ADDICTION

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Humans and AddictionsHuman beings have always had a weaknessfor consuming things that later become ahabit and they cannot stay without it. Amongmany things, they have thus smoked tobacco,chewed betel nut, drank liquor or abuseddrugs. They take such substances because itmakes them “feel good” at first. Later, theyare unable to feel good unless they take thesubstance.

We get addicted to these substances in twoways:

1. Physically : Our body longs for thesubstance

2. Mentally : Our mind does not feel“normal” till we take the substance.

Once a person is trapped between thesetwo, escape is difficult.

Who Gets Addicted?It is true that some people get addictedfaster than others. Some say it is due to ge-netic factors or the way the person’s bodyis made up. But the truth is we do not know.Anybody can get addicted to anything.When we are dependant on some substanceand cannot do our daily work or cannot feelnormal without taking this substance, thenwe are addicted. No one is safe from anyaddictions. The only safety is to stay awayfrom it.

The number of things we get addicted toare many. We will learn about three thingsthat are common around us:

1. Alcohol2. Smoking3. Drugs

Addictions

1. ALCOHOL (Drinking)Alcohol (drinks) has always been a part of traditional culture and customs. But unlike today,alcohol and other drugs were used only on special occasions and religious rites. These old tradi-tions and customs have broken down. Drinking and drug abuse have become huge problems inmany societies. Drinking is the cause of many people dying, family problems and childrenmalnourished.

Drinking brings joy tothe man but suffering tohis wife and children !

HOW ALCOHOL WORKSThere are five stages of intoxication (getting drunk). Each stage is more intense than the previ-ous one:

1. “FEELING HAPPY” : The person is sociable, relaxed, talkative, does not feel shy, can-not judge properly and cannot work properly.

2. “FEELING EXCITED” : Cannot think correctly and so, reacts slowly. The person losescontrol of own behavior.

3. “FEELING CONFUSED” : Unclear speech; walks with stagger; vision gets blurred or“sees double”; gets aggressive & moody

4. STUPOR : Unable to stand or walk; total loss of self-control; urinates (pisses) in pants;almost unaware of surroundings

5. COMA : Completely unconscious, especially when large amounts of alcohol are gulpedquickly. At times, serious breathing problems, could result in death.

It may be O.K to drink one or two glasses of liquor. DO NOT allowthe liqour to drink your health away.

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ALCOHOL ABUSEDAMAGES

HEALTHThe liverLiver gets inflammed:

- puffiness of face- general swelling but

especially in the ankles- enlarged abdomen

due to fluid collection- sleeplessness

The heart- heart gets enlarged

(big)- palpitations- shortness of breath- lots of night sweating- increased pulse rate

and blood pressure

The lungs- gets breathing

diseasse- chronic bronchitis and

pneumonia

The Central Nervous System- confused thinking and

speaking- decreased or loss of

memory

The Stomach- acute gastritis because

of increased acid pro-duction

- blood vomiting; loss ofweight and loss of ap-petite

- anaemia (very pale)

The brain- brain cells get de-

stroyed- brain structure

changes- blood flow to brain

lessens- blackouts- unable to

remember what hap-pened during a drink-ing period

How Drinking Affects Our Body

Alcohol helps you lose your body, your health, your money, your friends and family.It helps you lose all that is yours. STAY AWAY !

Liver Damage from AlcoholAlcohol is a poison. The liver works hardto remove it from the blood. If the persondrinks a lot over the years, the liver itselfbecomes poisoned. The damage is more ifthe person does not eat well.

Liver Cirrhosis

Loss of Muscles

Yellow Skin

Dark Urine

WhiteStool (shit)

Swollen Belly

Swollen Feet

Swollen Veins

· Swollen Veins : The damaged liver is like a clogged filter.Blood cannot pass through it well, so it must find other waysto get back to the heart. Hence, one sees swollen veins inthe body (especially from belly to chest) of an alcoholic.

· Swollen Belly & Swollen Feet : Since the blood is dammedup by the liver there is more pressure in the veins. Clearfluid from the small blood vessels begins to leak out andswelling of those parts happen. The damaged liver also failsto produce protein normally and cannot prevent fluid fromleaking out of the veins, causing the belly and feet to swellup.

· Loss of Muscles: Muscles of the body are mostly proteinand when liver is damaged, muscles are the ones that getwasted away. It makes the alcoholic look very skinny.

· Yellow Skin: A sick liver also cannot remove bilirubin (ayellow dye) from the blood. Hence, the alcoholic has a veryyellow, jaundiced look.

· Dark Urine : The urine of the alcoholic is also very yellow.

· White Stool (shit) : On the other hand, the stool (shit) of analcoholic is white in colour. This is because bile from theliver gives our stool its normal colour. In people with dam-aged liver, the bilirubin cannot be added on to the bile andhence, the bile does not have the colour to give to the stooland the person’s shit remains white.

