MONTREAL , Canada — It's hard for Avraham to speak about his battle with chemical dependency without choking up.
The 26-year-old said that before he came to the Chabad Project Pride-Centre Lifeline in Montreal four months ago, he had almost lost everything. Avraham ñ like all of the recovering addicts interviewed for this article, he preferred that his real name not be used ñ was convinced that his drug addiction had made him incapable of being helped.
Recovering Addicts Tell Stories of Despair and Renewed Hope
MONTREAL , Canada — It’s hard for Avraham to speak about his battle with chemical dependency without choking up.
The 26-year-old said that before he came to the Chabad Project Pride-Centre Lifeline in Montreal four months ago, he had almost lost everything. Avraham ñ like all of the recovering addicts interviewed for this article, he preferred that his real name not be used ñ was convinced that his drug addiction had made him incapable of being helped.
“The more I would feel like a lowlife, the more I would act out,” explained Avraham, whose parents intervened and took him to Project Pride. “For 10 years, I was so sure that I was bad.”
A conversation with Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Benyamin Bresinger changed that outlook. The Project Pride director emphasized to Avraham that his addiction was a disease, and like any disease could be treated; recovery, the rabbi stressed, was not only possible, but necessary.
“He believes in me,” said Avraham. “It’s starting to rub off on me that maybe I’m someone to believe in.”
Some 200 people heard stories like Avraham’s at Project Pride’s seventh annual dinner last week. The common denominator among them was the power of positive thinking to effect change.
anonymus
go project pride go Rabbi B.