A Peter Pan Creation

Grown adult who is living with parents

Most people grow up with similar ideas as I did. The fantasy of “never growing up” and “always being a kid” sounds playful and almost harmless. I certainly took these to the next level, graduating from fun and games to living my life on a critical edge.

My upbringing was somewhat privileged and I had all the chances to live a healthy and normal life. My parents divorced when I was nine, setting my view of the world to living fast and taking chances from doing high-risk activities like skating and racing motorcycles to using drugs and dating wild women. I always enjoyed going against the grain.

I began experimenting with drugs at the age of 11, smoking weed regularly by 13, and soon enough was shooting heroin daily. A life of apparently harmless goofing around can quickly escalate into the worst scenario, which is where I ended up.

I am 37 years old with two daughters, a four- and a six-year-old. I was married for 10 years and have had my own business for over six years now. Yet I’ve still never managed to fully grow up.

I had stopped my professional skating career and quickly replaced it with more dangerous habits. I was prescribed painkillers many times for broken bones and eventually, I began regularly using opiates from Vicodin to oxycodone and eventually to heroin. I went from popping pills to smoking and snorting them and eventually to injecting heroin. My habit spun out of control; I began selling my belongings and spending entire paychecks on it.

I was constantly trying to maintain my drug use while taking care of my family. I love my daughters as much as any father could. They mean the world to me and always have. But drug addiction is a very powerful thing. It can grab hold of the most stable person and turn their world upside down and I almost died from overdosing and from being shot.

I’ve also lost many friends from drug abuse. My so-called “harmless” independence and young-at-heart antics quickly turned into a deadly trap. No one could tell me I was wrong, and I had a sense of invincibility that could have killed me. Every day I would wake up with only one thing on my mind—getting high. Nothing else mattered.

“I am happier and more comfortable than I ever thought possible. Nobody is beyond saving.”

I began to neglect my family. I began hanging out with people I never would have hung out with before. I began to lose my personality and everything about myself I used to love. It was all replaced with hatred and guilt, with blame and defeat and with a complete loss of everything my friends and family used to love me for. I truly felt like I had gone off the deep end and past the point of no return. But no matter how far you fall, there is always hope for recovery.

After going to Narconon, I managed to regain my mental and physical strength. In fact, I have surpassed that and have become even stronger with more confidence in my abilities than ever before. I am happier and more comfortable than I ever thought possible. Nobody is beyond saving. Not even someone who didn’t want to grow up.

The tools were at Narconon. All it took was the will to be a healthy and happy person.

—B.L.

AUTHOR

Aaron

Aaron has been writing drug education articles and documenting the success of the Narconon program for over two years.

NARCONON NEW LIFE RETREAT

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION