Drug abuse, addiction and recovery

Samarjit Kambam *

An Art work by Phurailatpam Banti on 'Drug Abuse : World AIDS Day 2011'

Abuse of drugs has become unprecedentedly rampant in our state and drug abuse has attained a phenomenal status quo. This unsavoury practice has become a widespread menace and has resulted into a cause of major concern in our society thereby spreading its evil tentacles in every nook and corner of the state at an exponential rate.

A huge chunk of the population is falling prey or victimised by drugs. It is really tragic that most of the youths who are foundations of the society are living in their own hazy-minded cloudy world of drugs. With time they get too drowned in drugs that they leave the realities of the world behind and falls deeper and deeper into the abyss of addiction thereby throwing away their hopes and ambitions at bay and wasting the productive parts of their lives. As a result, their social mileu gets diminished, they shirk their responsibilities towards society and their social contribution goes down to almost nil.

Self-styled use of drugs or chemicals regardless of the advice, prescription or consent of a medical practitioner amounts to drug abuse. This practice also leads towards disrespect to norms and ethics of the medical profession and the medical world. There are varieties of drugs or chemicals that are being abused.

Some of them are narcotropic, some psychotropic, some opiates while some are stimulants which comes in many forms viz sedatives, tranquillizers, analgesics, anti-depressants, hallucinogens etc. Some comes in powder form, some in liquid, some in the form of pills and some in syrupy or paste form.

Drugs commonly abused in Manipur are heroin, opiates such as marijuana, weeds, tobacco products etc., pseudoephidrene, spasmo proxyvon, relipen, diazepam, nitrazepam, codeine, alprazolam, lorazepam, alcohol and substances such as dendrite, eraz-ex or any other chemical that affects the central nervous system. Form of consumption may be oral, intravenous or inhalation.

The first instance of drug abuse may take place out of curiousity, peer pressure, to seek pleasure or to deal with negative emotions viz anger, hurt, guilt, despair, sorrow etc. At the initial phase, the user derives maximum euphoria or 'kick' out of the chemicals. They get a sense of happiness which is not real but induced. An this stage, the overall physique of the individual appears normal but gradually the body develops tolerance to the chemicals. During this stage of addiction, the user craves for short term happiness or instant gratification induced by the drugs.

Gradually, the user develops dependence on drugs and the degree of dependence gets higher and higher until the drug become a part and parcel of his life. It is at this stage that the person becomes a full-blown addict of the chemical he consumes and the user gets affected in many areas of live viz health, behaviour, relationships, social status, work, attitude, character etc.

As the person becomes totally dependent on drugs his overall personality changes drastically, serious problems of health crops up, the individual wears an emaciated or bloated appearance, experience many ailments, diseases, damages and disorders of body organs associated with marked changes in behaviour and thought pattern thereby possessing a negative character abhorred and disliked by society. Conflicts and unwanted scenarios may come up in the family front and relatives.

He becomes reclusive, more of a loner, oblivious of his ambience, shy away from conventional activities, social gathering and always thinks that he is impeccable while others are incorrigible through intense self rationalising, tunnel visioning, high degree of pre-occupation etc,. His social health goes down, becomes unproductive, refrains from meeting with people other than his peers and gradually gets isolated or disintegrated from society.

When it comes to work he will not be able to focus and sustain, consequently becoming inebriated and less productive, lies in heavy debt and gets himself insolvent. And what kind of society will it become when it gets crowded with irresponsible and unproductive youths? The result will be social calamity and chaos, a society filled with crimes, murders, thefts etc. As addiction being a progressive disease he loses all reasoning and put his life at the mercy of drugs. The individual's life becomes uncontrollable and unmanageable, thus hitting the rock bottom of his life.

But one need not lose all hope for there is always a silver lining, a light at the end of the long tunnel. With the help of family members, relatives and friends an addict can always go towards the path of recovery. He may be thoroughly convinced to undergo home detoxification after consulting a doctor and carry out a planned and structured regime or programme and make him participate in conventional and social activities. Consulting a counsellor or expert in the field is of paramount importance.

Sending the individual to a rehabilitation cum de-addiction centre or correctional institution/facility is by far the best means which is usually approved throughout the world to bring addicts to the path of recovery and live a mainstream life by keeping abreast of others. When we say rehab, it may be presumed as an alternate 'world' of the addicts where they are kept in a controlled environment. They are given the benefits of not meeting their addicted peers, nor reaching any red light areas or areas deemed risky or hazardous to them. They are restricted to go anywhere as they please but the ambience is set up in such a way that they are not made to have the feeling of boundedness. To fulfil that they are allowed to mix freely with other members like a big family.

Each individual's health is monitored timely and proper medication is provided to for rapid upsurge of health. They will then be exposed to a work programme contrary to what they had had earlier. There will be complete change in routine which they had to go through each day.

The schedule is planned and restructured to give immense benefit to the individuals' health, thought level, behaviour and character. They are guided and counselled and thoroughly equipped with all the life skills and tools to go on recovery once they go out of the institution into the real world of an addict.

As the path to recovery is not a smooth one, it is upto the individual to use, manipulate and enhance the life-skills inculcated upon him to go easy on the path to recovery.

As addiction being a progressive disease, he must be aware of all the obstacles that is incassently hovering around him while going on recovery.

For that he must imbue and carry along with that restructured and planned programme with a power-packed spiritually, dexterity in handling the life skills and strive along with a positive thought level by inculcating oneself with new life sense, a new healthy lifestyle, emotional stoicness, enhanced spiritual strength being responsible, being in a relaxed mood, sustenance and a positive attitude. The character of the person will gradually blend towards the positive side and marked improved changes in issues of family relations, social relations will take place.

Only then the individual will be able to re-integrate with society, his isolated life will slowly vaporise and will become a good and responsible member of his family and the society which is the sole reason to be born as a human.

But one thing to be always kept in mind is 'admittance' is the most important initial step to the path of recovery for if the person doesn't get rid of his denial, his efforts will be fruitless even if the whole world supports him for the real challenge lies within the person himself.