Mardi Gras Weekend Led to Me Getting Sober

Growing up, I had a great childhood with my two older sisters, my mom and dad. We had a very awesome home life. There was no lack of love, friendship, and happiness and our home was always the place where everyone gathered for holidays or a Monday night get together.

I was active in sports and school activities and like to think I did well academically. When I started high school, I had already begun to smoke weed, drink, and experiment with pretty much anything that was “natural.” At the time, it seemed harmless, but it opened me up to other drugs. I felt like I had the control to experiment with pretty much anything I could get my hands on. So that went on all throughout high school and I stopped playing sports and doing anything where someone was in position to tell me what to do. No one could tell me anything making high school challenging.

I started doing heroin toward the beginning of my senior year thinking I had it under control because I didn’t have any financial responsibilities. Soon everything started to go downhill. I ended up not being able to graduate with my class because of missed days. The day I was told that, I told the principle to **%&$ himself and walked out, throwing away the past 5 years of high school. I started working full time in two areas; at my job and as a heroin addict. My dad got sick with pancreatic cancer and I didn’t take the news well. My addiction got a lot worse with needles and I began hanging out with shitty people.

I never dealt with it and lived the next five years losing jobs and screwing over the people I loved the most. Before I arrived at Narconon, I had already been to numerous treatments and hadn’t had any more than two months sober time. Nothing seemed to work to keep me clean and even though I was getting my ass kicked by addiction, I still found the energy to keep going back to it.

Before my intervention, I had just lost an awesome job that I couldn’t hold down and was losing control of my bills for my houseboat. I was riding a bike around New Orleans to get around, and it wasn’t even my bike. I said **%&$ it and got rid of my phone since I had already been disconnecting myself from the people I loved.

I didn’t call anyone of importance in my life putting stress on everyone wondering what happened to me. This really speaks volumes of the people in my life and how much they love me because after all the shit I put them through, they were still on my side. My mom and sisters put out a missing person’s report during Mardi Gras, thinking I was dead under a bridge while I was shooting heroin and meth with some flunkies without a care in the world.

After a week of gambling, Mardi Gras, and a lot of drugs, I finally got word the entire city of New Orleans was looking for me, I called my mom and sisters and nonchalantly posted a sorry to everyone on my Facebook page like an asshole. I arrived at Narconon that night after a little convincing and it was the best decision I have ever made. Family and friends made it possible to afford this treatment and I owe it to them that I am at where I am now.

This is the longest I have been sober since I was thirteen. I don’t remember feeling as happy as I am now naturally, and it is awesome! After being sober this short time, so many things have started looking up not only in my life but for the people in my life. I held a lot of people back and it really feels good to start slowly coming back up to their level instead of dragging them down to my level.

Thank you to all who helped me on this road that for once, has a good ending.

Narconon Graduate L.W.