Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
This book isn’t exactly drug-related, but it involves a spiritual journey. Getting out of drugs has a lot to do with your frame of mind and the ability to become connected to something higher than yourself. Eventually, the young boy in this book chooses his own destiny, which is a key tenet of overcoming addiction.
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho.
This book isn’t exactly drug-related, but it involves a spiritual journey. Getting out of drugs has a lot to do with your frame of mind and the ability to become connected to something higher than yourself. Eventually the young boy in this book chooses his own destiny, which is a key tenet of overcoming addiction. He starts to learn that everyone has a purpose and you have to tune in to find it. A lot of people become afraid of listening to their heart and doing the wrong thing. When that happens you start living a mundane life and falling short of your potential. As you gain courage and believe in yourself you get energy from those around you.
The Alchemist points out that the key to solving most problems is love. The rehab centre in Mumbai was all about love – how to love yourself, your family and your life. A lot of rehabs get it wrong because they are very punitive. The focus is on discipline and drawing boundaries and cutting things off. The problem is that addicts don’t end up gaining a strength when they leave. They might get away from their addiction for a while but that’s not enough. The addicts might leave feeling hollow and alienated and without the strength to go on. Most rehabs use a punitive approach to heroin, which is why the recovery rate is so low. It’s around 10 per cent globally. Heroin addicts are never considered ‘recovered’ addicts – they are always ‘recovering’, because the moment there is a slip-up it’s back down the black hole. The rehab centre in Mumbai has an 80 per cent recovery rate, which is obviously higher than most others.
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Social psychologist Shazia Omar is the author of Like a Diamond in the Sky, a novel about Bangladeshi addicts. Omar is a founding member of Writers Block, an organisation that aims to promote the works of Bangladeshis writing in English. Drug addiction, she says, is a growing problem here. Many people are taking a drug called yabba, which comes from Thailand and is similar to speed. ‘It’s an expensive drug so it’s the well-off young people who are doing it. A lot of those I met while researching the book didn’t realise they were going to get hooked. None of them knew how harmful it is,’ she says. Having spent a month doing research in a rehab centre in Mumbai, she concludes that love, and not a punitive approach, is the answer to overcoming addiction.
