urine and feces. The Narconon New Life Detoxification program uses a regimen of vitamins, minerals, exercise and sweating in a sauna on a daily basis to speed the process of getting rid of these toxins from seven to ten years to about fifteen to fifty days. The majority of the people who go through this portion of the Narconon program say that they feel so much better once they finish it. Many said that their perception of colors where brighter, their thoughts were clearer and they no longer suffered from physical cravings in addition to many other benefits.

Once the person finishes this portion of the program they then go on to handle the emotional and social aspects of their addiction. They deal with their past misdeeds and the issues that got them started using in the first place. They also learn the life and coping skills that they need to continue their sobriety into the future. About eighty percent of the people who start the Narconon program finish it. About seventy six of the people who graduate the program go on to live successful, sober lives as productive members of their communities.

When Robert found out that he had hepatitis C, he was so high all the time that it did not really bother him. He said that he was using so much that he did not really care about sex all that much so he was not worried about giving it to anyone else. He knew that there was certain kind of diet that he should have been eating to help himself not eventually get really sick from his hepatitis, but his main focus was on getting heroin everyday; he was not very worried about food all that much.

Robert was still working for some of the same guys that he had been working for and he would travel around sometimes to make different deals with different people. His home town was about two hours away from the big city where he and Summer had relocated and he would often go there on the weekends and stay with his mother or someone else and conduct business. He started selling heroin in his hometown as well as the drug trends changed from cocaine to heroin. Heroin became very popular and Robert would buy some in the city and then drive two hours north to his hometown and sell it for a big profit.

He would drive to and from the city with one of his partners that also used heroin. He said that they made a lot of money and his heroin habit continued to get worse and worse because he was now able to afford to use even more of it. He said that he lost some of the property that he had, but not because he was not able to pay the bills. He said that heroin made him so out of it that he forgot about many of his responsibilities. He said that the only reason that he was even able to make a living at all was because he was selling heroin and that was what he was focused on using all the time anyway.

Roberts Heroin Addiction Spirals Even More Out of Control

Robert said that whenever he saw Summer he would give her money or heroin or whatever it was that she wanted. He said that he was still in love with her, but she was in love with drugs and would do whatever she could to get more. He said that it really upset him that she was working as a prostitute and a stripper and the way that he dealt with it was to use even more drugs. He said he got to a point where he was using about fifty bags a day, when most people use at the most fifteen. He said that his heroin habit was about five hundred dollars a day. The reason that he was able to pay for it was because he was selling so much at that time.

He also said that during that time he lost all of his desire to have a normal life. He said sometimes when he was in the city he would go into an abandoned building to get high and sometimes would stay there getting messed up for days. He said that there where a few stray cats that lived there also that he would sometimes bring food to, but that was the closest thing to feeling love or affection for any living thing that he came close to at that time. He had no real connection with his children or his family and the only person that would have anything to do with him was his mother. He said that she was always praying for him and trying to help him to get off of drugs. He said that he took advantage of her kindness and he felt really bad about that later when he got clean.

Robert is Arrested Again

Robert went on with his lifestyle of selling and using heroin as long as he could. The situation was not to last however. Robert said that the main problem was that the more messed up he got on heroin, the less careful he was with his actions. He said when he first started selling drugs he was very careful to not get caught. He said he thinks if he never would have started using heroin, he probably would have never got arrested. He said his street sense was very heightened and he was on top of his game when he was not using, but all of his instincts went out the window when he was. He said he remembers doing absolutely crazy things many times when he was high out of his mind and he is surprised that he was not arrested before.

One weekend Roberts’s life was changed forever. Robert and his friend had stayed in Roberts’s home town for a couple of days and then drove back to the city to get a new supply of heroin. Robert said that while they were in the city they were able to sell enough over a three day period that they could back home and just use for a few days without worrying about how to get more. Robert and his friend packed up enough heroin for themselves to use, which with Roberts habit was about three hundred bags, and started the drive home.

Roberts friend drove and when they were almost home they stopped at a gas station to get gas and something to drink. Robert was really high because he had shot up a few times on the way back. When he had got his drink and walked out of the gas station there were a couple of cops standing by the door. Robert was so high he could barely talk and the officers noticed that something was up with him. They began talking to him and he could not even get a sentence out. They asked if he was on something and he said he was just tired. They told him that they were going to search him because he seemed like he was on something. They found heroin on his person and then told him they were going to search his car… Continued in part seven