Family Stories

When one member of a family gets hooked on drugs, it can be devastating for everyone in that family.

Here’s a story of one such family.

“There are no adequate words to describe our gratitude to Narconon for restoring our family unit.  We have 4 grown children, 3 daughters and 1 son.  Our beautiful 3^rd daughter, Malia, is who we write about today.

Malia was our easiest child. Always a great student and athlete, she graduated high school magna cum laude and headed to college in 1995.  In her 3^rd year of college at age 20, she tried ecstasy and the long slow spiral began with forays into cocaine and finally crystal meth.

The decade was punctuated by attempts at college, failed jobs and other disappointments.  Her lack of success as an adult was baffling to us as her use of drugs wasn’t admitted to us until 2003.  Needless to say, we and her siblings were baffled by her choices.  She grew up in an intact loving home with no addiction history on either side of our families. We just thought she was depressed.

In 2003, after losing a job she loved, she entered a rehab here in Hawaii that was based on the 12 step program.  Up to that point, she had been using cocaine. Within 2 months of completing that program, she tried crystal meth which is the most insidious and addictive drug available.

From early 2004 until entrance into the Narconon program in January 2006, our family was in turmoil.  Malia’s behavior and problems were creating such stress in our family.  It was a very dark time. Towards the latter part of 2005, we just had to separate ourselves from her self destruction, as well as, avoid continuing to enable her.  Eventually, she wore down her friends as well and ended up living on the streets.

On Dec 27, 2005, her 30^th birthday, we searched for her and when we found her, she was ready to enter rehab.  She had hit bottom.

Narconon appealed to us for many reasons.  First, it approaches the problem not as an addiction, but as a personal choice.  It teaches the individual to learn to deal on a personal basis with the triggers and problems that created the use of drugs.

There is no need for group meetings afterwards, although friendships are forged that are supportive upon return to society.  One of the most appealing aspects of the program was the opportunity upon graduation to enter an internship program to learn to help others.

Malia graduated in 4 months and then chose to become an intern.  She had been involved in social service work prior to rehab. She decided to join the staff and has continued to help a multitude of people through the program.

She just began her 3^rd year at Narconon and has moved up several levels in the organization.  We and her siblings have our beautiful, sweet Malia back.  She is so grateful to have her life and family back.  There really are no superlatives to describe how grateful we are for this program at Narconon. We are a happy, healthy family unit once again”.

L. M- Mother of a Narconon graduate

If your family has a problem like this, call a counselor at Narconon Hawaii now and get help

808-550-0005 or toll free at 866-373-2809.