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Even if sometimes everything
seems to go wrong, there is always a way out, that it should never be the drug. |
They invited him to taste it only once, only a little, later he wanted more… I became a person it was not possible to speak with… they sell their clothes, domestic appliances and they even rob… I would want they ‘to take me to the hospital, this kills, destroy you psychologically and physically… it takes your time, your intelligence and your life.
A Saturday night, 15 years and Yoel ran into a door after which they promised some paradises he had never dreamed of before. He did it because he wanted to be “in the mood”, to feel himself in the center of the group and to become the boy coveted by the girls in the neighborhood. At the beginning it was only a little, later he wanted more… and more. Soon he arrived at a total addiction. An overdose put him on the point of death.
“For curiosity I entered this world. I got hooked easily and I became an addict. The money I won in the vegetables market I worked and the one my papa sent me from abroad I spent them in drugs. I was not interest in nothing else: nor parties… nor friends … nor even a girlfriend.
“Every night I invented a different story for my mother, I said her I was going out with a girl or to hang around with my friends and I went to any place to take drugs. I did it to clear my mind and to move away from reality.
“One day my mother surprised me, and in my own house. We argued, I shouted some terrible things to her and she cried a lot. I said herI wanted to leave it. I promised myself to move away from drugs, but I only would do it after consuming what I had already bought, that I would not throw away and much less I would give it.
“It was a cheating decision, that made me consume in one night all I had and put me in the arms of death. I remember my mother’s shouts and the strong anguish of all my family. It was like a dream, but a real dream. It was the terrible dream of drugs”.
Today, Yoel is fighting to rehabilitate himself and he counts for it on the support of specialists and his family. But if getting hooked was easy to him, to leave the addiction requires time, effort and good will.
. “Since I did the treatment I have not consumed anymore. Perhaps in the long term I can leave it forever”.
They surround the individual, later they catch him and they finish destroying him. Drugs are like jealous girlfriends who fight to move away their boyfriends of any reality that is not themselves. Over the years, these toxic substances occupy such an important place in the life of the consuming people, that prevent their future development, whether professional or social.
To Abel Ponce Delgado, a young professor of Psychology in the University of Havana who has been doing research on the subject for a long time, adolescence is a especially vulnerable stage.
“It is a period that is characterized by the necessity to live new experiences and strong sensations. In these years, the young person looks for to reaffirm his belonging to a group, he tries to avoid problems, he fights to be different from the adults and he rebels before the familiar and social reality. I is not accidental then that many people who are addict today, had their first experience of that kind during their adolescence”.
Some studies demonstrate that the mainly associated causes to the first contacts of young people with drugs are simple curiosity and disinformation on the subject. However, at a familiar and social level situations can happen that open doors to this phenomenon. We are talking, for instance, of familiar disagreement, bad communication between parents and children, presence of alcoholism or drug consumption at home, and the lack of orientation to search some alternatives and healthy spaces for recreation.
Beyond the familiar conflicts and any discontent of social type, the consumption of toxic substances is related to factors of individual character, like a low level of self-esteem, impulsiveness, a little tolerance to frustration, difficulty to make decisions, emotional instability, and even, psychiatric backgrounds.
She speaks and it is not easy she look to the eyes of who is listening her. For this addict girl who is only 18 years old, the world of drugs is a world of lies and liars, a world she arrived At for the first time when she was 14.
“At first it seemed funny… I study music and a friend who already consumed began to help me with some guitar lessons of and gave me some marijuana. That was the drug I got hooked with; later I tasted others and without realizing consumption was increasing and I could no longer live without them.
“I became a person you can not speak with; the problems at home began, the arguments with my mother and I even stole to pay my addiction. I lost my friends, beautiful people that got tired to advise me and in the end decided to move over.
“Four months ago I arrived at the rehabilitation office and I’m doing well. This is very hard. I had already a relapse, but,yes, I believe I have improved… and much”.
According to Ponce, most of the young people consuming drugs usually begins in the same way: first on Saturday or Sunday, later the other days of the week, until they arrive at the total addiction. Little by little they lose control and it appears in them the phenomenon of tolerance, that is to say, every time they need more drug to get the “good sensations”
. “The moment arrives when they must buy more and more. The expenses are too big and they begin to break with established moral patterns. They sell their clothes, the electrical appliances and they even rob. In short, they are able to make anything, even if they feel later as the most unhappy people in Earth”, the specialist explains.
Drugs cause not only social and legal problems, but also they affect to a great extent the individual’s health. As substances that create dependency and tolerance they lead to devastating consequences in the human organism. The addict frequently has periods of depression, anxiety, insomnia, sexual dilutions and affections in the memory, attention and perception processes.
Jorge is 20 years old and consumes since he was 16. Only a few hours ago he took some drugs and his pupils are still dilated, his eyes reddened and frightened … He is a very thin and pale young man. He wanted to escape reality. He lost his girlfriend and that has made him feel very unhappy. He dreamed to be a great painter, but the drug moved him away from brushes and muses.
“I would want they took me to the hospital. This has left me many sequels. I’ve lost so many things: patience, my capacity of accepting, of living”.
Of course, these transformations affect not only the consumer, but also to those who are related to him. Generally, the person who begins to consume isolates himself and the society, once it knows his addiction, also tends to isolate it.
“Around them —Abel Ponce says— there is a group that is disintegrating and needs a specialized attention. We are speaking of the family, the partner, the friends… They lose calm, become distressed, depress themselves. All these people, who under no circumstance will leave the addict, pathologize themselves a lot”.
Mariana’s parents are strong. Very strong. They speak of their daughter and the memory of the happy years does not leave them. It is the mother who tells us:
“We always wanted to have her and she was an affectionate little girl, educated, she liked to study. Mariana’s change happened in the technological institute. She did not pass some subjects and suddenly she told us she wanted to work and to have some money. She began to help a friend of the family in a cafeteria and in a moment we noticed our daughter was no longer the same. She arrived late at home, she sold her clothes, she hardly spoke with us and when she did it she to offended us or attack us.
“We know our daughter is an addict; nevertheless, she denies it. We want her to be cured, but if she does not do her share, any attempt will be in vain. Somebody without any scruples makes her enter that world and we will not stop until he pays all the damage he has done to our daughter”.
In all this history there is a main character: the “good friend”. Psycologist Abel Ponce says that this is so called drug dealer, a person who speculates with the life of the others. He begins giving the young man or girl a dose that, according to the own person, produces a supposed psychological satisfaction. Later he introduces them to other more liberal friendly in its way of acting, who are not worried at all for the future, and therefore, they do not have any goals. It is a world of false amusements and liberties.
“Little by little the young person loses control. The 'good friend' knows this mechanism and to use it in his favor favor. It is necessary to know how to recognize these characters, to close the zero on them, to be implacable with them”.
To live, to only live
To ask oneself some questions one and thousand times is a daily fact in the families of the young addicts. Perhaps the most recurrent appellant of be: how to help my son, my fiancé, my brother…? Many wonder if there is an exit.
Yes there is. Those who are interested can find it in the specialized centers all over the country, where psychologists and psychiatrists go to great pains in the rehabilitation of their patients. Nevertheless, the true cure is nearer to us. It is prevention.
The family, the school and the community are at the moment the main doctors. They are who in the best way can inform the young people, to understand them and share their concerns.
“To live —Jorge says to us finally— drugs are not necessary. It is foolish to think that with some grass, some powder or a pill you’re going to solve your problems. This kills, it destroys you psychologically and physically… It steals time, intelligence and life from you”.
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