ANA's STORY

“My name is Ana. I am still 25 years old but I have the feeling that I was born only a year ago when I choose to come to “Phoenix” as an intermediate stop between the pass and the future. One of the things that I have realized for this period is that the future is more important then the pass. Another thing that I realize now is that taking drugs is a symptom, that you have much bigger problem and that it is the hardest way to make other people pay attention to you, to cry out for a help and to stay helpless, misunderstood…alone…lonely

Actually I have been dependent on heroin for 7 years and for these 7 years I have excused all my unsuccessful tries to stop use by the myth that “ex-dependent does not exist”. All failures in all treatments were because I did not make an effort to help myself.
No one of dependents starts treatment because of himself. Any initiative like this is doomed to failure until you learn to love yourself enough and until you do it for yourself and not for someone else /parents for example/. In “Phoenix” you have time to find your internal motivation for life and happiness, to notice every little thing around you, to think positively, to take responsibility for your acts, for yourself and for beloved. Only then you can understand the way heroin robs you and how many real things you miss in your dependent life.

When I went there, I have become reconciled with the thought that this was my last try. I have no hopes, no dreams. I did nоt believe that I will live normally again without being a slave to drugs. I have been clean for a year and a half. Now I am alive. My life has never been that full of meaning and value. I am in love. I have a boyfriend, I adore him and he adores me. I have a good job and I take care of myself. The feeling is incomparable. I help my mother with the housework. I am going to continue my education and it will be psychology. I have dreams. I succeeded to prove to myself and to others that belief that there is no ex-dependent is just a myth. Ten more persons who graduated “Phoenix” programme with me prove it, too. There is no dependence for life. You just have to say “I need help”.

I am a real man, I enjoy, sorrow, dream, feel, thanks to Dr Peter Vassilev and the whole incredible and dedicated team of Phoenix. I am alive and I go through every moment completely.
Every one of us has to make a decision in certain time of his life. Let it be “I choose life”.

Ana, ex-resident