Anita Ezung
A person who is a drug dependent or a chronic alcoholic is usually a good person but its illness that slows makes him completely lose his voluntary control over his mind, body and spirit. Once a person becomes physiologically and psychological substance dependent, it is coupled with spiritual and personality deterioration. As veteran recovering addicts claims, especially those addicted to hard drugs like heroin, brown sugar are said to be known as ‘ species of insanity’, meaning, their will- power is completely destroyed. They have no feelings, no attachments to personal valuable goods, and their emotions are completely controlled by the abuse substance every now and then. ‘Money’ becomes their predominant need to support his addictions.
When craving sets in, no matter what time it is or with whom he is and where he is, the very thought of taking the abuse substance becomes his uppermost in his mind. Everything around him becomes non-existent. While using the substance, any kind of disturbance makes them easily agitated with a sudden out-burst of unjustified anger and abusive words. Having lost control over their entire body in the process of their addiction, they start developing a high sense of craftiness in their words and behavior that enables them to deploy any kind of various methods to procure their daily abuse substances.
An alcoholic or a drug abuser becomes expert in lying, cheating, stealing, selling and borrowing. For an addict, no matter how much money he has they will not be willing to part with it except for their own gratification. Mortgaging of valuable goods and promising to bring it back, will never be a reality. The family members and the people around them will start developing anger, disappointments, hatred and resentments towards the addicts since they become totally selfish, withdrawn, irresponsible, lazy, unhygienic, and messy and start creating problems especially in money matters. What is most frustrating is living in with a drug addict is that they stop responding to what is going around them, and in order to cover up for their irresponsible behavior, they start developing habits of complaining about their health and becomes absolutely dependent which causes a heavy burden upon the family or to the spouse as they go through harrowing experiences like insomnia, fear, extreme loneliness, tension, frustration, economic crisis, violence, loss of appetite, divorce and separation. While the children suffer negligence their academics are disturbed and so on.
The very fact about addicts is that they will never admit about their addictions and will flare up in rage when confronted. It is a natural thing for an addict to blame people around him for his problems. For them to accept any kind of treatment will be very difficult unless faced with severe crisis as they are fearful of its severity and painful withdrawal symptom, and also due to social stigma, drug addiction does not burst into family like a bomb but creeps in silently. It may take several months or even years for families to know the whole truth about their addiction. Initially, many families are duped as the chemical dependent person will slowly start curtailing his social life, his other addiction like cigarettes, drinking, chewing pan, etc. This behavioral changes often deceives the families thinking that he is trying to change for better. But as the dose increases the family will start facing untold miseries like demanding money which will increase day by day, disappearance of valuable goods and will start having new sets of friends with shady behaviors. A person hooked to hard drugs like heroin, brown sugar and its substitute like Nitrogen 10 tablet, will remain senseless throughout the process of his addiction. Due to this they become absolutely shameless and insensitive. It also affects his memory power and become absent minded. Due to lack of concentration they also find difficulty in understanding TV programmes, reading and writing. The addicts also become very cranky and manipulative when the chemical is running out or when obsession sets in and it is out of reach, he will tell tales of woes to win the sympathy or intimidate people in order to get his way. They will have seizures of cold turkeys like running nose, severe headache, itchiness, restlessness, body-aches and has mood-swings.
Common signs of outer appearance of a drug addict are, in the early stage the addict will have a glassy eye and will be hyper-active. Then as the dose increases they will wake up even at night after every three or four hours due to obsession for the chemical. That will result in blank facial expression with dark circles around the sunken eyes and the skin becomes very pale. Lips become dry and cheek bones prominent which are a sign of losing weight. When a person chase/inhales or injects drugs and is fully satisfied, his voice will sound through his nose and for an hour or two they will look fresh and will be talkative and will act normal in order to cover up. What is most deceiving about chemical dependent who has been addicted for many years, is that they develop certain kind of balance that makes people difficult to detect them easily.. Burnt finger tips especially the thumbs, forefingers and middle finger, cigarettes burnt - holes in the clothes. Neglect of personal appearance like unwashed clothes, uncut nail. and infrequent bathing and unbrushed teeth. People smoking brown sugar or heroin will have dark circle in front of the teeth, skin rashes owing to adulteration in the chemical. On the other hand a person who takes drugs in the form of a pill will be seen drinking water or cold drinks frequently. It is sad but sometimes a person may get addicted to pills unknowingly through doctor’s medications.
Things that one will find in an addict’s bedroom or bathroom is plenty of match boxes, candles, aluminum papers, cigarettes mixture and papers, cover of pills, water bottles, syringes, burnt spoon, cotton, sweets and anything of citrus or acidity. Their choice of music too will be metallic loud rock music and will love to spend longer time alone behind locked doors or with a person who gives them excess freedom. A chronic addict will usually have problems with indigestion after meals, and will ask or look for first-aids like Eno, Pudin Hara. While some recoveries say that salt destroys the effect of drugs, sour fruits would activate the drugs in the system of the user. When the abuse substances starts affecting the liver of an addict they slowly become mentally and physically imbalance. In certain cases, addicts whose liver is severely damaged will have a bloated stomach and sunken face.
When the abuse substance is easily available in the market, and the law enforcement is not severe, the city becomes a Haven for the addicts. In the same way, when a person starts peddling for an addict they are known as “Enablers”. They become very attached to their Enablers without any emotional attachments, since genders do not matter to them but solely for the chemical. As long as they can provide and bring the substance they will be completely subdued to the Enablers and will be very protective, highly secretive and defensive, and to set them apart becomes very difficult. However, when the enabler fails due to certain circumstances such as lack of money or non-availability of drugs, the addicts can become very demanding and dangerous physically and verbally. On the other hand, if the drug user miraculously breaks away from his addiction he will despise the very enabler for the depth of his heart. And in certain cases when the addict hits the rock bottom out of desperation they may speak out the truth and disclose the whole operation of drug trafficking. There are two kinds of enablers, who are usually non-drug-users. One kind of enablers does for tips which usually don’t last as the addict increases his dose they will demand more money for their services. Secondly, they are some very naive persons known as cham chas or girlfriends who are duped by the addict’s sweet talks. We also find this type of similar incidents in work places when the boss is an alcoholic he may always show special favours to staffs who brings for him liquor and accompanies him in drinking which may be very frustrating for other staffs. One should keep in mind especially wives, once you become his enabler you have sold yourself to the worst kind of slavery. He can amend to any form of inhuman treatment out of obsession when you fail. The more you give, the more he will demand. Keep in mind, once an addict; they have no feelings for any human beings. They are opportunists and even after recovery it takes a lot of time to change them. As the famous proverb says. ‘Drugs is the mother of poverty’. The only ray of hope is breaking away from his addiction is through Rehab Programmes or by the miraculous power of the Almighty God.
Whether an alcoholic or a drug addict they become the same when they hit the rock bottom.
PREFACE
I hope this modest, simple manuscript which I have put together in my best knowledge and understanding about addictions will help families to detect this dreadful and horrible disease at an early stag that has become a menace destroying lives around the world. When living in ignorance, it can sneak into families irrespective of backgrounds. As we all know any kind of illness, if detected immediately and is treated can be cured permanently.
I pray earnestly to the Almighty God that each and every addict will be timely delivered, the innocents will not be victimized and marriages will be saved around the world.
