Thank you for saving my life.

I am a 12 ½ year Graduate of the Narconon® Program. Narconon not only saved my life, it gave me my life back.

I was a real mess, strung out on crack cocaine. I was at such a point in my life where I was just spinning in circles. Drugs had truly taken control of my life. I had become the type of person that most people would not want to be around. I became a liar not only to myself but to everyone around me and I did not care who I hurt in the process. Drugs cost me several jobs, cars, and it even cost me my marriage, but the most important thing it cost me was my relationship with my family. I was at such a place in my life where I just did not care.

Then one day my dog, of all things, ran and jumped into my lap and just sat there and looked up at me as if to say, "What are you doing to yourself?" It was at that very moment I just completely broke down and I got on the phone with my mom and dad and, admitted I had a problem and that I needed help. My dad came and got me from my apartment and took me back to their house. Now it must have been faith because before I called my parents they were watching a talk show that was talking about the Narconon program. They called up Narconon and they told them that their son needed help. When I got to my parent’s house my mom told me to call Narconon, that there was a gentleman there that wanted to talk to me, so I called him.

I can say now that it was the most important call I have ever made. His name was Gary Smith, and he talked to me, not like I was just another crackhead, but he talked to me like a friend. The next day I was on a plane to Narconon Chilocco in Oklahoma. Once I arrived at Narconon, I knew this is where I needed to be. I was scared to death, but I had to do this or else I was going to end up dead somewhere. At first I thought that the program was a little silly, but as I went through the program and with the help of the wonderful staff, I really started to see a difference in myself. I began to believe in myself again. Now I am a real person again, and I owe everything that I am today to the Narconon Program. If you or someone you know needs help, Narconon is truly the place you need to be. To the Staff here at Narconon I thank you again for saving my life.


Glenn Sadler
Narconon Chilocco Graduate (Oct. 26, 1995)
Story written August 2007


Narconon Chilocco is the original Narconon of Oklahoma. In 2001 it moved to Canadian Oklahoma and is now referred to as Narconon Arrowhead.



If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more
information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved.
NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are
used with its permission.

I was in serious depression and despair.

I am completely amazed at the success and gains I have made in both my personal and professional life since graduating the Narconon® Drug Rehabilitation program at Arrowhead. I have regained my self-respect, ethics, and morals as a result of the methods used to treat my addiction. My friends, family, and peers are constantly remarking about how much happier and healthier I appear to them.

Prior to coming to Narconon I was in serious depression and despair from my failures to stop drinking. Nothing worked for me; not the thirty day 12-step rehab places, Alcoholics Anonymous, or drugs prescribed by my Doctor. Now my desire to drink alcohol has completely gone away. I am working again and have a rewarding career ahead of me.
This success is due to the unique philosophy that Narconon takes toward drug and alcohol abuse treatment.

Michael A.
Narconon Arrowhead Graduate
Story written July 2007

If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more
information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved.
NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are
used with its permission.

Narconon Arrowhead Contact Information

Narconon Arrowhead

HC 67 Box 5

Canadian, OK 74425

1-800-468-6933

1-918-339-5800

info@stopaddiction.com

http://www.stopaddiction.com/

If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction please contact us.

If you would like to submit your success story (with or without a photo) please send it to success@stopaddiction.com or mail it at the above address.

Prayers can be answered!

My name is Anthony. I am 16 years old. I have had a rough life just like many others. I wanted to share my story with you.

My mom was an idealistic type of mom. She had raised me by herself for many years and then remarried and had my little brother. She had a degree from Oklahoma State University. We lived in a nice house. She drove a nice car. We were a happy family. Then things started to change. In 1999 my mom decided to divorce and packed me and my brother up and moved us back to her home town in Eufaula, OK. She became involved with a man that had just gotten released from prison. They fought often and drug use began to enter the scene. People were constantly over to the house. She would take me and my brother with her to strange houses where there were people doing drugs and cooking methamphetamine. There were over 20 people there with guns. The kids there were teenagers. While the adults were off making drugs, these teenagers taught me how to smoke pot.

