My Sober Life

Aaron O. - Narconon Louisiana

After nine years, it seems strange to even talk about how I was once an addict. Even after I had completed the Narconon program, I never second-guessed whether I would remain sober. And here I am, nine years later, writing a success story about how my life has changed.

Before I went through the program, the best I thought I could look forward to in life would be floating through life, making art, and using drugs. Today, I have a loving girlfriend, a menagerie of pets, a house, and I get to spend every day positively impacting those around me.

I grew up in Miami, Florida, and had a great childhood. My family members were loving and supportive. Contrary to stereotypes of those who struggle with addiction, I did not have early life trauma. I was good in school, got good grades, and my parents supported me in any extracurricular activity I wanted to join. I played sports, painted, and learned how to play music. I mention this because there are addicts I have met who feel they don’t have a bunch of trauma and therefore feel they don’t need treatment.

I was no different than them. I have no childhood trauma that led to me struggling with addiction; however, by the age of fifteen, I started experimenting with any drugs my peers offered me. By 18, I discovered Heroin; by 19, I was an IV drug user and used Heroin daily. For two years, I was highly functional despite my daily habit. I went to college and had a part-time job. The problem with this is the things you do in secret start to catch up to you eventually. They show up differently for everyone, whether it is

  • divorce.
  • losing a job.
  • failing out of school.
  • isolating yourself from everyone who cares about you.

You can continue to pretend you do not have a problem even after these things happen. I spent my fair share of time pretending everything was fine. Until I couldn’t anymore...

Things got bad, and I went to treatment at Narconon. I had previously dabbled in getting sober by going to 12-step meetings and/or cutting back how much I used to attempt to get off drugs on my own. None of it worked. That was until I went to Narconon, and things changed for the rest of my life.

I found the underlying cause of why I didn’t like myself and dove into what I had done to create my dislike for myself. This didn’t come from other people, and I had to take a good long look at myself. This would not have been possible without the program. Getting sober is the easy part. You may feel uncomfortable for a while, but once you get through the withdrawal, you’re done with the physical cravings. The hard part comes after getting sober. Because once your sober, you have to start cleaning up your life and yourself.

“The other part that no one tells you is the longer you stay sober and the more you work on doing better, the more you grow. Things you struggled with become accessible, and you find yourself enjoying life.”

The other part that no one tells you is the longer you stay sober and the more you work on doing better, the more you grow. Things you struggled with become accessible, and you find yourself enjoying life. Simply enjoying the good moments in life was an important thing for me because I was always stuck in my head thinking about the past or some future. I rarely ever lived in the moment. Living like that can be depressing. But feeling free of this and just being able to build your life in the moment makes so many more things possible.

Don’t question whether you will do better once you are sober. You will if you face those parts of your life and yourself you don’t like. Things don’t just change overnight. There will be rough times but overcoming them is one of the greatest joys to be had in life. There are people who believe in the person you have yet to become. But the first step is facing the challenges you must become the person you can be. So don’t throw in the towel before you have even started.

Today I have a life I never thought I would have. I am happy and look forward to where my life will go instead of being afraid of how terrible things can get. You can achieve this same thing if you believe in yourself.


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