Friday, July 20, 2007

Narconon Arrowhead Contact Information




Narconon Arrowhead

HC 67 Box 5

Canadian, OK 74425

1-800-468-6933

1-918-339-5800



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.








Monday, July 16, 2007

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/

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

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.