The Hardest Obstacle to Get Anyone Off Drugs

The hardest obstacle to get anyone off drugs is helping them see the truth that taking drugs is harmful. No one wants to be “wrong” and besides, how can something that makes you feel so good, be wrong?

The escape drugs offer should not be underestimated and in my youth if a person said “You shouldn’t take drugs” all I would think is “You’re not living my life and don’t know what I have to face”. Talking to someone who is using drugs about not taking drugs sometimes seems futile, but the thing that got me off them was my own feelings about it.

In retrospect, while taking drugs there was always a feeling of “something’s not right” about what I was doing. The fact that it was illegal had something to do with it, and the fact that I could get into trouble with the law and my family if they found out. I knew deep inside that I was doing something wrong and I knew that I should stop. It is this point that made the change for me and I started to seek help.

What were the factors that put me in a position to question taking drugs?

Well for me it was getting in trouble with the law and spending a very brief period in jail. This was the turning point. I looked at the people I was hanging out with and saw their lives. They were “great” people to be with as they welcomed me, they offered me free drugs and free booze and I was okay as long as I did what they said. Their lives were not going anywhere and they were not doing well in life in general. They had more than what I had and, yet as a youth, almost anyone older appears to have more than what you have.

These same guys got me in trouble with the law. They didn’t really care if I went to jail or not or how I was really doing. They were only interested in keeping me high. This was my wake up call and I decided to get off drugs—these people were not thriving productive members of society but were people who wanted to be on drugs and wanted to keep others on drugs to share their miserable lives.

They were not my real friends.

I stopped taking drugs at the age of 18 and was very, very, very lucky to have done the New Life Detox program that showed me how drugs affected me and reaffirmed the harmful effect it has had on me. It has been 27 years now that I have not taken any drugs and just from this one program and meeting the right friends, I have only improved my life in heaps and bounds, every year it has just gotten better.

A.M.