We moved again. People would come to the house and scream and fight with my mom. They would come there to buy drugs from her. Once they stole our car. Fights were constant. My mom often feared for her life but was so into getting high that she was willing to risk her life and ours to get the drugs. It was really scary.

I started getting more and more pulled in. The guys that my mom ran with were teaching me how to be tough, how to fight, how to speak like them. I learned how to guard and protect our home at the age of 10. I got in trouble for spray painting trailers and threw a rock at a cop car and remember running from the police as they patrolled our trailer park trying to find me. I remember being cheered on by my mother’s friends. I began to feel very powerful and bulletproof. But I wasn’t, this was all a smoke screen.

I went to my dad’s house for a visit. He had remarried and had more children. It seemed like a family. Like what I had lost. But things went really bad there. I got 3rd degree chemical burns during a mishap of abuse. I am scarred for life. His wife often hit me and was very verbally abusive. While with my dad, I became totally isolated. I couldn’t see my mom, my grandparents, no one. I began to get withdrawn and wanted to die. I was very sad. I felt I had nowhere to go.

My mom felt horrible. She decided to get help. My aunt worked at a rehabilitation center called Narconon Arrowhead. She set it up for my mom to come in. My mom had a court appearance, her boyfriend showed up and convinced her to leave with him. She left my grandpa at the court house and was missing for 19 days. I didn’t know where she was and my grandma hadn’t heard from her. My aunt finally tracked her down. She had been arrested in Dallas, TX, high on methamphetamine. She had parked at the cargo section of the Dallas Airport in the middle of the night. The police surrounded her and her boyfriend and took them to jail. During the court proceedings a lot of truths started to come out. Her boyfriend had tried to kill her. She had stolen stuff. She had lied. She had thrown away everything through her drug use. My aunt went to Texas, worked with probation, the attorneys, and the staff of Narconon® to get my mom released and to the drug treatment program.

During this time a counselor at school who was watching my struggles with life and with my dad stepped in. I was taken from my dad, couldn’t go back to my mother so I ended up in a shelter in Eufaula. The people at the shelter took good care of me but I felt I lost everything in my life. I had no family. No friends. No stuff. The people at the shelter gave me a white ball cap that had college teams on it. On the inside there was a tracking device that would signal them if I tried to run or someone tried to take me. People in town knew we were the shelter kids just by those hats. I got severely depressed. One night during a hard rain I cried and prayed to God, "Why are you doing this to me? Why do you hate me?" I never got an answer and I cried myself to sleep. I was now 11. I stayed there for 3 weeks, which seemed like an eternity when you are 11 and alone.

My mom wasn’t doing her program correctly, was interfering with other peoples programs and was dismissed with the option to return if she chose to follow the rules. My mom went back to court. She was able to get me out of the youth shelter but was under surveillance by the state to assure my care. She had a new boyfriend, had secured a house and a new job. We were going to be a family again. However I had never dealt with my anger. I was still mad at my mom. I started to rebel. I started running with some older kids, was smoking marijuana and getting into trouble. My mom and her boyfriend were fighting. I got caught up in the middle and took off. I went with my 1/2 brother and stole a car. I was angry, hurt and upset. Most of all I feared going back to the shelter. I loaded my brother’s nine millimeter hand gun stuck it in my mouth and prayed for the will to just die. But I thank God for intervening. I wasn’t able to do it.

I went home and my mom had been in my stuff and found marijuana and a pipe. She felt betrayed because she was trying to stay drug free and she sent me to live with my grandmother across town. I had not seen her for 2 years. My grandma was reluctant at first but she took me in. I have lived there since this time. I started passing school. I got back into sports. I felt loved. My grandma and grandpa have been really good to me and gave me the stability that I needed. I will be forever thankful to them.

