This is a story of one girl who struggled with addiction for most of her teen years and into her early adulthood. We will call her Sarah to protect her identity, although this is not her actual name. Sarah says that as a child she had a very chaotic life. She says that she does not want to go into the details, but she grew up an only child and her parents divorced at an early age. She said that her mother was very irresponsible and did not have interest in living the life that is not required of someone who is raising a small child. Sarah also said that she moved about amongst relatives until the time she was about 12 years old. She spent the most time with her grandparents until she moved back in with her mother. Sara said that she started smoking marijuana when she was 12 years old. She said when she first tried it she did not like the effects all that much, but to fit in with a new friend which she had made she continued to smoke it until she got used to it. By this point she was living full-time with her mother and although her mother was trying to rekindle their relationship and make up for lost time, Sarah was no longer interested in doing so.
Drugs in Boarding School
Her mother became very alarmed when she found out that Sarah was smoking marijuana. As a result and as a solution, Sarah’s mother decided that Sarah would attend boarding school. Sarah said there was a lot of drugs in boarding school and she immediately found people who were using them. One night Sarah and her friends were snorting prescription ADD medications that one of the girls had brought to the school after vacationing at home with her family and they got caught. All of the girls were immediately expelled and their parents were called to pick them up.
At this point Sarah’s mother decided to send her to an outpatient rehab for teens. Sarah had no interest in becoming sober, and although she cooperated with her mother’s demands of attending the outpatient rehab, it did little in the way of making her sober. Sarah then began going to public school where she made new friends who also used drugs. They mostly used marijuana and cocaine. Again Sarah’s mother found out about her drug use and decided to switch schools again. When Sarah started going to her new high school she met a girl who used a lot of cocaine as well as crack cocaine. It was not long before Sarah was smoking crack herself.
First Crack at Sobriety
At this point Sarah’s mother found a rehab that was a long-term inpatient wilderness recovery center. Sarah went there for three months in the summer before 10th grade. This time Sarah decided to get sober. She said it did not take long before her body and mind were feeling much better and she began thinking as a normal teenage girl would. When she returned home, Sara began hanging out with normal kids who did not use drugs. When Sarah turned 16, she did start smoking marijuana again occasionally but she said she no longer felt like she was addicted to it. She continued on this way until she was 21. At this point she met an older man who is addicted to opiates and she did not know at the time that he was a drug addict. By the time she did, it was too late and she was too emotionally involved in the situation to give up at that point. She says that her relationship with him was mentally abusive and she began to become scared to think for herself. She was also afraid to leave. She began taking opiate prescription painkillers that he always had around and he gave them to her whenever she asked for them and she says that she did so just to cope with their relationship.
Finally Sarah got to the point where she realized that she did not want to be in a relationship that she had to take drugs just to deal with. She left her boyfriend and attempted to get sober. She said that she went through pretty nasty withdrawal because she had been using opiate pain pills every day for about a year. She managed to get through it without medication completely on her own.
Life after Addiction to Opiates can be Rough
She tried to proceed with her life as if her opiate addiction had never happened way she had with her cocaine and poly drug addiction. This time she noticed that there was a huge physical difference in the way that she felt a month after quitting opiates and a month after using cocaine. After using cocaine it was very easy for Sarah to get mentally back on track as well is physically feeling well again. She said that she was clean off of opiates for six months and she still felt physically horrible. She said every waking moment the thought of opiates was always in the back of her mind. She was constantly thinking and scheming and devising plans on how she could get more, and although for very long time she did not relapse, it was very hard for her not to. Sarah did eventually relapse and decided that she needed to get some kind of professional help to help her body get back to feeling normal again. At this point the only time she felt normal when she was high.
Sarah found the Narconon program and with help from her family began the first steps on a route to a new life. Sarah would like to say that she does not really want this story to be about her addiction, but more about how she overcame it. After completing the Narconon New life Detoxification portion of the program, Sarah felt the way she did before she ever used drugs. Sarah said she actually suffered from long-term effects of weed for the many years after she had stopped smoking it and had not even realized it. Sarah also said that after completing this portion of the program she felt normal again without having to take an opiate to do so and she believes that Narconon is absolutely the best program for someone who is coming off of opiates. After completing Narconon meetings and Objectives as well as all the other courses in the Narconon program, Sarah said she felt better in her worst moments of sobriety than she did in her best moments of using. Sarah has now been clean for six years.
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction to opiates or any other substance abuse problem please feel free to call Narconon of Georgia today. Kind, compassionate, as well as knowledgeable counselors are always available to answer any questions that you may have.
