Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

Light at the end of the tunnel

Puja S. Navin

There's hope and help available for those in the thrall of drugs

Narender Kumar

HYDERABAD: Curiosity led him to the dangerous labyrinths of drug abuse and before he realised the disease had got the better of his willpower to keep it at bay.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong, but the urge for drugs was more than any willpower I could muster to fight the disease," remembers 46-year-old S.K. Narender Kumar, who got over the addiction.

"The fight to give up was not that easy," recalls Mr. Kumar, who is now a resident counsellor at the Serenity Foundation and Rehabilitation Centre for Alcohol and Substance Abuse in Secunderabad. It was this foundation that he turned to for help.

"I lived with it for quite some time and emotionally I became so bankrupt, that even when my mother died, I could not cry, I had to use a substance to feel normal, so numbed were my feelings," he says.

Family suffers too

And he was not alone. "My wife and my children have suffered with me, living in constant fear and suspicion. Every treatment was a guessing game for them, they wondered: "Will he be able to make it this time?"

And the disease has taken a toll on his family.

It's not been easy to score a victory over this chronic, relapse-prone disease.

"There is no such thing as complete recovery. It is not that they don't get a thought of drink, or urge to abuse a substance, but the treatment process equips them to arrest that thought and channelise it into appropriate activities," says the foundation Managing Trustee, Chetan Vaidya.

His advise for those who are curious and think they can control the disease through willpower:

"Keep away from the first drink or drug." And to the suffering: "Ask for help."

"I had reached a stage where I couldn't help myself, hence listening to well wishers helped me," he says. Serenity Foundation can be reached on 2774 1385, 2774 1386 and 98496 44464 or www.serenityindia.com.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

RTC strike: who has gained?
Custard apples flood city
Andhra Bank MoU for finance to ryots
Light at the end of the tunnel
State allots 100 acres of land for Wipro
State to buy lands for losers under Polavaram canals
Explosion handiwork of fundamentalists: DGP
YSR calls for stringent enforcement of tax rules
KCR, Santosh Reddy busy in their own camps
National medical conference in city from today
Arguments on petition over Pothireddypadu adjourned
DGP criticises Dinesh Reddy's action
Probe sought into FFW works
Chennai flight lands at Tirupati
A hearty gesture from employees
Orientation course for lecturers
Body of `bomber' to be preserved for 3 more days
Around the City
In Hyderabad Today
Crime Watch

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu