Stigma hinders recovery for former drug addicts

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

A skinny teenager with hollow eyes was trying to hide his pain when Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi visited him in the drug rehabilitation ward at the Dr. Marzoeki Mahdi Hospital in Bogor last Sunday.

"I wish my addict friends could get treatment here too. There are still lots out there who need help, Sir," he said, lying in bed with an intravenous drip in his arm.

He was going through the detoxification process to rid his body of the putaw (low-grade heroin) he had used for six years.

For a week he went through drug withdrawal, with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, insomnia, anxiety, spasms and physical weakness.

"The withdrawal symptoms vary. They depend on the kinds of drugs the patient has used. But the recovery stage is the most critical period for patients after the withdrawal stage, because they tend to crave drugs," the director of the hospital, Amir Hussein Anwar, told The Jakarta Post.

The hospital, previously known as the Bogor Mental Hospital, has treated 245 drug addicts, including a 40-year-old mother and her nine-year-old daughter.

Amir urged the public and families not to discriminate against, stigmatize or neglect drug users, because that would prevent them from dealing with their problem.

"Most drug users, especially injecting drug users, are not well-informed about hepatitis C, HIV or the mental illnesses that they are susceptible to," he said during a commemoration of the 120th anniversary of the hospital.

Amir said 80 percent of drug addicts were vulnerable to hepatitis C. He added that most of these could also have what was called a "dual diagnosis" -- suffering from some form of mental illness.

"Patients who abuse amphetamines are usually paranoid and have hallucinations. But some 40 percent of the dual diagnosis patients here can recover," he said.

Amir said his hospital aimed to raise awareness about the barriers to mental health care, and also to provide solutions to mental disorders by removing the myths and stigmas linked to such disorders.

He said that during the recovery process, patients needed encouragement from their peers and families to return to the outside world.

Rudolf Valentino, a peer counselor at the hospital, said it was important for the community to provide after-care support to keep recovering addicts from becoming isolated and secluded.

"We are not throwaway people like public has said. We can also achieve things, just like anybody else. Especially after we have recovered," Rudolf, a former addict, said.