My mom got pregnant and seemed to be doing ok. She was still with her boyfriend. She had been clean for over a year, but when she delivered the baby he was taken by social services at the hospital. This was a very confusing time. My mom tried to do right. She went to several different types of rehabs but it just wasn’t like Narconon. She had failure after failure. She needed to complete her program at Narconon. She ended up leaving the state and was arrested for transporting methamphetamine and lost any chance of getting the baby back. My aunt stepped in and adopted the baby. My mom went to jail, only to find out she was pregnant again.
She decided she needed to get straight and didn’t want to lose another child. She stopped all drug use in March of 2005. She left the state to live with her brother and delivered a healthy drug free baby girl. She has been clean and sober for 2 years now! I still live with my grandma but my mom has moved back to Eufaula. She is healthy and strong. She lives with me at my grandma’s with her baby girl. We are a family. My mom still gives credit to my aunt and to Narconon Arrowhead for saving her life. When things got truly bad Narconon taught my mom life skills that she needed to get herself straight. She still regrets not finishing the program but now that she has 2 years clean she is in the process of doing everything she can to make things go right and she will be returning to Narconon soon, so she can help others.

My aunt was able to get me a summer job here at Narconon and it has been a life changing experience for me. Everyone here has a story and I have learned after everything that I went through in my life so far, there are people who have been through much more and they survived. I now understand what my mom went through and it has helped our relationship. Narconon Arrowhead makes me want to succeed. I can rise above my hardships, get past society and the drugs, and come out shining in the end. At 16 I can tell you that Narconon saves peoples lives! It saved my mom’s life and made us a family again. For that I will forever be thankful. I wanted to share my story because I know there are other kids out there who are struggling. Kids that may feel they don’t have a chance. I just want you to realize, God may take a while to answer your prayers but he always does. Thank you Narconon for giving me my mother back!

Anthony
Story written July 2007

If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.

Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

Today I'm living the life I always wanted.

My life was in shambles at the age of 28 and had been for years. I thought I was living "the life" in my swank uptown loft apartment with my fly-by night friends. I was on top of the world and no one could touch me. The cocaine and ecstasy I was selling to my so called friends was the best you could buy and I was the leader of the pack or so I thought. I had lots of drugs and lots of money and people always wanted to be close to me. I was the most popular woman in town.

In February of 2005 my world came crashing down. I was almost sent away for a long time. Luckily for me I really wasn’t the big dealer I thought I was and all of a sudden everything made perfect sense. I was just another pawn in the drug game trapped inside my own addiction to the drugs. I was not invincible nor was I living "the life".

I had pushed my family and real friends away for the fly-by night ones who were now gone. The drugs and money were gone and I was lost completely. I moved out of my swank loft apartment and put all my belonging into storage and moved in with my best friend and her husband. I was still using but not as often. I had it a little more together. I couldn’t seem to get stable though, something wasn’t right. I couldn’t hold a real job or be the mother to my children that I wanted so desperately to be. I was in a state of confusion and had no idea where my life was headed. There were a lot of ups and downs in my everyday life just trying to manage. I was scared to death all the time that I was going to die because someone was going to kill me. Finally, I asked for help. That’s when my family and I found Narconon®.

I arrived in Oklahoma two days before Thanksgiving Day and started on my new life. The staff at Narconon Arrowhead made me feel very comfortable and safe and at that moment I knew I was in the right place. I started getting better as I went through the different parts of the program. I began to see where I had gone wrong in my life and started taking responsibility for my own actions. Narconon gave me all the tools I needed to get my life back in order and be the mother and the individual I wanted and needed to be. I can resolve issues now that before seemed impossible barriers to overcome. I am aware of my own actions and how my actions affect everything and everyone around me. I can make decisions based on rational thoughts and ideas. I am a whole person again where before I was just a hologram projecting myself on the world.

Today, I am happy, productive, and living "the life" I always wanted. I am helping others and their families, who may suffer from an addiction to get the help they need. My own family and friends are once again a major part of my life and my children have their mother back. I am working for Narconon now with a purpose in life. That purpose is to save lives and make the world a better place for our future generations to grow up in. I now understand the true meaning of happiness. I can handle anything that comes my way. All the money in the world isn’t worth the love of your family and friends. To have love is the greatest gift one can have. I am thankful to Narconon for helping me get the love back in my heart and the addiction out of my life.

