Referral Letter from David Biggs

Attended at ARCA Rehab from 2 March 2017-23 March 2017

It all began 16 yrs ago. I realised I needed help, but sometimes realising u need help is only the first step. My problem was addiction and low self-esteem. My range of substances can fill the drug alphabet from A-Z. I was broken and sick. My first rehab was for celebrities and rock stars, I learnt many new ways of doing the bad things worse.

I found Heroin in 2010, after the loss of my child I turned to it as a pain killer, it caught me in its fake sense of comfort and invulnerability and took away the pain…temporary, it doesn’t heal, it delays it and only while u continually kill yourself does it make u believe u must have it and I could not imagine a day or hour without it. I was a mess. I never believed I could be the man I am today.

I never chose ARCA, ARCA was chosen for me, I currently live in Swaziland, where communities care and the church found me, desperate and alone. They decided that I needed something serious to get me out of the grips of addiction so I could begin to heal. They researched and off I was sent, bags packed and off to Durban. Of course like most addicts I delayed the process as much as possible, but I knew it was life or death.

I wanted life, and ARCA gave me that life back. A few highlights of my stay. Firstly the Big Chief himself, Dr Naidoo, I’ve never experienced a Doctor who would check up and pay as much personal care and motivation, he really does take time to individually assess the needs of each individual, he really somehow through the first few days detox and the transition to Naltrexone, induced minimal pain and discomfort to my withdrawal, heroin withdrawal can be hell, is hell, but I really do believe that ARCA, and Dr Naidoo, have what it takes to get even the most resilient addict through the worst of it.