FORMER ADDICT SHARES ARTICLE'S OPTIMISM

Alicia Priest's "Middle Class Addicts" [November 13-20] is a fantastic
article. I was addicted to heroin for eight years, then on methadone for
three years.

Reading Priest's article was like reading an excerpt from my life. I should
say "past life", as I became a new person, and it came down to one thing:
taking charge of my life. When I quit methadone, I was almost shunned from
the clinic, and the few people I knew in NA would insist that I was doomed.
I decided to listen to the mind I had forgotten existed, and to my own
positive self-talk, and the drugs became my enemy.

I suppose you got some angry letters from NA supporters, as I have found
that they get defensive when confronted with the flaws in their program.
The truth is, the few people I know, including myself, who did not quit
with NA but instead with their own power are not stagnating in a
self-proclaimed disease, they are not frightened or in anticipation of
possible relapse, they do not need constant support, and they can handle
stress and life as it is dealt to them.

I was once the addict who many thought was doomed. I probably know the
"dogs" Candice hung around with; perhaps I was one. Today I am 32, in
college, and I am healthy, happy, and, best of all, content.

Please let the former addicts you interviewed know that people they don't
know are proud of them. Their strength and persistence is unmatched, and I
thank them for telling their stories. Thank you for an article long
overdue; I know you have helped many.

Name withheld Vancouver