Melissa Hallmark
Graduated February 17, 2006
Success story written June 14, 2007



If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved. NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.

An angel delivered me to the doors of life.

My life was miserable. I had lost my husband and was soon to lose my children. I felt helpless. I was a clinical drug addict. My nightstand beside my bed held Xanax, Oxycontin, Lortabs, Somas, and some other kinds of sleeping pills. All prescribed to me by medical doctors.

At one time I had my own business. A beautiful family. Everything a person would want. But my life had turned into a living nightmare. I didn’t eat food. I took drugs. I didn’t clean my home. I shot up drugs. I didn’t love my family. I didn’t love myself. I was a wreck.

I made several reaches for help. Doors were slammed in my face. I was told I would always take medications. I could not come off all the meds without dying. Doctors told me this. Several rehabs turned me down, I was too addicted. Society turned its back on my screams and cries for help. What’s the use, I’m doomed to live this life of misery. I overdosed on October 14th of 2004. My 6 year old daughter found me with no breath, no heart beat. She called for help.
Somehow, I made it through the night. I refused emergency services but agreed to go to the hospital with my father. Everything was such a blurr. The pain and anguish I saw in my father’s eyes is something no parent should feel.

I was the true example of what clinical drugs can do to a human being. I was walking death. Just a body with no mind or spirit left. Narconon® accepted me. An angel delivered me to the doors of life.

I went through the program and I stayed to train. I am now a living, loving, productive human being. Narconon gave me the tools to remain clean, the tools to pick myself up and to keep myself out of danger.

My parents have a daughter. My sisters have a sister. My children have a mother. My future grandchildren have a grandmother, someone they can be proud of. Not a drug addict.
Narconon gave me back my will. My God did not condemn me to a life of drugs. I chose to do drugs.

My biggest win, is I’m helping in the war against drugs. I know within every cell of my existence that we can save lives from drug addiction. I have purpose.

Patricia Bean-Meyer
Narconon Arrowhead Graduate, February 18, 2005
Story written May 2007



If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved.
NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.

Being here has changed my life.

When one finds happiness, success, peace and fulfillment in life, what more could one ask? Winning the lottery, however big, wouldn’t provide the same feelings, those same feelings, that working at Narconon® Arrowhead provides.

The professionalism, which is demanded, makes it possible for the staff to change the lives of the students (clients) for the better. Being part of that professionalism, that caring, honest, clever, and committed group is a breath-taking experience.

After stumbling around most of my life searching for just this total happiness, I stumbled onto Narconon Arrowhead. I was, as always in my life, very, very lucky to find all I found here. Being here has changed my life. Staying here changes my life for the better every day.

Bob Wilkins
Narconon Arrowhead Graduate, July 2005
Story written May 2007

If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more
information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program
please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities
through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. http://www.stopaddiction.com/

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved.
NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are
used with its permission.

I was losing my mind!

I went to a prestigious private school and grew up in an upper class suburban neighborhood. I was not the type of person that anyone would think was using drugs. But I was, and it nearly killed me. It started when my doctor prescribed me Ritalin in high school. From there, things went into a downward spiral. I discovered that I could crush and snort my Ritalin, because it is a form of speed. I stayed up for days and hardly ate. I was able to maintain my good grades and I got into Georgetown. My addiction got worse and I was going to two different doctors to get prescriptions for Ritalin. I was at the maximum dosage, but still, they would be gone in a week. I stopped going to class and stayed up for days at a time. I was losing my mind.

I ended up having to withdraw from college and went back home to live with my mom. It was then that I got into cocaine heavily. I went back to school and got my teaching degree from University of Maryland. I was teaching during the day, 8th grade English, and I was bartending at nights. I was functional for quite some time. But then my cocaine use took over. I would stay up all night using and go into school the next day. It got so bad, that I was using cocaine at school just to get through the day. I went on a binge and didn’t show up for work for three days. Needless to say, I lost my job. I started selling drugs for income and got involved with a bad crowd. I was running drugs, bartending, and staying up for days at a time. My car ended up getting impounded, I lost all of my friends, family, and everything that I had worked for. I did drugs all day and all night. I was killing myself.

