Letter from fiancée of Narconon student

"I am writing to you regarding the change the Narconon programme has made to the life of both myself (even though I don't and haven't had an addiction) and that of my fiancé, Joe (formally a heavy crack user). To give you a brief history, my fiancé and I have been together for nearly four years, as all relationships at the start we blossomed, laughed and fell in love. We had been together for six months when I became aware that he was taking drugs (as all users he was very good at hiding it at first). Being naive about drugs I was not aware of the amount he was taking or the extent of his addiction.

Over the following two and a half years the addiction grew stronger and although I thought I'd done all the homework I could possibly do to help him, it was out of our control-mainly his. During this time he had reached a habit costing approx £380 per day and inevitably it had impacted on his health. Joe had been admitted to hospital on several occasions, including overdoses and strokes. Joe had lost all pride in his appearance, affecting himself and the world around him. Many would question why did I stick around but what else could I do when I saw someone I love hurting. Although addiction is self-inflicted - it is an illness. My fiancé was the one with the addiction, but I was becoming ill with him. Back in February this year I had resigned myself to no hope to a future together after being off work six months with depression.

I thought we had tried all we possibly could as a family to help him, we had attempted a 'get clean' home programme - even going away for a month. He had attended a day program where he got worse by meeting new contacts. He had attended a private rehabilitation which in hindsight was a glorified hotel not dealing with the real world. We visited numerous other rehabilitations which did not suit his addiction or appeared not to deal with the after care.

In February this year, all involved (including Joe) knew something had to change, he was screaming out for help and no one knew what to do. As a last resort, again we searched the internet for an answer. It was on that occasion we discovered the Narconon website, as corny as it sounds the more we read the more it seemed to know what we were going through - it all seemed too good to be true!!! The following day Joe called me on my mobile as I had returned to work part time to say he had called Narconon. It was the first time in nearly two years I had heard such a positive attitude/tone from him and that we were going to view that afternoon. On the way to Hastings that day although Joe couldn't stop going on about the conversation he had had on the phone, I tried to remain realistic that we had done this before, the norm was to arrive, Joe would be taken off for a chat whilst the family had to wait for about two hours then go home again. Much to my surprise, we arrived at a beautiful setting and were welcomed as a family, within an hour it was obvious this programme was different from all others as it was individual to the "student" and encouraged / appreciated the relationships of others.

Joe commenced the program in March as a heavy crack user who didn't like himself or the world around him, angry all the time with everyone and everything but still crying out for help. Although being all mixed up he put himself forward for the programme (with the help of his family) with a positive attitude.

Without rambling on over the past six months Joe has gone from strength to strength as his own person, both his family and I now have back the person we recognise and love. He deals with problems and finds answers as an individual, takes full pride and respect for himself and others, you would have to have met Joe in February to the one I have today to know exactly what I mean, far short of a miracle I don't know what else to call it. Joe has chosen to put himself forward to apply for a part time position of employment at Narconon after he has completed the course to help others. He and all others around him appreciate the Narconon programme.

Although I know that Joe put in a lot of hard work for himself which is what's expected, we still say a big thank you to the Narconon Drug Rehab programme and its staff. It's been a pleasure to be part of many successes for Joe and other students over the past six months. We have attended graduations, such special and emotional times and I am looking forward to Joe's in a weeks time. Joe and I now have a positive and exciting future, we are planning our wedding for January next year and we are expecting a baby. I now feel confident that I can turn to Joe as a partner for love, support and strength. During the course of the last six months, things haven't always run smoothly as you can imagine, there have been many hurdles, mainly for Joe, but there has always been support for him and us.

Yours sincerely

TP"