How I Saved My Cousin

“I had a serious problem with drugs for a number of years. I was able to work through my own problems and I have been sober for some time. I am one of the lucky ones. The same cannot be said for all my old acquaintances, friends, and family.

“I work for Narconon now. Yesterday, I got a call from my mom while I was at my desk. I could sense her beating around the bush about something, so I told her to just tell me whatever it was she needed to say. She said my cousin had been reported as a missing person and had not been seen or heard from in five days. He hadn’t shown up for work, gave no heads up about where he was going, and his phone went straight to voicemail.

“Now, this cousin was like a best friend to me. We were the same age, grew up on the same street, and did everything together throughout childhood. Even with all those good memories, at that point, all I could focus on were the bad ones; how often we had used drugs together in the past, and how about a year and a half ago we had gone in separate directions. I thought about what I could have done to help him prior to this—that I should have tried harder to get through to him. I started to think that I might have to go his funeral and face his mother… I started crying at my desk.

“Then I snapped out of my sadness, realizing that this was not the time to be glum, it was the time to be proactive. I got someone to cover my position and started making phone calls. I called everyone I could think of—old friends, people he may have used with, whomever I could think of. Then I called his sister. She informed me that he had been taking money out of his bank account, and she was confident he would turn up soon. In a strange twist of fate, right after she told me that, he messaged his mom.

“After this whole ordeal, his sister and I agreed he needed to get into rehab. A coworker and I immediately got into a car. I was so happy my cousin was alive and I hoped that he had had enough of the drug lifestyle, was ready for treatment and would come back to Narconon with me.

“If anybody else had come through that door,
I wouldn’t have even listened to them.”

“We met with him and I could see all he had been going through. He was tired of the lifestyle we had once shared and now he wanted to share the lifestyle I had. He didn’t need much convincing. I’ll always remember him telling me, ’If anybody else had come through that door, I wouldn’t have even listened to them.’”

Michael A.—Narconon Staff