Charles -- Drug Rehab Program Graduate

12/28/2007

I was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1984 and raised by my grandmother in Autaugaville, Alabama on a cattle farm. I worked on the farm and led a wholesome life when I was young.

I never knew my mother. She left me with my grandmother when I was a baby. My grandmother raised my brother and me with strong values and did everything she could to provide the best for us.

I attended school and did well until I was 16. Then I got my driver’s license and could drive to town on my own.

I started drinking when I was sixteen with friends in town from my school. The people who would buy us beer starting selling us pot. When I was 17, I was introduced to cocaine. By the time I was 18, I was abusing it on a daily basis.

After I got heavily into cocaine, I no longer hung around my high school buddies or worked on the farm. I worked in the fast food industry and started socializing with drug dealers, ex-cons and the general criminal element.

I was not raised with these types of people and in 2003 I realized I needed some kind of change.

In 2003 I joined the Marine Corps and did well as a mechanic for 2 years and did not abuse drugs.

I got married in 2004, but my wife left me two months later. I was devastated and started drinking heavily. I got a DUI and was busted down in rank in the Marine corp.

But I didn’t stop there. I met up with some old friends during a leave of absence in 2005. I was generally down over the loss of my wife and was using cocaine again. I just didn’t care anymore. I returned to the base and was drug tested. A positive cocaine test led to a month of prison and an “other than honorable” discharge from the Marine Corp.

After getting out of prison, I moved back to Alabama. I started seriously dating a girl I had known in high school. I continued to abuse drugs and eventually was arrested for a drug related theft.

I spent a month in jail while my grandmother tried to find a rehab for me. She learned about this rehab from someone in our area who had graduated from program and was doing well.

The District Attorney agreed to allow me to come to this drug rehab directly from jail.

The Sauna program made me feel clear, alert and healthy. I started to think clearly about my life and didn’t want to use drugs any more.

Life skills helped me to be able to deal with my everyday problems. I had tools to use to handle my problems. I didn’t need drugs, which always gave me more problems than they seemed to “fix”.

Even though I had to start over, after I completed this drug rehab program, my life improved quickly in an almost magical way.

A year after graduating, my mother contacted me on Christmas day after 21 years of absence. Two months later I got to meet her for the first time and we have remained close as though I had always known her. I am so happy she got to meet me as a drug free person – someone she could be proud of.

After I completed the program and I began to face my legal difficulties, they almost seemed to melt away. Because I was clean, the district attorney and the judge were happy and willing to work with me so I could continue helping other people here at this rehab.

I feel like I have set a good example for society, by showing that it is possible to get clean and to lead a happy and productive life.

I became qualified to work at this drug rehab and have worked here for the last year. It has been great to be able to help others achieve what I have. I enjoy watching the lives of our students change. I can watch someone come into our program totally non-productive and see them leave, ready to work and start a new life with their family. When I check on how they are doing after graduation, students report that they are still doing well and moving on with their lives.

This makes all our effort here at this rehab very worthwhile.

There is always hope. You can always change and there is no reason to keep looking down on yourself or think that you will never make anything of your life.

This program can help you with your problems, no matter how big they are.

Charles - Drug Rehab Program graduate

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