LIFE SKILLS REHABILITATION

Narconon News

My name is Vitore Lelaj.

I want to tell you the truth how I came to this idea, the idea decision to be the leadership of the struggle against the drug phenomena in Albania. I have worked for many years as a teacher in many general Schools during the communist regime in Albania. Drug phenomena didn’t exist in our country before. After 1991, Albanian people overthrew the communist regime and Albania became a democratic country. Borders were opened and the first victims of drugs were seen in Albania.

One of the victims was my son Vitjon.

I was a proud and a successful mother until one day I saw my son fully drunk. He was 22, when he started to live a life hiding from drugs and alcohol.

Our Family was destroyed by the most devastating decease I haven’t see before.

We watched someone who we loved very much, being destroyed before our eyes.

Every time I tell the story, opens the wounds that still have not fully healed but I hope that my story will give strength and courage and hope to everybody who thinks that he is hopeless.

One day a car crash happened near the beach. The police identified the person and he was my son. Everybody thought he was dead. I went to the hospital and saw him, but he was lucky. He is still alive. The accident happened as the result of drinking much alcohol.

In the hospital I talked to him by saying not to drink alcohol any more. He is a cool and sincere boy. He told me that he has done a very big mistake. He told me that he was a heroin user and asked me for help. First I was shocked. How can I watch my son slowly die before my eyes and I stand helplessly by? My son’s life was about to be claimed before my eyes by a dangerous decease and it was called addiction.

Saving my son became my obsession. I thought I had found the way to protect him, but no success. We tried several times partly through our own initiative and partly through programs to manage his life. Still without success. The more he went downward, the more I went to the depth of hell. Addiction is evil. It isolates families from friends and co-workers. I decided not to keep secrets any more and not suffer alone because of stigma.

This decease thrives on shame, guilt and lies. The most devastating part of it is that it steals the soul and leaves behind the shell of that someone you once knew and loved.

I am compelled to tell this story because we can no longer turn a blind eye to this, all too common problem.

This is not my story; it is your neighbor story, a friend’s story, a relative story. And the problem isn’t just with illicit drugs like heroine cocaine and marijuana. It also involves alcohol and prescription drugs.

The most devastating experience, I made my personal mission in my life to tell the others who were in the same situation, that something must be done, or else we will loose our children. I wrote an e-mail to different rehabilitation centers through Europe and asked for help. Fortunately an answer came back from Narconon Europe. Katia Mikroni told me her own story and advised me to send my son to the Narconon Rehabilitation facilities in Denmark. It would have been great but we did not have enough money to pay for it. Katia explained me what a Narconon program is, recommended me to read everything in the web site about the Narconon program and to do it ambulatory. And to say the truth it worked. He got off Heroin!

After four months I managed to send my son in Narconon Danmark so that he could get the remaining drugs out of his body and learn how to handle problems in life without drugs.

I can only sincerely thank Narconon, as they did not only give back my son as a healthy man as body, and soul, after a four month program. I could come to know him once again for the first time as an adult (drug has changed his personality very much), -and that for many years. And I am delighted. He is happily married. He has now a healthy and beautiful son, plans his future and became a friend to me who assists me when I need an advice. Lost years can not be regained, but one can spend the many future as happy and worthy man in society.

Although this has been the longest and the hardest struggle of my life, please know there is hope. Do not give up your loved ones even if they stumble over and over.

There is real hope there. My son is a perfect example. He is now happier than he has ever been. I too can help others who are caught in the same downward spiral that Tony was.

I could not have survived without the support of my family, especially my daughter, Ina.

After I founded Narconon Albania, I started an awareness campaign on all levels of society, informing top officials as well people in the streets about the situation and the proven solutions Narconon can offer. After I informed them about the great success Narconon is achieving with an entirely drug free method, all the participants wanted to further cooperate with Narconon.

They all agree on the importance of establishing a fully rehab center in Albania.