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WHO HAS A DRINKING PROBLEM ?Do you know someone who:

Drinks in order to get drunk ?Needs a drink as soon as he / she gets up in the morning?Feels an urge to get up at night in order to drink?Drinks until he / she finishes the bottle?Finishes up his / her drink before others have done so?Personality has changed ever since started drinking ? (becomemoody, irritable, hard to get along with, quarrelsome, easilyangry, tense, forgetful)Has lost other interests (work , family, sports, music etc.) ever since he/she started drinking?Is cutting down on food because of alcohol?Is in really great money problem because of drinking?

One or more “YES” answers show tell you that the person has a drinkingproblem. He need help quickly.

How To Help A Person with a Drinking Problem ?First the person must himself realise that his drinking is a prob-lem ! He must realise that his drinking is harming his health andhurting the happiness of those around him.

Once the person honestly accepts this and wants to do somethingabout it, then only they can be helped. Some are then able to sim-ply stop drinking. But most often people need help and support tostop. Family, friends and others who understand how hard it is tostop must help this person. The best to help are those who used to drink were heavily buthave stopped now. Talking to such people can inspire courage in alcoholics that they canalso give up.

Drinking is not so much a problem of individuals as it is of the family and of the community.The community must be helped to realise this and thus help thosewho want to give up and change.

As a health worker, you can organise a meeting to discussthe problem of alcohol in your community and what actioncan the community take.

Women’s groups can be made aware of the need to tacklethe problem of drinking among men since it usually affectswomen the most.

It is very important to give correct information to youngpeople in the community in the community as they will be theones who will take up drinking in the future.

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Smoking

Effects of Smoking

Damages

affects babiesof pregnantwomen whosmoke

eats into thefamily foodbudget

children ofthose whosmoke

2. SmokingIn most parts of the world, smoking of tobacco is a fairly recentcustom. Since smoking has been proved to cause lung cancer, toharm unborn babies of women who smoke, and are generallydangerous to health, people in rich countries now smoke lesserthan before.

As a result, the big cigarette companies push their products inpoor countries through lots of advertising and sales campaigns.As a result, more people in poor countries, even women, havestarted smoking. The World Health organisation has called smok-ing “the biggest preventive health problem in the world today”.

India Goes Up in Smoke !In the past 20 years, the average number of cigarettes smoked per person hasfallen by over 40% in the United States of America. In India cigarette demandkeeps increasing and hence, cigarette production. We made 91,413 millionsticks of cigarettes last year and in 2001-2002 I is expected to cross 100,000million sticks.

450 crores of rupees is spent every year on advertising tobacco products inIndia !!

Over 2000 people die every day of tobacco related illnesses in India !

India spends 13,517 crores of rupees to treat nearly a million people dying of tobacco-related illnesses every year. (Hindustan Times)

Every person who smokes is a walking advertisement for children to follow.Smoking in buses, trains, open spaces is banned and can lead to jail.

Make sure that the law is followed in your area !

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Smoking Your Health AwaySmoking is Dangerous :a. To Your Own Health:Cancers : Smoking increases the risk of cancer of the lung, mouth,throat and lips.

Lung Diseases : It causes serious diseases of the lungs – includ-ing chronic bronchitis. It is deadly for those who already havethese diseases or have asthma.

Ulcers : Smoking causes stomach ulcers or makes them worse.

Heart Disease: Chances of dying from strokes or heart diseases increasesamong smokers.

b. To Your Family’s Health

Affects Children : Children of parents who smoke get affected. Theyhave more cases of pneumonia and other breathing illnesses than thosechildren whose parents do not smoke.

Affects Non-Smokers : Those who do not smoke but have to take in thesmoke of others who do, have a greater chance of getting lung cancerand heart disease.

Affects Babies : Babies of mothers who smoked during pregnancy aresmaller and grow more slowly than babies whose mothers did not smoke.

Bad Example : Parents, teachers, health workers , leaders & others whosmoke set a very bad example for children and young people. It increasesthe chance that they will start smoking too.

Smoking Costs Money : Cigarette by cigarette, the costs add up to alot. If money spent on tobacco are spent for food instead, children andwhole families could be healthier.

STOP SMOKING AND STOP OTHERSFROM SMOKING !

You have a righ to breath clean air. Anyone who smokes when others object to itor where non-smokers are present, is breaking the law. Assert your right and tell

him to stop. You can have a right to call the police if the person does not stopsmoking even after your protesting.

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3. Drug AbuseIn addition to smoking and alcohol (which are legal in most countries) , many people in differentparts of the world are using “illegal drugs”.

Drug Addiction Lead to :

self- neglect

family problems,aggression and violence

rise in crimes;thefts anddisorder

Diseases likeHIV and AIDS

Drugs & The Northeast region

Drugs are a problem in society. Inmany of our northeastern states,drugs are a menace. It has not onlydestroyed the lives of many of ouryoung people but been the cause ofmuch suffering in homes and society.With their minds altered due to drugs,youth have wasted their lives away.AIDS, the much-feared disease hascome hand in hand with drugs andwe always hear of crimes related todrugs. We must understand drugabuse better in order to help ouryoung people and improve our soci-ety.

