What's new

Every addict who enters Narconon’s doors is being denied legitimate treatment.

narcoNOT

New Member
The decision to write this post took a long time. It’s a long post too.

First off, I am not a scientologist or ex-scientologist. I understand a lot about the Co$ as I have been following news about it for several years now. After you read this, you'll see why.

Unfortunately, I have to keep the names of the people involved in this confidential. Not because they were involved in Co$, but because of the stigma of addiction. Some of my family members would be appalled if they saw this and they’ve been through enough. Even as I am hitting Submit - I feel really weird about making this public - even in an anonymous way.

Narconon has contributed to the deaths of more people that the poor folks who died while in care at their facilities. Let me explain why.

THE DRUG ADDICTION
My younger brother struggled with drug addiction for many years. He had been to a couple of detox programs and rehab programs, but subsequently relapsed after each one.

It's hard to put across the toll it takes on family members to watch an addict destroy their own and their children's lives. To see them enter treatment programs then quit for a while, get a feeling of elation that this time, finally, they would be freed, only to have one's hopes dashed again at the next relapse. Years and years of this really wear a family down. It also wears the addict down. AA's philosophy is to stop helping, let the addict hit bottom and they will make their own decision to stop. But - there are bottoms - losing jobs/divorce/etc - and deeper bottoms - prison/homelessness/etc - and the deepest bottom of all - death. My brother had hit so many bottoms that we all knew in our guts, the next one was the deepest. It turned out we were right.

So that's how it was when my family encountered Narconon. Knowing that my brother was on the precipice, that death was just around the next corner. Burnt out on the getting clean / relapse cycle.

LOOKING FOR A NON-12 STEP PROGRAM
My brother hated AA. This was partly because my late father had been in recovery and got involved in AA in a "culty" kind of way. I don't believe AA is a cult, but it has some cultish qualities and certain members treat it like one. He attended 1-2 meetings per day, every day, for 15 years. He only associated with other people in AA, believed the people outside "the program" "didn't get it,”, the writings of Bill W were infallible, and that leaving AA meant insanity or death. When confronted with complex questions, many times my father tossed an AA slogan at you in response, instead of actually listening and thinking of more nuanced, less pat answers. It was a cop-out and my sibling hated that, and he extrapolated that hatred, rightly or wrongly, to AA. This is one of the reasons that my brother did not want to attend one of the more established treatment programs like Hazelden.

NARCONON RECRUITMENT
Isn’t the name itself deceptive?. Narconon. Many people would confuse it with Narcotics Anonymous – the spin-off of Alcoholics Anonymous is known as “Nar-Anon”. The association with AA/NA lends Narconon an air of legitimacy it does not deserve.

I'm not sure whether my brother stumbled on Narconon first, or another family member. At any rate, the intake people at Narconon ended up speaking on the phone to another family member, and told them everything they wanted to hear. Narconon said that while other treatment centers had low recovery rates, they had a whopping 70% success rate! The other treatment centers cost (at that time) $25k, but Narconon cost less. I believe it cost as much as $5k to $10k less. That’s a pretty significant amount of money. (And don’t underestimate how drained of funds families of addicts are…)

Most people have little training in or understanding of the scientific method, and Narconon exploits that. They sent my family member articles of “studies” done on their dubiously high success rate. By then, I was starting to research this treatment center and I was highly disturbed by the things I was discovering. I brought up that the success rate was BS and why the studies were not valid. But they just would not listen to me.

My family member also really bought into the idea of the Purification Rundown. On the surface, in a simplistic way, it makes sense. Drugs are toxic. Sweat eliminates toxins. Saunas make you sweat so saunas detox you. Vitamins are good. More vitamins are better. Massive vitamins cure things. But the science behind it is junk science. The studies are flawed and were not subject to peer review.

However, the thing that the staff at Narconon knows is that by the time someone calls them for help, that person is exhausted. They don’t want the daily struggle that 12 step programs promise. They want the magic pill. They want a cure.

My sibling wanted that. He wanted to be cured, once and for all.

