Drug addiction among youth is alarmingly rampant these days. Some years ago, the percentage of this menace was very miniscule. Earlier it was prevalent only among ill-counselled and unlettered people, but now unfortunately; this addictive scourge has engulfed the student community as well; the community that is considered the linchpin of any nation for its survival and strength.
Reasons for drug addiction
Why do our youth consume drugs? There are a range of reasons responsible for it. The most explicit and defined ones are:
1. Watching Hollywood and Bollywood movies and serials that portray drug-consuming characters in a heroically glorifying style.
2. Mental frustration of youth due to unemployment, joblessness, and financial precarity.
3. Lack of proper parental counselling to adolescent boys and girls when they are going through periods of storm and strife due to hormonal changes during the age of adolescence.
4. Troubled relationship with one’s parents, siblings, spouses or friends.
5. Easy availability of drugs in markets though clandestinely.
6. Lack of moral education.
Every year 26 June is celebrated as the International Day against Drug Abuse but its effects do not lost long on us. Drug addiction has a plethora of bad effects linked to it. It not only devastates the physical health of a person but also nonpluses the soundness of his/her psychological mechanism. Due to this, a drug-addicted person becomes a social outcast and it becomes very difficult for him to get adjusted to a good social coterie as nobody accepts him. This results in his social ostracization. This social ostracization never permits him/her to marry. This is the most tragic result of drug addiction. When our youth feel frustrated because of one reason or the other, they consume drugs in order to get temporary relief from this mental frustration; hardly knowing that this drug consumption cannot remediate their mental anxiety and ennui. Our youth should sublimate their urge to drugs by way of what Sigmund Freud calls ‘Transference’. It means instead of banking on drug consumption they should find some friendly and profitable alternative to it.
Measures to detox
Although recovery from drug addiction is a very challenging and daunting job, it is not insurmountable. One can easily de-addict and detox oneself from the menace of this drug addiction by following some effective means. The most effective and expenses free measure is that of physical exercise or physical games. Physical exercise or for that matter involving oneself in physical games is the best antidote to any sort of harmful addiction. Physical exercise and games make us physically strong and mentally sound. Keeping this in mind, our youth should take part in physical exercises in order to remain physically strong and to kill boredom and ennui of every sort. They should enroll themselves in fitness centers in order to make their physical bodies fit and their mental health sound because a Latin adage tells us that Mens Sana in Corpore Sano (Healthy mind in a healthy body). It means that a healthy mind is possible only in a healthy body.
We should resist these life-taking kinds of stuff because consuming a particular drug further aggravates the problems of a person. It makes him physically frail and economically bankrupt. Physical exercise in comparison costs a person nothing and makes him/her physically as well as mentally smart and sound. When a person participates in any sort of physical exercise or any type of entertaining game it generates serotonin, a chemical that plays a key role in such body functions as mood, sleep, digestion, and sexual desires. The generation of serotonin through physical exercise drives away from the mind of a person every sort of complicated worldly care. But it is very unfortunate and tragic on the part of our misguided youth that they snowball their problems by consuming drugs in their cozy chambers instead of taking part in exercises and games.
Apart from physical exercises and games, there are many other entertaining and the same time lucrative activities through which our youth can unburden their worldly cares and concerns. Reading literature is one such activity. If a person feels cornered and helpless, he should read self-help books like Codependent No More by Melody Beattie, Spirit Junkie by Gabrielle Bernstein, and Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman. All these books are about the flipsides of drug addiction. Besides reading these books, reading novels and trade books can also save our youth from being the victims of drug addiction. Reading moral and religious literature is the most efficacious means to say goodbye to every sort of drug. When we go through religious and moral books they sublimate our so-called socially unacceptable instincts and desires into socially approved behavior and acts. In addition to this, family and friends can help a victim in getting rid of this menace through proper counseling and advice. Police can play a major role in stopping this menace by acting sympathetically tough on the victims.
It has been scientifically proven that drugs provide temporary relief and peace to the disturbed and disoriented mind. They usually target the reward system of the person’s brain. They flood the person’s brain with a chemical called dopamine. This chemical triggers a feeling of intense pleasure because of which the person keeps taking the drug. Once the effects of the intoxication are over, one feels more dogged by fears and frets. I want to tell our youth that drug addiction is not a solution to any vexing and baffling problem rather it worsens the problem by blocking the faculty of judgment, decision-making and memory. Besides, drug addiction is a social taboo and has been prohibited by every religion. We must display grit and strong resistance to the lure of drugs because it is said that discretion is the better part of valour. Thereby hangs a tale!
The writer works as a Lecturer (English) in School Education Department (J&K). He did Ph.D. in English Literature from AMU. Besides, he has qualified for UGC-NET and JKSET for Assist Professorship in English. He can be mailed at bi***********@***il.com
Drug Addiction Among Youth And Measures To Detox
