Umar Khursheed
This Story was originally published in 2017 on The Kashmiriyat
Drug addiction, a chronic brain disease often leads people who are with drugs to use it more and more, despite of knowing it that it will damage their brain system and won’t let a person to work in a conscious manner.
There are people who don’t understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They may mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to stop it.
But In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs change the brain in ways that make quitting hard, even for those who want to.
Their brain is who they are. It’s what allows them to think, breathe, move, speak, and feel. It’s just 3 pounds of gray-and-white matter that rests in our skull, and it is your own personal “mission control.” which deals with everything we do in our daily life when drugs enter the brain, they interfere with its normal processing and can eventually lead to changes in how well it works.
Over time, drug use can lead to addiction, a devastating brain disease in which people can’t stop using drugs even when they really want to and even after it causes terrible consequences to their health and other parts of their lives.
WHAT DOES IT LITERALLY MEAN?
It is a type of disease that often leads people to lose control of their daily life, and in its lust, they try to do it repeated times which led a person to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a “relapsing” disease, people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drug.
HOW BRAIN WORKS, AFTER A USE OF DRUGS?
Whether a person does it or not but everybody has a consciousness about it that it ultimately leads a person to death, but most of the drugs affect the brain’s reward circuit by flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine.
This reward system controls the body’s ability to feel pleasure and motivates a person to repeat behaviors needed to thrive, such as eating and spending time with loved ones.
This overstimulation of the reward circuit causes the intensely pleasurable high that can lead people to take a drug again and again. As a person continues to use drugs, the brain adjusts to the excess dopamine by making less of it and/or reducing the ability of cells in the reward circuit to respond to it. This reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance.
They might take more of the drug, trying to achieve the same dopamine high. It can also cause them to get less pleasure from other things they once enjoyed, like food or social activities. Long term use of drugs also causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well, affecting functions that include, Learning: a person won’t be able to learn anything normally as normal people do.
Judgment: won’t be able to judge even if a person wants to.
Decision-making: becomes very hectic for them to take any decision no matter how simple it is.
Stress: one of the common symptoms, frustrated mind
Memory: a person forgets basic things, which probably are very easier for normal people.
Behavior: people can make out from far only that person behavior has been changed.
WHAT MAKES SOME PEOPLE TO GET INTO IT AND WHAT LEADS SOME TO BE FAR FROM IT?
There are a number of reasons for getting attached to drugs, except for stress and mental trauma, and environmental structure there are other reasons too such as, Heredity, Genes with which a person is born with account for about half of a person’s risk for addiction. Gender, ethnicity, and the presence of other mental disorders may also influence the risk for drug use and addiction.
One of the most observed reason, a person’s environment includes many different influences, from family and friends to economic status and general quality of life. Factors such as peer pressure, physical and sexual abuse, early exposure to drugs, stress, and parental guidance can greatly affect a person’s likelihood of drug use and addiction.
Surroundings: Genetic and environmental factors interact with critical developmental stages in a person’s life to affect addiction risk. Although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, the earlier that drug use begins, the more likely it will progress to addiction. This is particularly problematic for teens. Because areas in their brains that control decision-making, judgment, and self-control are still developing, teens may be especially prone to risky behaviors, including trying drugs.
CAN IT BE REMOVED FROM ONES LIFE?
As everyone knows today’s world is full of technologies and is growing with it day by day, it could have been an incurable disease before but now it’s not. Millions of people have come to their normal life from drugs.
However, addiction is treatable and can be successfully managed. People who are recovering from an addiction will be at risk for relapse for years and possibly for their whole lives. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medicines with behavioral therapy ensures the best chance of success for most patients.
Treatment approaches tailored to each patient’s drug use patterns and any co-occurring medical, mental, and social problems can lead to continued recovery.
Now everyone is aware that it leads a person to harmful consequences, Although personal events and cultural factors affect drug use trends when young people view drug use as harmful, they tend to decrease their drug-taking.
Therefore, education and outreach are key in helping people understand the possible risks of drug use. Teachers, parents, and health care providers have crucial roles in educating young people and preventing drug use and addiction.
When we talk about the people who are with drugs The Kashmiriyat during its visit to different spots of it and analysis its inner meaning and cause. Where ever we look we find every type of people around us.
The Kashmiriyat during its research on a couple of the places of south Kashmir has found out that, scores of people from south Kashmir and particularly from district Islamabad who has been taken out from the trauma by rehabilitation centers of the valley.
Achabal village of district Anantnag: Poppy straw 14.500kgm, charas 5kgm, Fukki 97kgs, brown sugar 22 packets, corex 10 bottles with 960 sedative tablets, codeine 28 bottles, charas powder 1.650 kgs. Mattan village of district Anantnag: charas powder 1.650kgm, charas 500kgm, Bhung powder 900 kg. District Islamabad: fuki 4.500kgm, liquor 24 bottles, 72 spasmoproxivan capsules, 2400 tablets, Rexcoff 18 bottles with 72 sedative strips, corex 10 bottles, Bang bosa 5kg 600 gms, codeine 19 bottles with 721 sedative tablets, corex 10 bottles, spasmoproxavan 136 tablets, corex 08 bottles.
Kokernag village of district Islamabad: 41 bottles of liquor, acres of land with Bhung destructed.
In this regard the Jammu Kashmir police of district Islamabad has already set up a rehabilitation center for those people who have been with drugs from decades and want to come back to their normal life when visited the spot, an average number of the people inside was a youth in their early teenage.
Rehabilitation center of district Islamabad senior Psychotherapist Dr Mudasira, while talking to The Kashmiriyat said, she treats people who are with drugs as a senior psychotherapist, and her message to all the people who are directly or indirectly interlinked with it, that drug is a silent killer which blindly kills a person from inside while briefing about the usage of drugs she said Life is not easy the strong survive of life is mental strength, It’s not just about physical strength always; it is more about mental strength. Later while assembling together with drug seekers who are under treatment inside the rehab center.
Two boys (name withheld) found it a bit embarrassing to display their names.
They were with drugs from last 14 years and another one from 5 years, which use to cause to lack moral power and kind of to be separate from the community, not only this there were a lot of problems like memory loss, frustration all the time, no satisfaction about anything they do, but now after they started getting treatments from Rehabilitations from past fifteen days they feel much better as compared to past life they use to live.
One of the boys inside rehabilitation while sharing his personal experience with The Kashmiriyat said, “during drugs once when he was drunk and coming back from a drug party towards his home he heard some whispers from his own clan whispering about his behavior and drugs which led him to realize that whatever he is doing is wrong from every aspect we see and won’t even get a respect from younger around, since that movement of life he said, had a promise with himself that he won’t touch it again” as it leads him always to lose his self-esteem.
Both the boys enthusiastically while ending up their conversations with The Kashmiriyat proudly gave a message to people around who are with drugs and said, “Our message to all the people who are with drugs is that whatever they do they think it’s right and probably enjoys it but at the end of the day they are harming themselves.”
“We shared personal experiences with you how we were ashamed of it.”
People who are not able to cope up with their personals problems faced by drugs, on behalf of everyone we two as a present example request all of them do visit rehabilitation centers around them whichever corner live they live. They can proudly build up their new profile of life and live the rest of their lives in natural peace and harmony.