Central Alberta Narcotics Anonymous member shares story of recovery

“My mom did her best to raise me, but eventually some not so pleasant experiences happened to me at an early age and went on for a couple years until it was exposed. When my dad died, it wasn’t long until I was blackout drinking. Finding drugs and booze at 12 proves to be challenging,” he says.

“I wasn’t using all the time, but when I did, it was excessive. At one point as a teen, a friend’s older brother had given us a weed pipe, and unknown to us was that it had crack cocaine in it. It was such an extreme euphoria, and I was hooked instantly.”

Years later, D.J. wound up behind bars himself, and both his wife and kids were lost from his life.

“I just felt like I was young, the world was at my feet and I had lots of time to change. I thought that if I wanted to stop the substance use, I could, but that was a lie,” he says in retrospect.

“There’s this metaphor we talk about, where people who use drugs recreationally are like a cucumber, because they can take it or leave it. But you cross this line at some point where you become a pickle. That’s the point at which you can’t go back to being a cucumber. The disease of addiction can leave us powerless.”

Now 38, D.J., who is Métis, says he doesn’t believe himself to be a direct product of residential schools, though he is looking into it and how intergenerational trauma may have impacted him, he shares.

D.J. got out of jail and was accepted into a transitional faith-based housing program called Lazarus House, operated by Potter’s Hands. He soon discovered Narcotics Anonymous underneath the apartment in which he was living.

His message for those seeking a way out is — number one — that Narcotics Anonymous is a viable option, and there’s only one prerequisite: a desire to stop using.

Narcotics Anonymous has no strings attached, as in there are no fees or dues to pay, nor any pledges or promises to make. It is for anyone, D.J. says.

“There is therapeutic value to one addict helping another. When I got clean, I was at a dead end; no one wanted to talk to me or be near me. I attended numerous treatment centres, did detoxes, was in institutions and psych wards, and they can work, but at all those places, it was just about my drug problem,” he describes.

“One of us helping another was a game changer for me. With Narcotics Anonymous, everyone wanted to tell me about their drug problem and the solutions they found. Instead of ‘you should and you could,’ it was people’s actual experiences.”

D.J. now has the proverbial new lease on life he’d always wanted, but for so long couldn’t see a path toward.

“In the end, I go through my days clean, free of anger, resentment and hurt; all the stuff that kept me weighted down before,” he says. “Narcotics Anonymous has given me my life back, including my kids and wife. I’ve kept a job long enough to go to apprenticeship school, and I’m working in the trades now. People come to me with work offers.”

Narcotics Anonymous meets frequently with 200 meetings weekly across Alberta.

For more information about meetings, visit centralalbertaareana.com.

The group serves Red Deer, Sylvan Lake, Lacombe, Stettler, Camrose, Wetaskiwin, Olds and Drayton Valley.

The local hotline is 1-403-846-5798.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Central Alberta Narcotics Anonymous member shares story of recovery

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