Approach to Addiction PDF Print E-mail
Social Justice
Written by DR. P.C. Jain   

Roads to addiction

There could be several factors responsible for a person to become an addict. What is important is to recognise these causes and then make an attempt to nullify their effect.


DR. P.C. JAIN
M.B; B.S.
Medical Practitioner,
Deaddiction Centre
3, Arvind Nagar, Manohar Vatika,
Sunderwas, Udaipur-313003
Rajasthan, INDIA
Phone: +91-294-2491700
Email: drpcjain250@hotmail.com

VARTIKA JAIN
Senior research fellow and                                           
Secretary, Society for Microvita Research
and Integrated Medicine (SMRIM),
Udaipur, Rajasthan, INDIA.
Email: vartikajain31@gmail.com

Addiction is a slow poison, which eats up not just the individual’s mind and body, but also the peace and pride of the family. All addictive substances are a kind of chemical, which if taken repeatedly make a person dependant on him, to the extent that the addict feels he just cannot survive without it. So, apart from the physical and mental degeneration, it gradually starts affecting all other aspects of life like financial, psychological, social and spiritual.

The tribal people in many parts of world are addicted to several kinds of indigenous addictive substances. Their case can, however, be attributed to illiteracy. But, what pains is that even educated persons, who are well-aware of the effects of these poisonous substances fall prey to them.

Now, the point to ponder over is, what are the factors responsible for the rise in addiction?


Possible causes

As per our observation, there are twelve ‘Fs’ responsible for the increasing addiction.

Family: It is a known fact that children follow what they see. The elders in the family play an important role in building a child’s future. The elders in the family, therefore, need to keep a check on their lifestyle so that they can set an example for the youngsters in the family.

In some cases, genes too are responsible for an individual’s inclination towards addiction. We have experienced that more than 60 per cent of the addicts who came to us had a family history of addiction, in which one or more members of their family were addicts. Moreover, a family needs to be watchful about the activities of its members to avoid any one of them falling into this deadly trap. If addiction is identified in the early stages, it can be cured effectively; if certain habits are ignored initially, it can only cause misery.

These days, drinking together has become a fashion whether it is for some business purpose or for recreation. This is considered normal and no family member opposes it. The problem begins when this once in a while activity turns into a daily affair and then gradually into an addiction spelling doom for both his work and the family.

In one case, a man blamed the negligence by his working wife for his addiction. He gradually lost the respect of his children as well as his parents. It ultimately resulted in divorce and the break-up of the family. Had the problem been identified early on and dealt with properly, a family could have lived happily ever after.

Friends:  Once friend circle is greatly responsible for such habits. If someone among the friends is an addict or an occasional user of such products, he might coax an innocent youth for just one try.

Brown sugar, cigarette smoking, tobacco chewing and even drinking are easily picked up in friend circles. In some cases, youngsters start this just to impress others or at times to be a part of a cool group. Later, they get completely trapped in it.

One college student started taking cough syrup, following his friends and became a strong addict consuming 6-7 bottles of cough syrups daily.

Fashion: Generally fashion and friends follow each other, particularly in consuming alcohol. Drinking is considered fashionable in some societies. There is a growing sentiment in present day society that one who drinks is elite. So, several people think they might be considered backward if they do not drink. This notion plus persuasion and peer pressure leads the youngsters towards addiction. Many of the addicts we have come across said that they started drinking because they did wanted to be pointed as backwards in the so-called high society.


Fun: In answer to our addiction questionnaire given during de-addiction awareness camps, many girl students wrote that they started it just for fun and to feel how it gave pleasure. But, once they got a taste of this pleasure, they wanted more of it. Once they got addicted to it, it became a drain on their pockets and they would now even steal for it.

Films: Films too have a strong impact on the society, especially the youth who imitate the ways and styles of the actors. If their favorite actor/actress drinks or smokes in the movie, they try t behave like them thinking they might also look like a hero.

In this way, they just start it and later become addicts. Moreover, powerful advertisements of tobacco and alcohol and their endorsement by their favorite celebrity stars on television also affects youngsters easily. When we asked children to name some tobacco products, they gave ten to twelve names of these products in just a few minutes. In one case, a student of eighth standard was unable to fully open his mouth because of chewing tobacco. And, such cases later turn cancerous. Moreover, two out of ten teachers in the schools smoke or chew tobacco, which also affects pristine minds of young children.

Frustration and feelings: Modern world has given us many good things including stress. There is stress from everything even from own family members or one’s job. But, nobody really knows how to deal with it. Slowly this frustration builds up and accumulates leading one towards drugs or drinking. Initially, one starts taking it to just suppress the depressing thoughts, feelings and frustrations and when he succeeds in this, he makes these habits a source of satisfaction and happiness in his life. This temporary euphoria ultimately makes one dependant on these addictive substances.

Freedom: In many cities, abandoned children use whitener ink, iodex, nail paints and inhalers as addictive substances. These children are free to do whatever they want to do and nobody is there to take care of them. Lack of love and too much of freedom in their lives is a major cause of getting into the grip of addiction. Even if there is a prohibition on drinking or smoking in public places, people usually break such rules. And, the freedom to break rule so easily and go scot free after that is pushing the society into the black hole of addiction.


Festivals and functions: Generally, on the occasion of festivals and social functions such as engagements, marriages or inauguration ceremonies, serving and taking alcohol is now becoming acceptable in the society. Like, in India, Holi festival in particular is famous for drinking alcohol. People drink, drive and play colors and meet with many fatal accidents on this day. Many serious injuries and even deaths have also been observed on this festival. Family functions and parties are also providing some of the strong addicts to the society. Lack of prohibition and social acceptance of serving and consuming alcohol is becoming detrimental for the health of the society, which one realises after some major family disasters.

Free: When alcohol/drugs are available free i.e. without a charge, then people are likely to become addicts easily. This free supply is generally done to get some work done in this corporate world and now this thing is becoming common even in civilians. These addictive substances serve their purpose, but ultimately lead towards addiction and dependence of the exploited. Also nowadays, frequent availability of these substances at almost every place, also lures many and results in serious addictive cases.


Faith: Sometimes, at particular worship places, alcohol or opium is used as an object of worship. This faith is quite strong even among literate masses. These objects are distributed among all the worshippers out of which some develop a habit of addiction. And, as a gift from the Deity, no family member objects to this tradition.

Females: In some cases, females in their respective role in the family just ignore or bear the habit of their beloved ones out of their love and affection. Later on, this ignorance becomes costly for their families and loss of that beloved one. In many cases, which have been cured of addiction we have seen that there is a definite role of females in helping the addicts to leave these habits.

Fear: In many cases fear of senior colleagues or boss when avoiding drink/drug is quite severe. Annoyance of the senior could stop their progress and growth. And this is a major factor putting them into the grip of addiction. Sometimes fear of the withdrawal symptoms such as nervousness, anxiety, sleep disturbances, tremors, disorientations, body aches, hallucinations etc. leads one to not to stop the addiction and continue it at the cost of their health and wealth.

These twelve ‘Fs’ just provide a glimpse that how the monster of addiction is approaching our society and becoming a complete family disaster. Family and society should ponder on these and other possible causes of increasing addiction cases in our world. We can say that it is like a huge mountain, which is deeply seated and not projected outside well. In order to remove this out of our society we all have to come forward and deal with all these factors properly. And, when one would have developed physically, psycho-spiritually, economically well, there will not be any need of these addictive substances. Then all the persons will enjoy the bliss of human life and move towards the supreme consciousness swiftly.