Abdullah: I came back to life thanks to the NRC

The beginning:

Abdullah, 47, who recovered from heroin addiction, says:” my addiction started during a trip to Bangkok when I was 22. I had a strong tendency and curiosity about trying out the effect of drugs without knowing their perilous consequences and this is exactly what I have done. When I traveled back home my journey with multi-substance and drug use began, the last of which was heroin. This carried on for 23 continuous years”.

Temporary joy:

With a sense of regret Abdullah continues: “earlier on in my journey with using drugs I used to control myself and the doses of drugs I take and deceive myself that I can cease using any time I wish. This carried on until the phase addicts refer to as the “joyful phase” passed and I entered in the “decline and pain” phase followed by severe addiction and being unable to keep away from a substance. Money was not an obstacle from getting hold of drugs”.

The vital decision:

“He was like his fellow patients who have been addicted to drugs for long years. He has no hope of ceasing using and escapes this spiral. He carried on using and ended up in jail several times. His family then forced him to enter a treatment centre but the treatment attempts failed to cure him. He relapses and went back to his habit. Abdullah was marked by the fact that addiction treatment centres and clinics are only concerned with the detoxification of body through inhibiting drugs from reaching him for several months then he is released. This method is not only wrong but perilous. Most patients will relapse as soon as they are freed and they go back to using once again”.

The treatment journey:

Abdullah continues his story by saying that ‘he was transferred to the National Rehabilitation Centre where he was warmly a respectfully welcomed. He was told by specialists that his illness requires treatment. He was told that he was neither a criminal nor devious from a behavioural standpoint as he was made to believe by others. After a period of treatment he began to sense a relief from stress and a started to believe that he can give up using for good. Abdullah has been for the last three and half years a fully recovered person and continues to follow treatment programmes which help him maintain his recovery”.

Prevention:

Abdullah expressed his views regarding the necessity to develop addiction rehabilitation centres throughout the country and take the NRC in Abu Dhabi as a modal. This he said will help addiction patients to recover and continue to reintegrate once more in social life; in addition to correcting misconceptions about the nature of addiction disease be it amongst families, treatment centres or correctional facilities as the current inappropriate methods used to deal with recovering addicts fail to encourage them. In the contrary, the have counter effect which make individuals carry on using and try to cheat their way through the conventional treatment methods.