Addiction is Not a Label

If you haven't been hit by addiction or helped a loved one who struggles with it, there are things you may not realize.

A lesser known fact about addicts is they are not always crazed individuals who don't care for others or themselves. Surprisingly the opposite in many cases is true. Some of the nicest people you will ever meet may suffer from addiction.

While I struggled as an addict and had empathy for the other addicts who too struggled, this became more apparent to me over the past three years since I became sober. Through those years, I have seen every walk of life come through Narconon; rich, poor, kind, shy, hopeless, creative, even brilliant. Sometimes, people try to pin addiction down to a certain type of person. It is impossible to do so.

I was an addict who at 21 was clean-cut, had a job and went to school. I had a large, great family who all got along. Even when I went into treatment, people thought I must have been a drunk or a "pot head," not realizing I had been a heroin addict. And I don't mean the counselors, I mean the other addicts who thought I didn't fit the profile of a heroin addict.

Till this day, when I open up to others and share I was a heroin addict, they don't believe it. Their concept of a heroin addict is what they have gotten from the media and that an addict is a certain type of person.

I know now that a heroin addict, or any addict for that matter is not what is usually portrayed. The addicts I have seen do some amazing things. They become honest about their darkest secrets, courageously report drug dealers, or step up and make up for the damages they have created. The list goes on and on.

Because while addiction may be a lifestyle, it does not have to be everlasting.

If you know someone who is struggling with addiction, please give us a call so they have too have a happy ending.