Grief is what I’m experiencing right now. There is an ongoing addiction issue in my family. But, truth be told, this is not the first case in my family. There have been an addiction case in my family even before this particular one. This thing is actually prevalent in so many families that it absolutely breaks my heart to think about. I mean, there are families who’ve gotten destroyed by this financially, mentally and physically. I’ve known family members of addicts who actually wanted to commit suicide and not only that, take the lives of one’s own kids along as well. While listening to the story, I realised that it is so very difficult as a family member to deal with this on a day to day basis.
The particular thing about this is that there is very less that you can do individually other than try and encourage the addict to get rid of it. Mind you, there are several stages of an addict and they are extremely difficult for them to go through. First, they’ll feel good about their addiction. They’ll think what they’re doing is actually giving them satisfaction. Second, they’ll be in denial. Third, they’ll repent. The third stage is where they feel vulnerable the most. Very few react in a positive way to come out of it. Majority of them don’t as they slip into depression, become unsocial, lose sanity and so on. Some take the extreme step of ending their lives. Some try and forcefully become more addictive so that they can get rid of their lives quickly. Various reactions are there in this case.
One of the biggest problems people face to come out as an addict in the open is the social vilification that they fear they’ll get. Our society forgets that addiction is as normal a disease as anything else. In fact there needs to be encouragements from the society if somebody wants to come out clean. Not only do the addicts fear this, even their families hide their case for this very same social vilification. That actually makes things worse.
Well, I genuinely believe that the solution to all this is spiritual cleansing. Not only of the addict himself/herself but of the entire family. These fearful thought process of societal reaction will lessen with spiritual cleansing. Also, the extreme negative environment that a family having an addict goes through can slowly change. Spiritual cleansing gives you ways and means to let out your inner inhibitions which help you break out of addiction. The person needs to be heard first, encouraged and then cleansed spiritually. So this cleansing is a long process which should have various levels. The family members also need to go through it as they themselves need to feel positive. It has to be a joint effort.
My personal opinion is, addiction should be treated as a disease and brought into the mainstream like other diseases. It is still a hide and seek thing in our society which is making a lot of lives suffer.
Om Shanti..🙏