I want to live life to the fullest now
Narconon Graduate
David M.
Raised in a good family, raised right. Played sports as a kid up until high school. I was pretty good at baseball, I could have went places. But in my senior year, I destroyed the left side of my body. I tore my ACL [Anterior Cruciate Ligament], MCL [Medial Collateral Ligament], the hip came out of its socket. Ankle shattered, tore every ligament in it. And it sidelined me for the rest of like, high school. And it was the beginning of the year. They went on to win the state championship as I was sitting on the sidelines.
I got prescribed OxyContin and at the time, you know, I was taking it as prescribed. But then, I guess you sit there and say you kind of got depressed, and it just came into, “I’ll take this whole bottle, I’ll get more. I’ll add alcohol to it. I’ll smoke weed with it.” And then I eventually got caught in an addiction and I couldn’t find my way out of that cardboard box. And it was just all downhill from there.
Worst day was overdosing and damn near killing myself and drowning in a river. Next thing I know, paramedics all around me, cops, firemen, everything, pulling me out of the river. And they said I had overdosed and I was not breathing for three and a half minutes. That kind of sent me into a, “Maybe I need some help. This is just not where I want to be at twenty-seven years old.“
When I got to Narconon, everyone treated me with the utmost respect. These people have actually been through it. They know what I was going through. They’ve done it. They’ve seen it. They’ve lived it, you know. I couldn’t get a smile off my face. When I was finally sleeping again, thinking clearly, eating three square [meals]—like not just dabbling with some candy. Just to feel healthy again.
When I finished all the Life Skills courses, I felt a sense of responsibility again, faced the fact that I was an addict for fifteen years. I did nothing except use drugs and now I can learn things I had never thought I had the capabilities of doing. It makes you happy to feel like I can be useful to society, you know.
While using I never finished anything I started. Only thing I’ve ever finished before I started was a jail sentence and that’s nothing to be proud of. But I got here and I did everything to the fullest. And I have that certificate saying I completed it. I was real emotional when I finished my program, but at the same time I couldn’t have been happier.
It sounds crazy but I can laugh again and truly mean it, not just give a smirk and think, “Oh, that was funny.” No, I laugh. It feels like I worked out, I laugh so hard—just enjoying the little things that you take for granted when you’re out there using.
Soon as the sun’s up, I’m up. I want to live life to the fullest now. That’s exactly what I’m doing. And I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