No one wants to hear that realistic success rates are more like 17%. Most addicts attend rehab multiple times before finally getting sober. And there’s no cure! No guarantee that the addict won’t relapse again. Who wants to hear that?

So everyone, except me, was gung-ho about my brother attending Narconon Arrowhead. I finally stopped protesting, especially since I wasn’t footing the bill.

(Looking back on it all, I believe I failed to appreciate how skilled the Co$ members who man the Narconon facilities are at manipulation of facts and of people. The more I learned of the Co$, the less anger I felt towards my family members.)

NARCONON's "TREATMENT"

I spoke to my brother once or twice while he was at Narconon Arrowhead. He seemed to be in good spirits. I do not really remember much about the conversations, except this:
He said that he was taking a lot of vitamin B and his skin had turned red or purple or something. He also talked about saunas and going for a run after a sauna.

He told me that he was doing these exercises with a partner where they would stare in each other’s eyes or at the wall or something. I thought it sounded really dumb, but he said he enjoyed it. I failed to see what it had to do with recovery though.

RELAPSE
My brother relapsed within a month of leaving Narconon Arrowhead. He actually could have saved my family the money since he was capable of staying clean that long with no treatment at all.

Narconon conducted no follow-up care that I know of. I don’t know how they get their success rate stats, since they have zero interest in their actual outcomes.

DEATH
Within six months, my brother was dead. He basically died of a sort of congestive heart failure. It was most certainly brought about by his drug use.

However – I also believe that the Purification Rundown contributed to the poor condition of his heart. Why in hell would anyone give toxic doses of Niacin to someone with an already compromised liver and cardiovascular system? While Niacin’s liver toxicity is well-documented, it is also known to affect the heart.

EVEN IF NARCONON’S TREATMENTS ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY VALID, WHAT’S THE HARM?
This is an argument I heard a lot before my brother entered Narconon and afterwards. Dear reader, I hope you have made it this far because this is the main point I’m trying to make.

Every addict who enters Narconon’s doors is being denied legitimate, even life-saving treatment.

My brother could have gone to the Betty Ford center, or Hazelden (despite AA), or some other treatment program. Maybe, just maybe, it would have been the rehab attempt that made all the difference.

But he didn’t. He didn’t because Narconon preys on vulnerable, suffering people for their money. Narconon makes promises it knows it cannot deliver and dupes people into trading legitimate treatment for a bogus magic cure-all.

And now he’s dead. He’ll never see his child graduate, or get married. He’ll never know his grandchildren.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it was his addiction and the powerful drug he was into that bears the brunt of the blame. But we only had a handful of chances to help him. And Narconon snatched away the last, most important chance we were given.



(Sorry if I sound like I’m ranting. It’s been several years since his death, but writing this brings it all up)


P.S. Thank you David Edgar Love for getting the Canadian Narconon’s shut down. Please focus on Narconon Arrowhead next!
 

Lulu Belle

Moonbat
narcoNOT,

I am so sorry for your loss.

Your post was very enlightening. It brought up issues which I have never thought of before.
 

Lure Rob & Hyde

Patron with Honors
Thankyou for sharing. I had no idea that the vitamins might actually be harmful to people's hearts. Very sad.


Not just "vitamins" the actual program with daily prolonged exercise, daily sweating in up to 5 hours in the hot sauna that is likely to be breeding bacteria if not properly cleaned ( I doubt they have any hygenic precautions since they are convinced it is all mental) , giving hubbard's shotgun treatment of vitamins to create imbalances in the person's system.
To top it off the way these insanely lethal does of niacin up to 5,000 miligrams are administered everyday is a recipe for disaster in my view.
I am researching "Sequoia University " the degree mill that hubbard owned to see it hubbard issued himself a medical degree as well when he decided to practise medicine
when he concoted the purification rundown.
 

GoNuclear

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thanks for that post.

I am, in no way, shape or form, defending Narconon, nor am I saying that it isn't a rip-off. HOWEVER ... just because Narconon is another HubTurd rip-off, the purpose of which is to eventually funnel people into Scientology ... doesn't mean that just because there are other programs out there that DO NOT funnel people into Scientology aren't also rip-offs.

