Parents look to rehab centers to get kids off drug habit

Parents look to rehab centers to get kids off drug habit

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): Some teenagers choose to snort off nagging
mental agitation by "chasing the dragon", the drug user's
euphemistic term for imbibing heroin through a straw put up the
nostrils or having it diluted, heated and then injected into the
bloodstream.

Jetting drug-addicted children between countries and wheeling
them from one rehab center to another for years in search of a
cure is done through necessity by many parents, according to
Nuryani Yahya, a founder of the first therapeutic community
center in Sawangan, Bogor, West Java.

Nuryani was a speaker at a seminar on drug abuse here
organized by the foundation running the center, Yayasan Titihan
Respati, last month. Several parents shared their experiences.

Some had succeeded in weaning their kids off drugs, but the
reprieve was short-lived.

"What parents are most confused about is how to get children
already off drugs to stay off them," Nuryani said.

"Maintaining their abstinence, other than the struggle to get
them off drugs, is a major concern of parents today."

According to Malaysian drug counselor Fadilan, a therapeutic
center makes the "drug abuser realize his or her worth as a human
being" without the crutch of artificial substances.

Like well-known religion-oriented rehabilitation centers such
as Suryalaya, Tasikmalaya in West Java, a therapeutic community
center also features spirituality but has professionals working
with the residents. Counselors include former drug addicts.

Fadilan, a former drug user who has succeeded in staying
clean for nine years, told of his experiences with drugs and the
aid of a center.

A drug user since 16, Fadilan said that there was nothing
about "taking them (drugs) that was innate... it is a learned
behavior, just like smoking and drinking.

"I started off with smoking cigarettes... I graduated to pot
and then putauw (heroin). (I) went to jail four times... 10
years later I entered a TC center in Singapore. It changed my
life."

The shock of finding your child is hooked on drugs is
compounded when you are in the public eye.

A speaker representing parents, said it was her first public
admission that her child used drugs. After addressing the
audience at length she rushed out of the room, evading the press.

Her 18-year-old is currently undergoing rehabilitation at a
center in Malaysia. Above all, she said, parents should not keep
blaming themselves, but concentrate on being loving but firm with
the child.

Among its other benefits, she said a treatment center was
about counselors helping children foster positive changes.

"TC is about a group of individuals with similar problems
helping each other overcome life-threatening habits ... it is
about ex-drug users trying to awaken the sense of belonging in
people who have lost sense of self-worth and who use drugs to
regain that sense back," said the woman, who is also a public
figure.

Bogor center Yayasan Titihan Respati, built on 3.5 hectares
and housing currently five primary employees including
psychologist Joy Mangowal Ramedhan, was founded earlier this
year. Currently it has 12 residents undergoing rehabilitation.

Nuryani said that parents lent a hand in the founding of the
center, coming up with about Rp 60 million.

Malaysian expert Syarif Hamid explained some of the primary
reasons children resorted to drugs.

"The world is becoming more mobile and transient... the
increase in single parenting, both parents working, parents'
hectic lifestyles and fewer extended families."

The 20-year-old expert added that broken families, next to
biochemical dysfunctions and inborn vulnerability, was also a
main cause.

"Children take narcotics up as a source of reference because
values become abstract to them... they see parents fighting,
some getting divorced, friends taking up drinking and smoking pot
and they want to fit in... there could be a number of reasons."

Syarif listed warning signals of drug abuse.

"Defying norms and rules, lying constantly, rebellious in
nature and unpleasant in presence of adults, relates to
particular dressing, code of conduct and an inclination toward
thrilling music," Syarif said.

"Try not confronting them directly about it... that is
equivalent to pointing an accusatory finger at them. It would
make them withdraw from you."

He explained that there would come a point when the truth
would become glaringly evident.

"Every parent with a child using drugs will know this...
children start asking money from parents, they get lost for a
couple of days or weeks... children resort to stealing, from
cell phones to jewelry," Syarif said.

He told of a more discreet way for parents to find out the
truth.

"When your child gets lost too often, start snooping around
his or her room. Do not have that mindset that my child is taking
drugs... just do your own snooping around.

"You might find tin foil here, a needle there... the point is
when you do so, try to break it as gently as possible to your
child that even though you know, you are not the enemy and you
want to help."

Normal

Syarif explained that most parents made the mistake of dealing
with experienced drug users as people who were trying to overcome
emotional instability.

"For them (experienced drug users), it is about two things:
pain and pleasure," he said.

"It is no more about getting high, but about getting
normal ... stabilized."

He said heroin taken in its purest content could cloud senses
for more than four hours.

"The problem is dealers want fast money, more profit," Syarif
told The Jakarta Post.

"So they sell adulterated goods... either diluted or
metabolized. A person could therefore take in up to 20 milligrams
to 50 milligrams a day."

Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Psychiatrists Dadang
Hawari queried the oft-cited low official figures on drug abuse
in the country.

"The official figure nationwide is 0.065 percent of the total
population (some 200 million)," said the psychiatrist with 28
years' experience.

"The unofficial figure? 10 times that."

A 1990 nationwide study conducted by the psychiatrist
nationwide children aged from 13 to 17 years found that 97
percent consumed narcotics, alcohol and other addictive
substances, clumped under the term NAZA.

Eighty-eight percent took them up to overcome stress,
depression, fear and insomnia in contrast to 36 percent who used
the substances for pleasure.

"According to the study, NAZA is 88 percent alcohol use, 44
percent hypnotic-sedative-use, and 30.7 percent heroin," Dadang
said.

Their effects can be disastrous.

"They contribute to 65.3 percent of fights and other violent
acts and 58.7 percent of traffic accidents."

For more information on the therapeutic center and on
providing financial and other contributions, contact Yayasan
Titihan Respati at Tel. 230-5342 or its address of Jl. Surabaya
No 38, Central Jakarta.

The contact number of its center, located at Curug village,
Sawangan regency, Bogor, is (0251) 618-044/45.