Addiction Impact on Individual, Family and Society

Addiction Impact on Individual, Family, and Society

We all that one person in our lives who is suffering from some form of addiction. The main problem with addiction is that it's not transparent like other conditions that the doctors are presented with. Especially the events that occurred after the death of late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and the subsequent expose of drug culture in Bollywood have prompted enough discussion in public.

It made us realize that things aren’t merry always and the public has now become active in dealing with addiction and mental health issues. This article discusses every nook and corner of addiction and shows you how it can completely ruin a person.

What is addiction?

Addiction in a broad sense is a compulsiveness and an inability of a person who fails to stop engaging in a particular action or a way of life which can cause physical, social, and mental tragedy on a person. Most of us think that addiction is only limited to Alcohol and drugs, it's far worse than that. It can also involve things like gambling, video games, phones, sex, shopping, food, prescription drugs, smoking and tobacco usage, and many more.

The situation of addiction in India

The most common type of addiction in our country is alcohol and drug abuse and unfortunately, it's only raising as years go by and it shows a serious lapse of both people and the government. So much is the issue that even 10% of Class 8-12^th students have reported having used drugs as a way to tackle peer pressure and some of them have taken it for “fun” as published by Times of India.

If we discuss just the numbers related to drug and alcohol abuse, it's horrifying to see what is happening due to these substances. Presently 62.5 million people use alcohol, 8.75 million use cannabis, 2 million people use opiates and 0.6 million people use sedatives and hypnotics.

Here I will discuss aspects of this problem which for some reason are not discussed openly or considered taboo. We will also discuss what lead to these innocent people to go down this path and how we can collectively and systematically solve this issue.

Why is addiction prevalent In India?

· In adolescents and teenagers, the major driving force for indulging in narcotics and alcohol is peer pressure. The never-ending rat race for major degrees and pressure of parents over competitive exams like JEE and NEET have led to rise in addiction or drug abuse problems and unfortunately, most of them end up in suicides.

· Some young people in our country have this desire to appear “cool” and want to have “adventure” but the reality is that this very desire is being the main force that would lead them to lots of problems in their lives which they don’t realize until its too late.

· Children from orphanages or broken families are usually the target for kidnappers and drug dealers who use these innocent children as a pawn for their illegal drug trade. Just a quick Google search will show how bad this situation is around the world. Moreover, these children are made to work as slaves. These children usually end up at correction homes. As they say that the behavior of a parent or society clearly influences the child’s psychology, usually these children often do end up in a lot of trouble with the law.

· At some point in young adult life, some people may be forced or coerced into trying out a drug for “fun” or “pleasure” with especially psychoactive drugs like Marijuana, LSD; Sedative agents like Amphetamines, etc. At first, the person is attracted to it but very soon your body and brain want more amount of drugs due to the production of receptors in the brain, leading to addiction.

Let’s talk about some lesser-known forms of addiction

· Video-game addiction: - Video games in nature attract young kids, but unfortunately this attraction has turned into addiction in India, especially with the rise of the game called PUBG/BGMI. It's not only with this game there are many other games too. The major problem is kids unknowingly buy the in-game purchases and it's too late when the parents realize there is something wrong. Suicides, Murders have been some extreme forms of gaming addiction. This is also the easiest to treat!

· Shopping addiction: - It is actually more of a mental condition more often seen in women than men. Its called a compulsive buying disorder (CBB). It is characterized by the persistent, excessive, impulsive, and uncontrollable purchase of products in spite of severe psychological, social, occupational, and financial consequences. People who suffer from this usually have remorse of the action they did but they forget it pretty soon and start all over again. This can also be treated!

· Addiction to Porn: - A simple google search will show you how many people suffer from this issue. This issue is more prevalent in the male population of the world. The main problem is that people watching porn think that whatever stuff happening in it should be replicated the same way with their partners when in reality it's not that way.

There are many YouTube videos out there where various actors in the industry have given interviews about the dark side of the porn industry. Along with the exploitation of women, it also damages the brain of the person watching it by compulsion him to search for different genres which slowly leads to addiction and has been also dubbed as a major reason for rape in India.

· Addiction to prescription drugs: -

This happens to patients who need certain drugs for their chronic conditions. The common drugs usually causing this are called opioids. These are very strong painkillers and have addiction issues in long-term usage. The major downside of these drugs is that it can cause respiratory depression and death.

Several cases of morphine, oxycodone overdose have been reported in India. The government had to intervene in this as it is a major issue. Even doctors have stepped in to not give these drugs until and unless there is an absolute necessity or an indication. Moreover, we have resorted to another group of drugs called as NSAIDs which have less to no addictive effects.

· Phones: - You might have often heard parents complaining that their child is fixed to the phones all day and all night. Now people blame technology for this but in actuality, we should blame ourselves for this addiction. Somehow we made technology so much so that we have stopped becoming productive. This is more of a developing problem in India, especially in urban areas where there is fast internet and changing technologies, etc.