A lot of these programs follow the AA pattern. AA used to offer an exam to help someone determine if they are alchoholics. As I recall it was a 21 question exam. They stated that if you had 1 yes answer, you might be an alcholic. If you answered 2 questions with a yes answer, you were probably an alchoholic. If you had 3 yes answers you were almost certainly an alchoholic. I had 8 yes answers, and yet I wasn't drinking all the time, I wasn't getting drunk, I never got behind the wheel after drinking, or I would at least give it several hours time, wasn't having black outs, none of that. But the questions were horseshitistic. For instance ... "Do you ever drink alone?" Sure. Plenty of times. I like a beer with a pastrami sandwich or a slice of pizza from time to time, and who cares if someone else is in the house or not. "Have you ever had a hangover?" Yeah, a few times. "Have you ever had regrets?" Yeah, once in the Navy when we pulled into Gibralter, and what I drank didn't sit well in my stomach, and the next day was spent puking my guts out, who wouldn't regret that. There it is, I am almost certainly an alchoholic as far as they are concerned, and I need to spend the rest of my life going to their silly phuggen meetings confessing how powerless I am etc etc etc. What nonsense. If I have an addiction, it is to those disgusting little "Mike and Ike" candies. There is no such thing as me opening a box of them and not finishing the box.

Then there are the programs that are designed and run by "doctors." What kind of doctor? Why, an allopathic MD of course. As a rule, they virtually all ignore nutrition and dis vitamins of any sort, and, will never say "yes" to any sort of sports nutrition such as creatine suppliments or designer whey protein, etc. When it comes to diet changes curing a condition, the average MD will deny, deny, deny. MD's are huge drug pushers themselves, except that the drugs they push are govt. approved and manufactured by big pharma, which, of course, has the FDA bought and paid for. So you have this absurd situation where federal thug squads kick in the doors of medical marijuana dispensaries but it's OK for MD's to shove Prozac down everyone's throat and that drug has caused people all sorts of problems.

In order to beat an addition, you have to replace the behavior pattern you are trying to break with a new and positive behavior pattern. How many programs out there do that ... for instance, replacing an addicted life with one strongly oriented towards spending a lot of time in the gym working out, or doing martial arts, or something else like yoga?

Pete
 

BunnySkull

Silver Meritorious Patron
Thanks for such a well written, thoughtful post. I wish more people put this type of effort and detail into their OP's. This is just another very good reason, of many, why the complete scam of narconon needs shut down permanently. The cult shouldn't be allowed 100 miles near people in medical need, both physical and mental illnesses, or children with their totally fraudulent "treatments."

I would suggest you seriously consider going public with your story. Dave Love has accomplished amazing things in his fight against narconon, but he needs help and he especially needs thoughtful people like you who have lost a loved one to speak out against it. The more people who speak out and tell their stories the fast these places will be shuttered. Remaining silent and anonymous empowers the scam. Thanks for ending your silence. I hope one day you will feel able to go further in speaking out, more intelligent, thoughtful people like you are badly needed to speak against narconon and the damage it causes and the lies it perpetuates on the vulnerable and desperate.
 

shadow

Patron with Honors
Thanks for the very thoughtful post. I take issue with Narconon and any other scam that promises miracles and lures people away from any chance of treatment. Unfortunately, the low success rate, stigma of addiction, and lack of good state standards allows this continued abuse of a very vulnerable population and their families. OK, short rant over.:eyeroll:
 

scooter

Gold Meritorious Patron
That NarCONon is a scam run by deluded fanatics aimed at taking over the world for $cientology comes as no surprise to readers of this message board.:angry:

It's news for most of the population tho' - especially those who are desperate for an easy solution to a drug or alcohol dependence.

narcoNOT, may I suggest you get in touch with the media who recently covered the deaths at Arrowhead and tell them this story?

