Kashmir, a paradise on earth is now showing unprecedented rise in the number of drug addicts both males and females and are leading us towards bleak future. While our youth are in treacherous grip of drug addiction, the accessibility to charas, heroin, sleeping pills, boot-polish, diluter, alcohol, hash oil, opium, morphine, diazepam, inhalants, brown sugar, cigarette etc goes uncontrolled. Our youth are becoming drug addicts in large numbers and severe health complications are found as drug addiction is considered as Neurobiological disease common among youth include kidney/liver failure, mental disorders like psychotic behaviors, schizophrenia, psychological and social problems ,Accidents etc. Jammu and Kashmir has become a hub of drugs. A recent study has revealed that Jammu Kashmir has 600,000 people involved in drug-related issues which are approximately 4.6 per cent of the population of the Union Territory. I remember when I was a student of 3rd year Nursing at SKIMS Soura , posted for psychiatric nursing clinical duties at drug de -addiction center Srinagar, there I came across shocking stories of addiction during my practical hours and a bit of one story is worth to mention here that how helpless & out of control addicts are. We as students have to do a case study on patients and my case was a post graduate 27 years old man with the history of multiple drug addiction. He used to spend all his earned money on drugs. I asked him why he started it? “I was never an addict before but once one of my friend gave me a cigarette for relieving my anxiety as I was having some personal issue and our end term exams were approaching and this is the way it started from inhalants to injectable” he said, adding that “Tobacco smoking is a gateway to drug abuse and it started in my case with the same“. When first time my parents came to know about it ,I was ashamed and embarrassed if I were not be treated as culprit but a victim , I might have come out from this terrifying illness earlier. As he spoke, he pointing towards his parents and told me please tell them don’t waste their time and money as they think I will be alright once again, ,but they don’t know once I will get discharge , I will start it again. Why you feel it like this, I asked ,because I tried earlier to give up but stronger addiction causes powerful cravings and compulsion to get into it again, he said. But it is possible to recover, don’t be hopeless no matter you have failed before, I said. He replied I can’t help myself at the moment once I find the same situation/ place/crowd despite being aware of negative impacts of it .Remove reminders of addiction from every place you are attached to,I said . His answer was shocking to me, SHOW ME ANY PLACE IN KASHMIR WHERE THERE IS NO ADDICTION, for me as an addict a minute stimulus is enough to fall a prey to it again, I have been in this and I know what you don’t know every place &every situation is a reminder in Kashmir How could I help it out!.After some time he was recovered, doing well, start taking interest in daily activities & discharged. The purpose of mentioning such story is that it Can and does get better with will power, self-confidence and of course with the help of psychiatry departments, Drug De-addiction Centers, or mental health professionals and can be nipped from the bud to enhance productivity of our Society. There are many reasons for drug addiction in our youth:
• Peer pressure
• Curiosity to entertain
• Fashion
• Risk taking behaviors
• Unemployment
• Stressed life
• Domestic issues
• Lack of awarness
• Lack of family involvement.
• Increased sensitivity to rejection.
• Living in a conflicted zone
• Parents appear too harsh to teenagers, they find difficult to communicate with them.
• Feeling empty & hollow inside
• Having Trouble trusting or relying onothers.
• Parents are emotionally neglect.
• Difficulty regulating emotions.
• Social isolation.
• Lack of parental attention or supervision
Jammu Kashmir has 600,000 people involved in drug-related issues which are approximately 4.6 per cent of the population.
Remedial measures: Drug addicts are at a high risk of falling again as they do start earlier likely means they lose control over its use again, they need our support, care and love. Every single individual of Kashmir must realize that it is the core responsibility of all of us to break the chain and combat this menace .A report of the Government Psychiatric Hospital of Kashmir revealed that most of the drug addicts in the valley are youths. Youth play a vital role in the development of a society and they are the economically most productive and biologically most reproductive part of society. Combating this menace is the need of hour, we have to come out as one, unite to fight against it, and following ways might help:
1. Educational institution:
A school going child or teenager spends around one-third of each workday at school. Educational institutes may play a vital role to combat this by promoting healthy activities.
Schools are ideal locations for drug abuse prevention programs for a reasons as prevention work before children develop belief, also it is most efficient way of reaching out to young people .,
They can not only reach a huge section of the youth in a systematic manner, but they can also teach them early on before they are exposed to and they can offer a variety of preventative and education programmes related to drug abuse.
All students should be subjected to random drug testing .The type of screening that can be done may include the use of urine drug screening kits readily available in markets.
Realistic Lectures relevant to real life real with real life based facts, such as the number of young people who use alcohol and other drugs in the locality and the way it affects them should be delivered by teachers
Scare tactics that make false claims, long moralistic lecture-style lessons with little or no student participation is of no use.
Schools deliver a full training on the risks of drug abuse to a diverse group of children from varied socio-economic strata.
For awareness among the students launch awareness campaigns and create facilities as :
Establish peer education programme
Organise programmes for development of skill & cultural values.
Create mentoring programmes
Create ethical groups & organization.
Arrange supervised and accessible recreational oppurtunities
Guiding about basic morals ,values & discipline
Establish before and after school and summer programmes
PARENTING WORKSHOPS
Counseling to parents & family:
To be supportive to users, instead of scolding or harsh behavior treat them with love, care and patience.
