Harvard University, para si mesmo, Tratamento dos Vícios, um país completamente diferente,
Anyone who knows psychologist Norma Stewart Heath today, graduated from Harvard, one of the best universities in the world, is incapable of saying that she was once a chemical dependent. However, it hasn’t been long since the Honduran woman, now 51 years old, broke free from addictions.
Norma was born in Honduras, but her family moved to Boston, in the United States, when she was 4 years old. Unfortunately, the difficulties of a life in a completely different country – where she didn’t even know how to communicate – left deep scars on the girl. The racial discrimination she suffered made her dislike herself and, at the age of 12, she discovered drugs: alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and crack.
“I got so bad with addictions that I did everything that comes with chemical dependency, like prostituting myself, lying and stealing,” she said in an interview with the US newspaper WGHB News .
According to the WCVB television network, also from the United States, the situation worsened when Norma became unemployed. Upon losing her source of income, she ended up on the streets, where chemical dependency took over.
“When I lost my job, I wasn’t able to reflect, I wasn’t able to read, I wasn’t able to write,” she said.
That is until she found a Christian association that showed her the possibility of recovery, where, once a week, women get together to talk about how to overcome problems . And it was in these meetings that Norma found purpose.
“Every week we made lists of our goals. I wrote that I would regularly see the doctor and stay away from drugs. I realized that those goals were working and I said, ‘I want to graduate from Harvard.’” And, putting her faith into action, last May 23, she earned her psychology degree.
“If I could do it, so can you”
The above statement is from Norma, who now aims to help other drug addicts break free from addiction .
“In the most basic sense of the word, addiction is any habit of doing something repeatedly that brings some momentary pleasure, but ultimately harms us”, explains Bishop Renato Cardoso. “Let’s be honest: how many things do we practice that bring us pleasure at the time, but are actually slowly destroying us — or at the very least preventing us from developing?”
Addiction to crack, marijuana, cocaine is one of those things, but also alcoholism, addiction to cigarettes, pornography, constant tantrums, etc.
“Everyone has at least one addiction. And the first step to being free of it is to recognize that you have it”, explains the bishop. “The second step is admitting that you need help to stop. The mark of an addict is lying to himself when he says ‘I can stop whenever I want’. If you could, you would have stopped already. The tool that most freed addicts in the history of mankind, by far, is faith”, says Bishop Renato.
If you have an addiction and recognize that you need help, join our Treatment of Addictions (TDV) meeting and find out how God can set you free and help you achieve what you dream of, which could even be a Harvard degree. Every Sunday at 3pm, only at the Rainbow Theater .
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