Sadly, it takes many stories of tragedy before enough media get involved to see something actually done - it only takes one bit of celebrity gossip to do the same.:duh:

Hopefully now that TomKat divorce blah blah blah has made Co$-bashing the new black, we can get their front-groups included in the world-wide spotlight.:yes:
 

Intelligence

Silver Meritorious Patron
Dear NarcoNOT,

I am so very sorry for your loss - - indeed a tragic story, but not uncommon to what I read and hear on a regular basis. I reviewed a Coroner's Report two days ago before I sent it to an Investigative Reporter. Suffice to say TOXIC doses of NIACIN are deadly to unhealthy patients who attend Narconon.

Addiction is a very complex issue and a lot of the posts here are valid comments.

I owned and operated a detox/treatment center (small) on the West Coast of Vancouver Island for two years and have had my own bouts with addiction due to 9 surgeries, including 4 major back operations and 43 days in hospital. Yes, I beat my addiction, but it had NOTHING to do with NarCONon.

Drug use and many other euphoric or stimulating substances or acts, leave "Mental-Markers" that surface when we least expect it. When we're down, stressed, in pain, angry or lonely etc, the silent voice can urge one to take care of it as we have in the past - - an instant cure - - even though in the back of our mind we know it's temporary, the instant cure can be very powerful.

Pete is right about replacing behaviour patterns - - it builds resistance and becomes stronger as time passes. Indeed it helps a lot.

Once again, I'm very sorry for your loss - - ALL people have worth and deserve professional, qualified treatment for their addiction. AND yes, we are working on Narconon Arrowhead and other Narconons.
 

AnonyMary

Formerly Fooled - Finally Free
I, too, am so sorry for your loss. :heartflower:

As David Love said, sadly, death from some of the componients of the program are not uncommon. Thank you so much for speaking up. :yes:

Please join us over at the Reaching For The Tipping Point Forum, where we expose the Scientology front groups like Narconon and help victims of Narconon get their complaints to appropriate authorities.
http://www.forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/
or by using the short link http://reaching4.info

There you can meet many others who have had loved ones in the program or who have been in the program. One thread in particular is an important read:
Narconon of Oklahoma is a Deadly Placehttp://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/index.php/topic,8624.0.html
There is also a survey there which I encourage you to take. It's independent of Narconon and can be done anonymously and in confidence. Other who either paid for the program for a loved one or or who lost a loved one to the program have participated. You can read about the survey here:

Attention: Former Narconon Students/Clients/Attendees, please do this survey
http://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/index.php/topic,6542.0.html
 
Last edited:

narcoNOT

New Member
Thanks for all the responses and sorry it's taken me a while to reply - it's been a crazy work week.

I wish that I could go public, but it's against the wishes of his widow and she's been through enough.

I decided that I could at least post on message boards about Narconon and if there is someone else in my shoes, they would have more things to bring up to their families who are considering using Narconon.

So to the anonymous lurker thinking about Narconon -
My main point is that every addict has a chance of dying from their disease, the treatment program you choose could be their last chance. Make sure you choose the best you can afford.

It takes multiple tries to quit any type of addiction - ask a former smoker! A program that practically guarantees success is lying to you.

The argument I ran across that bugged the most was something along the lines of "If the treatment doesn't help, it couldn't hurt."
That is not true. By putting your loved one into Narconon, you are effectively denying them treatment somewhere else. That is harmful. Remember, it could be your last chance.

Even if Narconon did not use the Purification Rundown with its toxic Niacin regimen, I would have a problem with Narconon. I do not think that using the "TRs" from Scientology are in any way, shape or form, helpful to an addict. Read the Narconon course books (which Narconon does not share with the public - why?): http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?12348-Leak-Narconon-Course-Pack and decide for yourself.
(Edit - those course packs are not available due to the US govt's shut-down of Megaupload. This Youtube video shows some of the TR's, etc: http://youtu.be/L6tO4rx0RbE)

AnonyMary - thanks for the links - I will visit those sites.

Thanks again for reading my story, all. Have a good weekend.
 

Lurker5

Gold Meritorious Patron
So sorry NarcoNOT. Thanks for sharing. And welcome to ESMB. You are in the right place. We are listening to you, hearing you. :yes: You are not alone.
 

