KOCHI: The left forearm of Kishore V of Palakkad is full of cut marks. This is the second time Kishore, who started consuming alcohol and using ganja and drugs at age 15, is undergoing treatment at a de-addiction centre.
“This time, I am determined to stay away from drugs and alcohol once I return to my home,” says Kishore, who admits peer pressure pushes one back to alcohol and drugs once they return to mainstream society.
While Kishore seems to have made up his mind, many other users are unable to do the same. Understandably, Prince Augustine of the de-addiction centre Prathyasa Bhavan and Fr Alex J Vellappally of DARE are worried about the rising number of relapse cases.
“Nearly 50 per cent of patients who leave the de-addiction centre return as addicts. Though follow-ups are must, the patients never give due importance to it. What is shocking is nearly half the addicts who return commit suicide,” reveals Prince.Fr Alex says a lot of addicts coming to his centre are ones who underwent de-addiction treatment at other centres.
“Generally, addicts don’t prefer to go to the same de-addiction centre. De-addiction programmes can be successful only if the patient has the will to control his/her urge. We only accept a relapse case for a maximum of three times, as accepting the same patient time and again will give out the wrong notion to other patients,” says Fr Alex.
KMHA secretary Dr Jayaprakash says relapse cases are on the rise because recovering addicts fall back to their old ways once their health improves. “Normally, addicts go to de-addiction treatment once their health condition deteriorates due to alcohol and drug abuse. During and after de-addiction treatment, they recover. Once this happens, they start taking alcohol and drugs,” says Jayaprakash.
For psychiatrist C J John, it is the unscientific treatment procedures followed by de-addiction centres which is the main reason for the increasing number of relapse cases. “Every de-addiction centre comes out with their own mode of treatment, lacing it with spirituality. They are not scientifically analysing the reason which made a patient an addict. Some centres don’t even have a medical expert,” he says.
To be concluded.