Why Do PeopleTake Drugs?

People start taking drugs to escape thehardships, forget the hunger, or calmthe pain in their lives. But we see ouryoung people taking to drugs because:

it is the “done thing” and theyhave to “fit in” with theirfriends.out of boredomthey are frustrated.they are curious to try out newthings.they want to “feel good” anddo not know how else.they take it because it is avail-able.

Once a person starts, it is difficult tostop. If they try to stop, they becomevery miserable, sick or violent. In or-der to get more drugs, they will oftencommit crimes, go hungry or neglecttheir families. Taking the drug be-comes the MOST important thing.Thus, drug use becomes a problem forwhole families and communities.

Using Medicines as Drugs.Even where “hard” drugs like heroin, opium, etc.are not easily available, some medicines are used fordrug abuse. In our country we can get many medi-cines over the counter from pharmacies. It becomeseasy for young people to experiment and use themwrongly. The most popular medicines being abusedhere in the northeast are cough syrups (makes yousleepy and numbs your senses) and pain injections.

We need to educate our young people about theproblems of drugs abuse. But we also need to de-mand that there must be good government systemsnot to allow that medicines that can be abused to besold without a doctors’ prescription.

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Drugs Can Change How You FeelDrugs can be swallowed, injected, smoked, chewed or sniffed. Differentdrugs create different effects on the body and mind.

Some drugs like alcohol, opium, morphine and heroin may at firstmake the person feel calm and relaxed, but later they will cause him tobehave strangely, lose self-control and even become unconscious.

Cocaine makes the person feel energetic and happy, but some time later he will feeltired, irritable and depressed.

Yet some other drugs like marijuana, LSD etc makes a person imagine things thatdo not exist or create dream-like fantasies.

Once you take these drugs, you can become “hooked” or addicted and will keep needing it.

Our Youths Fall Into The Drug TrapOne kilo of heroin costs one crore rupees!Produced from opium (that comes fromPoppy plant), it is banned by almost allcountries. But the poor in poor countriesfarm this plant for some money and oth-ers sell it at very high prices outside. Sinceit is banned, it has to be smuggled out insmall quantities.

For this the dealers try to rope in youngboys and girls who are ready to do the jobfor a small margin. Not only the dealerwants people to carry the drugs for himbut it is in his interest that the same youngpeople use the drugs also. Young peopleare encouraged to “try out” the drug a cou-ple of times. Soon the person is “hooked”and unless s/he takes the next dose, theperson faces many symptoms like severeheadache, giddiness, scary sounds andimages, etc. The person now has to comesback for more.

The dealer is now sure of the addiction.The next dose of drug is given only if theaddict gives cash, very often stolen fromparents, friends and petty crimes. In somecases, in exchange for a dose, the addicthas to do an errand for the dealer that is toprocure or deliver the next batch of herointo an address. Thus starts a never-endinglife of addiction.

Drugs and HIV/AIDSIn the northeast, addiction through injec-tion of the drugs into the vein is common.Addicts are on the run all the time – theyhide in secret places where police, soci-ety and the militants cannot see. Sharingthe syringe of drugs, there is no time andno chance to clean the syringe. Alongwith it has come the HIV virus with thedeadly AIDS disease. It has spread sorapidly that an estimated eighty percentof all drug users who inject are found tobe HIV positive. The result is that HIVhas spread rapidly and threatens the newgeneration.

Violence & Drugs CycleMany militant groups sustain theirarmed movements from the illegalsmuggling of drugs across borders ofcountries. In most cases the securityforces and border police look the otherway for a margin. In fact, large smug-gling groups are said to favour militancyas it helps their business. To keep theirbusiness going they need continued in-stability and they spoil all attempts atrestoration of peace. It is also the faultof the government that they cannot bringpeace. Prolonged instability has contrib-uted to the problem of Drugs in thenortheast region.

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Know the AnswersADDICTION

Mark whether “right” or “wrong”

1. Addiction is a disease which affects the person physically and mentally.

2. Drinking is good for our liver and keeps our body healthy.

3. Driking is avery easy habit to give up.

4. Smoking is the least dangerous of all addicitons.

5. People smoke only to get rid of their tension.

6. Drugs is a habit only of the rich people living in cities.

7. Drugs are needed by young people to make them feel good.

8. Young people take drugs because it is freely available.

Fill in the blanks:1. Common substances which people get addicted to are _________________, ___________

and _________.

2. Addiction affects a person _______________, ___________________and ____________.

3. The _______________is the most important organ to be affected by too much drinking.

4. The most common medicines to be abused as drugs are _____________ and ___________.

5. Injecting drugs are dangerous because it spreads the ____________disease.

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