Phoenix Academy of San Diego
“I have all the tools that I’ve learned in the program and I’m using them in the real world.”
Getting busted was the best thing that ever happened to Naveed, a fragile, insecure boy with a horrendous drug habit. Now a straight-A college student and part-time counselor in training at the Phoenix Academy of San Diego, his self-described nightmare of addiction ended with an arrest for drug possession in 2007.
Naveed began using marijuana and alcohol at 13 to ‘fit in’, but soon graduated to methadone and heroin. Next he was using methamphetamine to get high and heroin to come down. Before long, he had lost 70 pounds, ended relationships with all his friends, and was no longer communicating with his parents. He closed off his life to everyone and everything, would sleep for days at a time, and leave home only to buy drugs. It was on one of those drug-buying trips that he was arrested and sent to Juvenile Detention. After an agonizing withdrawal at the Center, he entered the Phoenix Academy of San Diego.
It took him nine months there to clean up and grow up. At the Academy he discovered his hidden self esteem and ultimately become a leader. As a student coordinator he discovered a new sense of responsibility and he felt he was at the top of his game and would be able to help younger teens in the program. He passed his GED tests before leaving the school and remained in outpatient treatment for a year. His counselor Ron assured him there was a job waiting for him if he wanted it.
At San Diego Community College, he maintains a 4.0 GPA while working part time at the Academy. He’s positive about his future and says, “Finally this is it…I have all the tools that I’ve learned in the program and I’m using them in the real world.” Asked why he’s working at the Phoenix Academy, Naveed replies “My addiction brought me here, and my recovery brought me back.”