News / Health & Wellness
Narconon Success Brent
Brent was an opiate baby and almost died at birth. Thanks to competent doctors he lived and thanks to the Narconon program, he has broken the pattern of addiction in his family.
It is not uncommon to find second generation drug addicts in drug rehab and unfortunately, often the addicted parents have passed away. The good news is that, through the Narconon program, their children have the opportunity to defy fate and live drug free, happy and productive.
Brent is one of them.
Since graduating from the program a year ago, Brent started his own business and works at Narconon with other students. His primary goal is to help others get in the state of mind where they can learn to become responsible for themselves and get through the program.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Birmingham Alabama in 1984. I was an opiate baby. When my mother was pregnant with me, she was on prescribed pain pills. She was getting them from various doctors and was addicted. I have been told that she and I almost died during childbirth. My mother and I were both addicted to opiates. Something went wrong during labor and if the doctors had not acted quickly, we both would have died.
Even though my mother was addicted to pain pills, I grew up in a well-structured family. I played baseball and football. My mother was a teacher and my father was an electrician. I did well until I reached the 7th grade and I started smoking pot.
What eventually happened with your mother?
She was never able to get off the drugs despite going to many rehabs and when I was 15 my father divorced her because of the drug use. She also lost her job. She went off the deep end with the drugs and started smoking crack, doing opiates and drinking heavily. She died five years ago from cirrhosis, a form of cancer and hepatitis C. This was sad for me because her addiction started innocently. She had broken her wrist before I was born and became addicted to pain pills. She was never able to get her life together and this was a major factor in how I became addicted.
When did you first begin abusing drugs?
I smoked pot in the 7th grade. Then I tried Loritabs. The first time I took one I became addicted and I think that is because I was born addicted. I then moved to Oxycontin. It started out with a couple of pills a week and went to 8 to 10 pills a day. I stopped school in the 10th grade and by then I was taking up to 10 80 mg. pills a day.
I went to some of my dad’s warehouses and charged his accounts for copper wire. I sold the copper wired so I could buy drugs. I went to prison for 9 months for this. When I got out I stayed clean for two months but then went right back to using.
After 6 months of using drugs I started stealing again and wound back at prison. I was in prison for two years. When I got out I went to a rehab in Florida. I stayed there for 5 months but got out and started using drugs again. I started stealing again and got arrested.
How did you get out of this mess?
In 2009 after my last charges, I was allowed to come to Narconon instead of going to prison for 25 years. The District Attorney and the Judge wanted to give me a chance and let me come here to Narconon. While I was at Narconon the Narconon staff sent letters every month to probation to report how I was doing. When I graduated from the program, I started my own business. I spent time working at Narconon, helping others. The Judge and Probation were happy with how I was doing and many of the charges were dropped.
How did the Narconon program help you get to where you are today?
This program gave me a lot of tools to look at myself and realize what I actually wanted for myself. I was given the tools to live a sober life and be responsible.
Specifically the sauna program helped the cravings go away. I felt better physically and I started to exercise and take care of myself. I still exercise and am in good health.
The life skills made me realize that there were some people I needed to stay away from. I also learned what kind of people I needed to associate in order to be happy. I learned to analyze myself in order to assess my condition so that I don’t fall back into the same things I was doing. I can keep moving forward by applying what I have learned.
My life is good. I do positive and productive things every day. I help others so they can get where I am. When I see them change and go in the right direction it helps me.
What would your advise be to
Narconon saved my life. I had been to other rehabs, but this is the one that worked for me. There are a lot of great tools that a person can use to get their life back on track.
I would like to tell others to give this program a shot. Maybe they have tried and have failed, but this program works.
You won’t know if something works unless you try it.
