Addiction, a social and mental disorder

Addiction is a social evil. The way grief is experienced together, not only the intensity of grief is reduced, but it becomes easier to go through the process of grief.

In the same way, if instead of the disease of addiction or hatred towards the addict, we try to understand the condition of the addict socially and try to get out of it, then its solution will also be possible and easy.

It is a huge misconception that addiction only harms the addict, when the reality is that the effects of addiction are as profound as an addiction, not only on the family, but also on the people around and the entire society. On the doer. Addiction is a mental disorder that has physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects.

It is a chronic and slowly progressive disorder, the effects of which gradually take over and can be fatal if not treated on time.

Addiction not only has a devastating impact on an individual’s life, but the family of an addict is the most affected. Parents generally consider the cause of this disease to be lack of training on their part and feel guilty.

They hide from people and gradually stop interacting with people. The environment of the house is always suffocated by the actions and movements of the drug addict, which affects every member of the house such as siblings, spouse or children.

In case of not going to school, job or workplace on time and not completing work on time, other people are also affected and the overall progress of the society is also slowed down, which wastes time and resources.

Similarly, in case of involvement in illegal activities (theft, robbery, quarrels, vandalism, selling drugs, accidents, etc.), not only the lives and property of others are damaged, but the society becomes a victim of chaos and anarchy.

There can be individual reasons as well as societal reasons for drug use. Childhood traumas (sexual/physical/psychological abuse) and dysfunctional family systems (divorce, separation, poverty, etc.) are also thought to be factors that drive addiction. These children are more prone to addiction and have low self-esteem since childhood.

While the general availability of drugs is a question mark on the performance of the government and institutions, the easy availability of drugs in educational institutions, especially universities, is a proof of the carelessness of the management of educational institutions.

As fast as our young generation is suffering from this disease, this problem is being neglected. The work of the Anti-Narcotics Force is limited to Say No to Drugs or burning a few kilograms of drugs annually.

Social media and electronic media do not provide adequate awareness about the disease of addiction and instead of treating or sympathizing with drug addicts, they are made targets of hatred. This negative attitude of the world forces addicts to stay away from society. People suffering from addiction are a part of this society.

Those who are unconsciously addicted, then trapped in the vicious cycle and cannot quit on their own even if they want to, need help.

Addicted patients also need love, compassion and attention as well as treatment like other people suffering from other diseases, but only contempt, slander and ill treatment of people comes from the part of the addicted patients.

The darkest and most tragic aspect of our society is that the specialists and doctors who treat this disorder either do not have complete knowledge about it or are not interested in treating it despite having knowledge. If the patient is not treated, how will the patient recover? The saddest thing is that in the case of relapse, all the blame is put on the patient because the patient himself does not want to quit addiction.

Due to this brutal behavior of our so-called doctors, the patients and their families lose faith in the treatment and the recovery of the patient becomes impossible.

We as a society need to take some serious practical steps so that we can collectively try to get out of this misery:

1. First of all, experts/therapists have to be honest about their profession. Honesty requires that they have complete knowledge and experience about their profession and secondly that they are sincere in their profession so that they can give the best treatment to any patients who come to them.

2. Drug peddling should be punished severely and the punishment should be enforced. We should also implement the Portugal Decriminalization Model. Accordingly, drug addicts should not be punished in case of possession of drugs, but they should be sent to a treatment center, while drug dealers should be severely punished.

3. There should be an Addiction Knowledge Hub in educational institutions for awareness about the disease of addiction. Where there should be free counseling sessions for solving addiction/psychological problems of students. Educational institutions should also teach students life skills along with handing over degrees.

4. For the awareness of parents, lectures should be organized from time to time in educational institutions, in which parents should be given guidance on preventive measures to protect their children from addiction, early signs of addiction and their treatment in case of addiction disease. .

5. On social media and electronic media – “Addiction is a disorder, not a moral weakness or lack of training. A campaign should be conducted so that people understand it as a disorder and instead of hiding it, they can come to get out of it.

People in recovery should also be invited to various programs where they can share their success stories (anonymously) so as to create a ray of hope for addicts and their families and eliminate stigma. can go.

6. The government should create institutions where homeless or poor drug addicts can be given shelter as well as free treatment. After recovering from addiction, they should be equipped with education or taught different skills to make them active citizens of the society.

7. If a drug addict is caught doing any illegal act (theft, vandalism, fighting, drug selling, drug use, etc.), then the people should not take the law into their hands and hand him over to institutions where he will be kept drug free. Rather, guidance and support should be provided towards recovery.

In short, addiction is a mental disorder due to which changes occur in the structure and functions of the mind of the addict, due to which they completely lose control over their thoughts and actions, and in such a situation, the patient can do anything. Is. Therefore, understanding the nature of this disorder, we should make a collective effort to remove the patient from it so that our society can be free from this disease.