Understanding Addiction:

A problem for mankind that only lets 30% of people escape. We know it by the name of addiction. Someone in our family or friends is going through the problem of addiction.

In my case, it was I who got into addiction. It started slowly as fun with friends and then took a monstrous form. Over eight years, I began to isolate myself from everyone, and my thoughts became negative. I started to wonder if I could ever get out of it, and if there was anything I could do to stop it. I shared my problem with my parents, and they understood what I needed and took me to a psychiatrist for help. But it didn’t help much. I started taking my prescribed medicines and drugs at the same time. My condition was worsening with every passing day. My physical and mental health were degrading very fast, and it was out of my control. A psychiatrist suggested a de-addiction center in Ghaziabad Nashamukti Kendra in Ghaziabad to give me a break from the cycle I was stuck in.

Admission into a rehabilitation center:

I connected with the center staff for an appointment. On the day of the appointment, they first gave my parents a family counselling session to explain to them about the treatment process and the period of treatment. There are different programs according to periods from 3 to 6 to 9 months, which depend on the physical and mental growth of patients. You can contact the staff at Gateway Wellness to recovery for further information. After family counselling and documentation, they took my blood sample for a lab test and admitted me into detox.

Gateway Wellness Detox process

The detox program is specially designed for new patients, in which they have to stay for 11 to 15 days to get their physical system clean. When a patient is in detox, they are under the care of the staff assigned. They are given medications for weakness, withdrawals, and good sleep in the early days. In this period, when patient start to get physically better, they also start to express their emotions, which were suppressed during addiction. They are given the support they need, either emotional or physical, from the counsellor and fellow members, which is very important in creating a sense of deep bonding. Every addict is deprived of love and care. Patients soon start to develop healthy eating habits and self-love.

Rehabilitation Environment and Support:

Inside a rehabilitation center Nashamukti Kendra, it is a new world. All the patients live here like one big family under the guidance of a counsellor. Every addict goes through almost the same situations, because of this, they can understand each other a better way. They help newcomers adjust to the new atmosphere. In the early days, sometimes patients had a negative mindset about this treatment, which happened to me as well. I also had doubts about whether I should be here or not, this will work out for me or not. But our counsellor guided me and told me that it is natural to think this way because whenever things start to get us out of our comfort zone. Our mind repels it with thoughts. Then I made up my mind to get better and give this treatment a chance to let it work. After fifteen days, I got a visit from a psychiatrist to analyze my mental condition and, if needed, give medication as well. Then I came out of detox and started taking part in all the daily activities scheduled for patients.

Managing life with a daily schedule:

The daily schedule is designed in such a way that it not only helps to maintain discipline. It also teaches us about positive thoughts and a way of living a healthy life. In the morning, we start our day with prayer, which in the long term plays a vital role in our serenity and path to sobriety. Before coming here, I was never punctual and always procrastinated. But now I started getting up early, doing yoga in the morning, bathing every day, and having a proper breakfast. After breakfast, there are classes designed particularly to help addicts work on their mental well-being. Day by day learning about ourselves more elaborately. In these classes, we got to learn from the experience of our senior members and counsellor. Addiction is not only a problem but a non-curable disease like diabetes. It is a psychological disease. Which can be managed by understanding it correctly. There are three parts to this disease:

• Mental obsession
• Physical attraction
• Spiritual bankruptcy

By understanding these parts of our disease, we can live a better life, one day at a time.

The counsellor teaches us about various tools which we can use in different situations and aspects of life to manage our addiction. Sharing my inner thoughts in one-to-one conversations and open sharing sessions helped a lot to unburden myself and open my mind for positive incoming.

At 1:00 pm, we had our lunch and then went for rest till 4:00 pm. In the evening, we had a mood-making or sharing session according to what day it was. Which helped me to improve my communication and social skills. After that, we had our games session followed by a meditation session to strengthen our bond with spirituality. Then we had our dinner and went to bed to watch television till 10:00 pm. This schedule was new for me, but every person in the world has their own organized life, just because of a particular schedule. It helps us to balance different areas of life, like work, family, and social life. After getting comfortable in this routine, our counsellor started teaching us about the twelve-step program.

Twelve-step program:

This is a mandatory part of the path to recovery. These steps must be understood properly and used in our lives to become responsible citizens.

In words, the twelve steps are as follows:

• We admitted we were powerless over addiction- that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• Decided to turn our will and our lives over to the care of god as we understood him.
• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
• Admitted to god, to ourselves, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
• We were entirely ready to have god remove all these defects of character.
• Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
• Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
• Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
• Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with god as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
• Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

After going through these steps, I can share my experience that this program can show you the path to recovery, but you have to walk on it. This will help you in every part of your life to be a better person for yourself, your family, and to become a responsible citizen of society. You have to let it work on you. One person cannot do it alone, but together we can. Just remember “One Day at a Time”.