KABUL (Pajhwok): Zakaria, 32, who rehabilitated after 10 years of addiction, says everyone thinks addiction is a one-way street, but it is not, if an addict makes a firm decision, he can quit even without being hospitalized.
According to a 2017 survey, nearly 3.50 million people are addicted to drugs in the country and they include 85,000 women and children.
Zakaria Hussaini, a native of Bamyan Province, who consumed drugs for more than 10 years, lost all his possessions along the way.
Currently, he lives with his wife, parents, a sister and brothers in 13th district of Kabul and has two daughters and sons.
How did Zakaria become addicted?
Zakaria told Pajhwok Afghan News he started using drugs 10 years ago, but quitted the habit three months ago and rehabilitated and returned to normal life.
When asked why he turned to drugs, he explained he loved a girl but because his family forced him to marry his cousin, he became hophead.
“I was in love with a girl, but I wasn’t destined for her. I was in a relationship with her from childhood. We grew up together for almost ten years. We also had family visits. After her wedding, our love failed, and falling in love eventually led me to become habituated”: Zakaria added.
According to him, he spent nights with his friends and used hashish and opium to calm him down in order to forget the grief of losing that girl.
At the beginning of his addiction, he used hashish, then opium, and finally crystal and heroin, Zakaria explained.
Zakaria’s definition of addiction period
He called the addiction era ‘darkest’ and ‘most bitter period’ of his life and said: “During my addiction, I was very disappointed. My family and friends had turned away from me. No one even wanted to talk to me. I saw many bad days”.
“Initially, when a person becomes addicted, they don’t understand it properly because they don’t have much familiarity with drugs and they always tell themselves it’s pleasant and think I’ll do it today, but not tomorrow, another day I’ll left, but in this way, a person plays around until one day, when you look up, five or ten years have passed. But in the end, the drugs themselves do it to you”.
He explained: “When I turned to addiction, I lost a lot of things. I had set up a Simian factory costing one million afghanis. I spent that in the last two or three and a half years. In other words, it was all wasted”.
How Zakaria left addiction?
“When my addiction progressed, I felt very lonely, I didn’t go to ethnic gatherings, guests came to our house, I didn’t go to the guests, I always went to an empty room… In the end, there was no way out, my mother kept telling me to take medicine, one day I went and bed myself in Jangalak Hospital for 45 days and it’s been almost three months since I got better”.
According to him, during his time in hospital, he struggled with many problems until he quit his addiction because for a month, he decided every day to use drugs again.
To prevent his habituation to drug, Zakaria goes to hospital once a week for advice from his doctors.
Currently, he works in a bakery and supports his family.
Addiction is not one-way street, there is a way back: Zakaria
Everyone thinks habituation to drug is a one-way street, but it is not, because he was able to quit addiction and return to his normal life, he added.
He told other addicts, anyone who wants to quit addiction should make their own decision and can succeed without being hospitalized.
“Drug addicts think addiction is a one-way street, that there is no way back; because he doesn’t have time to get drunk, but when he decides to quit, he gets another feeling that he can quit”.
He considers the ways to quit addiction to be praying five times a day and asking for help from Allah Almighty. He explained nothing is impossible, whatever a person decides to do, it can be done.
God gave us our son again: Zakaria’s mother
Ziagul, Zakaria’s mother, sitting next to her son, said she spent many difficult days with her habituated son and it was a bitter fact for her that her son was an addict.
“We locked him up at home, cut off money, no matter what we did, he reached drugs. This year, we all told him don’t do it, your life will be ruined”.
She is happy her son has quit addiction and added: “Thank God, he is doing well, my daughter-in-law’s life is also good. She was very bored, her children were suffering a lot. God gave us our son again”.
But it’s not just Zakaria who has defeated addiction, but 30-year-old Gul Marjan is another addict who is currently fighting to quit.
Already under treatment at the 450-bed Jangalak Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, he explained he has spent ten years of his life using drugs.
Regarding how he became addicted, said he immigrated to Turkey ten years ago, where he became habituated to drugs because it was difficult for him to be away from his homeland and family.
“First I started with alcohol and ended up using crystal and “K” tablets. I spent 500afs daily and two or three hundreds liras in Turkey… I was deported from Turkey because of addiction”.
According to Gul Marjan, 35 days have passed since his treatment and his condition has improved compared to the past and he wishes to be reunited with his family.
Doctor: Any addict can quit addiction with a firm decision
Also, Kifayatullah Jamshidi, a doctor at Jangalak Drug Addiction Treatment Hospital, said addiction is not eternal, but any person can quit addiction with a firm decision.
“The treatment period is 45 days. The first 14 days are detoxification phase. The patient is monitored socially and psychologically, but after 45 days, he is called to the hospital every month for treatment for a year”.
Currently 350 addicts are undergoing treatment at this hospital, Jamshidi said.
Tens of thousands addicts treated in past 3 years.
Based on surveys, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health Dr. Sharafat Zaman said there are 305 million addicts, including women, in the country, and nearly 75,000 of them have been treated since the Islamic Emirate takeover.
About 30,000 addicts are undergoing treatment in 66 active health centers across the country.
hz/ma
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