Light at the end of the tunnel
In the aftermath of his mother's passing in 2009, a young man's life took a wrong turn. He was down on a path of darkness. He was left with a house to his name but found himself alone in his grief, separated from his married sister who shared in their mother's inheritance. Meet James.
High school arrived like a double-edged sword. It brought not only the promise of knowledge but also the allure of misleading companionship. Drawn in by a crowd that reveled in drug-induced escapades, he succumbed to their influence.
Gradually, he traded classrooms for the streets. As years went by, brushes with the law became a norm, being arrested for drug possession were recurrent episodes in his life. Survival morphed into a desperate routine as he turned to pick-pocketing to fuel his addiction. One by one, his inherited possessions vanished. He sold them off to sustain his lifestyle.
Then an unexpected collision while riding on a bodaboda last year in November marked a fateful accident. His head was hit. Instead of seeking medical attention, he was taken home. A haze of drugs masked the pain as he lay in bed, clinging to the misguided belief that he could heal himself.
A moment of desperation became the turning point—he fainted because he had lost a lot of blood and almost overdosed. That is when he was rushed to our facility and admitted into our High Dependency Unit (HDU).
Within the confines of HDU, a beacon of hope emerged in the form of our Clinical Psychologist, Millicent. With her guidance, James embarked on a journey towards recovery. Through her words, ‘The road to recovery begins with you’, she dismantled the barriers he had erected around himself.
As healing became his truth, he found solace in the possibility of redemption. No longer did he seek refuge in drugs, but in the aspirations he had cast aside. James is now a first year college student, pursuing a diploma in fashion and design.
“I feel like the prodigal son. I am happy to be back home and I hope my friends will do the same,” James concludes.
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