AnonyMary

Formerly Fooled - Finally Free
(Edit - those course packs are not available due to the US govt's shut-down of Megaupload. ...
but they can now be found, as linked over here
http://forum.reachingforthetippingpoint.net/index.php/topic,9728.0.html
)


Read the Narconon course books (which Narconon does not share with the public - why?): http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?12348-Leak-Narconon-Course-Pack and decide for yourself. I will update that page


AnonyMary - thanks for the links - I will visit those sites. Good! You are quite welcome!

Best wishes to you. See above in bold
 

JBWriter

Happy Sapien
:bump2: Can't say I will ever be able to forget the OP in this thread....and that's a decidedly good thing despite fallen tears.

JB. :bigcry:
 

Intelligence

Silver Meritorious Patron
SNIP:

RELAPSE
My brother relapsed within a month of leaving Narconon Arrowhead. He actually could have saved my family the money since he was capable of staying clean that long with no treatment at all.

Narconon conducted no follow-up care that I know of. I don’t know how they get their success rate stats, since they have zero interest in their actual outcomes.

DEATH
Within six months, my brother was dead. He basically died of a sort of congestive heart failure. It was most certainly brought about by his drug use.

However – I also believe that the Purification Rundown contributed to the poor condition of his heart. Why in hell would anyone give toxic doses of Niacin to someone with an already compromised liver and cardiovascular system? While Niacin’s liver toxicity is well-documented, it is also known to affect the heart.

EVEN IF NARCONON’S TREATMENTS ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY VALID, WHAT’S THE HARM?
This is an argument I heard a lot before my brother entered Narconon and afterwards. Dear reader, I hope you have made it this far because this is the main point I’m trying to make.

Every addict who enters Narconon’s doors is being denied legitimate, even life-saving treatment.

My brother could have gone to the Betty Ford center, or Hazelden (despite AA), or some other treatment program. Maybe, just maybe, it would have been the rehab attempt that made all the difference.

But he didn’t. He didn’t because Narconon preys on vulnerable, suffering people for their money. Narconon makes promises it knows it cannot deliver and dupes people into trading legitimate treatment for a bogus magic cure-all.

And now he’s dead. He’ll never see his child graduate, or get married. He’ll never know his grandchildren.

Don’t get me wrong, I know it was his addiction and the powerful drug he was into that bears the brunt of the blame. But we only had a handful of chances to help him. And Narconon snatched away the last, most important chance we were given.



(Sorry if I sound like I’m ranting. It’s been several years since his death, but writing this brings it all up)


P.S. Thank you David Edgar Love for getting the Canadian Narconon’s shut down. Please focus on Narconon Arrowhead next!

Sorry it took me to get back here with dox, but busy on a few other things. You are EXACTLY correct, asking WHY
would they put someone in a Sauna and administer 2,600-5,000mg of TOXIC NIACIN?

I know of a few people/friends who died after leaving Narconon. YES, many died because of relapsing, and I accuse NN being
responsible to a greater or lessor degree. THERE IS NO AFTERCARE program whatsoever!

http://narcononcanada.com/2012/02/01/narconon-aftercare-relapses/

I witnessed and have eveidence documents confirming Narconon Patients were diagnosed with Hepatitis C and Liver Disease, AND
they were still sent into the Sauna. This was to prevent them from leaving, going home, and demanding a refund. I received
government Reports last week confirming this.

The following is a TINY excerpt, captured image of one of the Autopsy/Coroner Reports I received from a loved one. The patient
died of an overdose that was complicated by severe liver disease. 50% of the liver was DESTROYED!!! The patient did the
Sauna Purification Rundown and was administered toxic doses of NIACIN. The patient died shortly after leaving Narconon:bigcry:

wk1x69.jpg


We have pushed harder that I like to think about in EXPOSING this deadly Scientology quackery and when we have another
decision soon by the Quebec Human Rights Commission, I will be able to post countless dox that I hope will help others.

.
 
Last edited:
Top