Then my mom found Narconon®. She begged me to go get help. I fought it for a long time. Then I came home one day from being up for nearly a week. I was exhausted and sick. I looked at myself in the mirror and I knew right then that if I continued like this I would die.

My mom handed me the phone and I talked to someone from Narconon Arrowhead. His name was Paul, and he told me that I couldn’t live my life like this anymore. I was on a plane within 2 hours on my way to Oklahoma.

The Narconon program saved my life. I am happy and successful. I have found my purpose. Before I was lost, now I have goals and stability. I never thought that I would be able to stop using drugs. But now I can say that I never even think about it. Narconon taught me how to handle my condition in life and keep my ethics in. I saw how my life spiraled out of control and finally I was able to take responsibility for it and fix it. My relationship with my family is better than ever. I am happily married and working here at Narconon. I know that my purpose is to give to other people what this program gave me, my life back. Thank you Narconon for saving my life.



G. B.
Narconon Arrowhead Graduate, August 22, 2005
Story Written May 2007



If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more
information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program
please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte.
Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities
through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation. www.stopaddiction.com

©2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved.
NARCONON and the Narconon logo are registered trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are
used with its permission.

I was creating damage all around me!

I started smoking pot and drinking alcohol when I was in high school. I went through what I thought was the natural progression of drug use from pot to pills, cocaine, crank and pretty much whatever I could get my hands on. This went on all throughout my twenties but I never believed I had a real problem because I had a good job, always paid my bills on time and functioned normally. That is what I believed but my family saw me differently and so did the rest of the world, I am now sure of. On into my thirties I still did not think that I had a serious problem until I hit 35 years old and a "so called" friend introduced me to heroin. Actually it was not the first time I had done heroin but when I had used it in the past it was just every now and again. Well all of a sudden I had this friend coming over every day asking me to go in on some dope with him. I had the money and he knew it, he was just using me to help him get his fix.

Well this went on for a month and at the end of it I was strung out big time. My life totally changed at this point and I started to loose the responsible person that I had always been.I struggled with my heroin addiction for the next 10 years. I was fired from my job and found myself homeless for a time. I resorted to doing things that I am not proud of to get money for my dope and this helped to land me in jail more times than I care to remember. Life had become unbearable and I was utterly hopeless and was killing myself. It was also killing my mother to watch her daughter destroy her life. I was being very selfish because I was thinking I was not hurting anyone but myself, when this was actually the farthest thing from the truth when it came to my family and the community that I was in. I was creating damage all around me and could not see it.

Then I heard about Narconon® from a family friend and decided to give it a try. I had been in many rehabs prior to Narconon and never had any success so I was ready to try something different. This program changed my life so completely that it is hard to even express how much. It also taught me how selfish I had been to think my drug use only affected me when in actuality it affected everyone around me and I understand that now.

I was so grateful to Narconon I decided to make a 5 year commitment to this organization by joining staff so that I could give back some of which I have received. I am almost at the end of that 5 year commitment and I have had some of the best years ever in my life. I feel like the job that I do everyday is truly making a difference in peoples lives. It is so wonderful to hear someone say "thank you for giving me my son or daughter or spouse back". It is so rewarding to see the change that people go through from when they first arrive here to when they graduate the program.

My work experience with this organization has been so satisfying that I have decided to continue my employment here for as long as they will have me.

Kelly Falcone
Narconon Arrowhead Graduate, March 22, 2002
Story written May 23, 2007

If you know someone who needs help with drug or alcohol addiction or would like more information about the Narconon Arrowhead Field Referral program please call 1-800-468-6933 and ask for Desiree Cardoso or DannaSue Lafitte or email fsmic@stopaddiction.com.

Together, we are saving lives, reuniting families, and making stronger communities through effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

http://www.stopaddiction.com

© 2007 Narconon of Oklahoma, Inc. All rights reserved. NARCONON and the Narconon logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.