Symptoms of Addiction

· Lack of interest in sports and daily hobbies.

· Loss and appetite and clear change in physique and body weight.

· Lack of sense of hygiene and cleanliness.

· Abnormal walking style or gait, tremors, clumsy movements (the sign of alcohol usage of withdrawal syndrome)

· Injection marks usually near the elbow region and possible bloodstains on clothes (seen in heroin addicts)

· Drowsiness, sleepiness, lethargy, and passivity

· Acute anxiety, depression, profuse sweating

· Changing mood, temper tantrums, causing harm to society.

· Depersonalization and emotional detachment with family and friends.

· Impaired memory and concentration

· Presence of needles, syringes, and strange packets at home.

Note: - These symptoms or rather signs are very noticeable by family members and most prevalent in the case of people suffering from drug addiction. These are also seen in other forms of addiction too. Therefore, it's important for them to be admitted to de-addiction centers at the earliest.

Treatment of addiction: -

1) Drug-induced addiction: -

Understand why the person has started using drugs through adequate counseling. Joining them to de-addiction centers with regular family meetings will help the person regain emotional and mental stability. For this, a good and supportive family or friend, or partner is very essential. Apart from drugs given by doctors to prevent addiction through counseling sessions is critical. Moreover, we can’t victim blame them because they got involved in this due to unforeseen circumstances if their life.

The government should be involved in this process too. The victims of drug abuse shouldn’t be criminalized, It should be rather the person or organization who is supplying these drugs to innocent people and ruining their lives.

2) Phone-based addiction: -

This includes gaming, social media addiction, and porn. All these three starts in a similar pattern where the person is first attracted to the thing, later this turns into attachment because the person feels relief in the thing that he/she used. This attachment later turns into an obsession where the person loses rationality and rather takes decisions which are unrealistic and often a hazard to themselves, their family, and even the society.

The later stage is an addiction where the person completely loses touch with reality and often becomes violent, aggressive, and irritable. The person can also at this stage commit some crimes like murders, rapes, and even mass killings in some cases.

This causes loneliness and eventually leads to depression, a weak mindset, a lack of motivation in life, and ultimately death. This is the vicious cycle almost seen in every type of addiction. There are government helplines and certain facilities in hospitals where they specialize in treating these kinds of addiction. Here, family plays a very important role.

This issue may sound similar but it’s the easiest to treat and it's affordable too. All you need is a counselor who can understand the problems of the patient. Parents also should limit the exposure of their kids to these gadgets but as we know it's hard due to online classes. Kids need to be thought how to use technology for their benefit rather than becoming bait to it.

Prevention of addiction: -

1) Providing education: - You guys have all seen ads against smoking tobacco and alcohol in theaters, it is one of the ways where the government is trying to warn the public about the dangers of drug addiction. It can also be done at home where parents can teach their kids how to use technology judiciously and explain the side- effects of social media in such a way that the child themselves can make a good decision.

This however should not be done in a way where they beat their kids as this is just immoral and not the right way. At schools, the teachers can be a medium of information to teach children the harmful effects of addiction. They can provide specific advice or simply spread messages or conduct interactive activities by promoting good health practices like Yoga.

2) Government intervention: - As said earlier, advertisements can help in educating the general public. There are already several measures like age limit, prosecution laws however the major issue is that these laws need to change according to modern times, where it needs to de-criminalize victims of drug abuse and prosecute the one who’ supplying drugs.

The main problem is also that government needs to stop using Alcohol as a source of revenue which is simply causing worse than good to society and the individual. It essentially contradicts to what prevention programs want to achieve. We all know laws like no smoking in public, age restriction in consumption of alcohol and smoking, ban on advertising tobacco and alcohol, etc to name a few.

3) Community approach: - It can be used to educate a certain population based on social, economic, cultural, political other elements in such a way that we can delineate the public from indulging in such activities. We have heard stories from many states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Assam, Gujrat, Tamil Nadu, etc where women have been protesting for years to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol in their villages.

Even though there is an ever-growing support for the cause, there is more to be than that meets the eye. As an additional source, you can read the story of a man named Nagabhushna from Noorundumalai village in Krishnagiri hills of Tamil Nadu, this town has been free from alcohol and smoking since 2002. The story is very interesting, it’s will be an inspiration to those who are suffering from addiction problems.

Summary

· Addiction is a social, psychological, and emotional issue that can be treated with the right interventions at the right time.

· We should also remember that human compulsion to search for new things is the main driving force for such kinds of problems and we need to quell those feelings based upon our needs.

· Prevention is always better than cure. As explained earlier if we can limit our lifestyle to be reasonable then these problems will cease to exist.

I hope after reading this article, the readers might have gained a new perspective of what addiction really is and how easy it is actually to deal with the correct ways and how to mitigate it. I have also tried to explain important things here but this article will get longer as there is more to talk about.

Thank you

Addiction Impact on Individual, Family and Society | Effect of Addiction on Health