Communicate and strengthen bond with your wards, never criticize your children. When you don’t behave well or criticize your children, they stop loving you and they want someone with whom they can share feelings and finally they fall in bad company, So show them sense of belongingness as they ultimately become addicts.
To participate in educating their children about drug and alcohol abuse.
Parenting workshops helps to
Develop skills to nurture their children emotionally.
Improve their relationship with their children
Break the intergenerational cycle
Skills of empathy & compassionate listener
HEALTH DEPARTMENT : Health department will create more awareness about its ill-effects through:
Assessment
Evidence –based treatment.
Addiction monitoring
Clinical management & continuing care.
There are a number of potential changes in health service providers that might contribute to the mission as:
HEALTH DEPARTMENT
Establish policies for reporting
Distrubtion of warning informtion or display billboardswarning
Provide affordible & accessible health services.
Provide education services to general public
LIFE-SKILLS TRAINING
Life skills are abilities needed to provide the groundwork for effective stress management and presentation of positive behaviors.
These skills enable an individual to accept his social role responsibilities and to face others’ demands and expectations and daily interpersonal problems effectively without hurting himself or others.
Life skills’ training is effective in the promotion of drug abuse preventive behaviors among youth as:
Problem solving
Critical thinking
Effective communication skills
Decision-making
Self- awareness building skills
Creative thinking,
Interpersonal relationship skills
Empathy
Coping with stress and emotions.
RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Traditional institutes may also play a positive role. Students were made aware about their impact of drug addiction on physical and mental health and s ocial ramifications of indulging in drug menace.
Recovering addicts frequently reported spirituality as an important component of their recovery efforts and to be helpful in maintaining changes made during treatment
Length of sobriety has also been positively associated with spirituality.
Spritual values & valuable life lessons.
Self determined motivation
Innovative & knowlwdge sharing behaviour
YOUTH ORGANISATION
The desire to “fit in” is a big influence on youth. They are trying to find their own identity, and let go of things they identified with as children. They are bombarded with new information all the time and will make decisions based on this new information and new goals.
Scouting organizations
Cultural organizations
Recreational organisations.
Create peer support organisations.
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION & PROGRAMS
Communities need to plan and implement research-based prevention programs to address drug addiction. Actions to be taken by Communities include identifying, assessing needs and community readiness and motivating the community to take action.
Involve general public to come forward with any information regarding drug peddlers and help police in eradicating the menace of drugs.
Support group meetings
o Anti-drug attitudes.
Uncoditioned positive regards
o Commitment againt drug abuse.
Establish culturally specific youth groups.
o Establish drug free-alternative activities.
Create a support group-
For recovering group at risk
MEDIA
Media the mirror of society plays a major role in shaping the lives of society by providing information to the public about current and latest.
Media develop awareness in public about this issue with the help of mass communication.
There are a number of potential changes in newspapers, radio, and television that might contribute to the mission of reducing substance abuse as:
Support local prevention efforts
Provide information about the availaibility of health services,support groups,de -addiction centres,helpline numbers.
Broadcast programmes & Publisize exemplary citizen efforts in prevetion of drug addiction.
Governmental role
Establish helplines.
Improve supervision in public areas.
Heavy fine& imprisment for merchants who sell drugs.
Establish reward programmes for drug arrest.
Increase crakdown for drug sellers.
Establish centres for life-skill trainig.
Develop directories.
Award for grassroot level workers.
Provide & establish workshop for parents.
Establish programmes to educate community to monitor drug related activities.
TREATMEN AND REHABILITATION.
1. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, which seeks to help patients to recognize, avoid and cope with situations in which they are most likely to relapse.
2. Multidimensional family therapy, which is designed to support the recovery of the patient by improving family functioning.
3. Motivational interviewing, which is designed to increase patient motivation to change behavior and enter treatment.
4. Motivational incentives, which uses positive reinforcement to encourage abstinence from the addictive substance.
5. Counselling Counselors help individuals with identifying behaviors and problems related to their addiction. Counselors are trained to develop recovery programs that help to reestablish healthy behaviors and provide coping strategies whenever a situation of risk happens.
6. Smart recovery
It gives importance to the human agency in overcoming addiction and focuses on self-empowerment and self-reliance and was founded on 1994. The group meetings involve open discussions, questioning decisions and forming corrective measures through assertive exercises. Objectives are:
1. Building and Maintaining Motivation,
2. Coping with Urges,
3. Managing Thoughts, Feelings, and Behaviors,
4. Living a Balanced Life.
5. Client-centered approaches
7. Emotion regulation and mindfulness that encourage patients to be aware of their own experiences in the present moment and of emotions that arise from thoughts, appear to prevent impulsive/compulsive responses
8. Relapse prevention: An influential cognitive-behavioral approach to addiction recovery :four psycho-social processes relevant to the addiction and relapse processes:
1. Self-efficacy refers to one’s ability to deal competently and effectively with high-risk, relapse-provoking situations.
2. Outcome expectancy refers to an individual’s expectations about the psychoactive effects of an addictive substance.
3. Attributions of causality refer to an individual’s pattern of beliefs that relapse to drug use is a result of internal, or rather external, transient causes (e.g., allowing oneself to make exceptions when faced with what are judged to be unusual circumstances).
4. Finally, decision-making processes are implicated in the relapse process as well. Substance use is the result of multiple decisions whose collective effects result in the consumption of the intoxicant.
(Author is a freelancer. View are exclusively her own)
