Pandemic blues pushing drug abuse to the next level
The pandemic obviously ushered in stress, loneliness and economic upheaval for many during the past one year.
But what effects of the Corona Virus did loom large upon our lives?
The lockdowns? The economic downturns? Paralysed social movements? Or the depression that resulted from sudden isolation, fear, insecurity, and the loss of loved ones?
The biggest impact we can presume is of the isolation and social exclusion that pushed many into depression. That’s not all. The most vulnerable, for example the addicts of substance abuse have been left in the lurch due to non-availability of substances, the situation which drove them to resort to any random mood-altering drug that gives them high.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that overdose deaths and drug related deaths spiked by 20% as compared to last year.
There have been arguments suggesting that substance abuse had affected more people than Covid -19 during the past one year. This may feel insignificant at the moment but could become a growing trend with continued implications of the lockdowns and stress resulting in economic setbacks for the nations. The historic drug epidemic turned even more deadlier by dangerous drugs usage leading to incapacitated youth, many of whom have died and others simply relapsed.
Exposing our incompetence to deal with environmental hazards yet again, the global pandemic resulted in increased substance abuse across the world because of insecurity, loneliness and boredom. It also left most of the addicts entangled in drug trafficking and related crime offences in a bid to procure money for usage. The consequences of global recession in 2008 already illustrated many such cases where addicts were pushed into tight corners as fish out of water with non-availability of drugs and got succumbed to their own addictions by abusing cheaper street drugs made out of synthetic substances.
According to an Economic Times report, the white-collar industry too is hit by substance abuse disorders. Blame it on job related stress during WFH and personal stress at home, corporate heath services providers have handled a larger number of cases since the pandemic hit. They are reported to have registered a 50% increase in cases during 2020 over last year. Some people who successfully battled addiction also seemed to have fallen prey to relapse amid WFH tensions during this time.
Adding insult to injury, the risks and consequences of drug use have reportedly worsened in one most important group. i.e., the adolescents, the future citizens who need to run the show. Substance abuse among the adolescents has become a thorn in the flesh for every nation alike in the recent past. With deepening pandemic crisis, the drug and alcohol addicts in teenagers started increasingly resorting to administering unsafe street drugs to satisfy their cravings. The consequence of which has been significant rise in the emergency room visits and fatalities thereof. The substance-seeking behaviours in adolescents was expected to spur during the pandemic, but a report suggested alarming outcomes of Covid restrictors that ”Adolescents, in an attempt to obtain substances, or in an attempt to cut costs, may do so by unauthorised means, exposing themselves to spurious or low-quality substances, causing adverse effects on health, as witnessed in the unfortunate deaths due to methanol consumption in Iran, increased consumption of locally brewed alcohol and poisoning in Bihar, and cases of drinking alcohol-containing hand sanitiser during initial phases of the strict alcohol ban in India.”
According to the national survey, magnitude of substance use in India, 2019, the prevalence of use among adolescents is 1.8% for opioids, 1.3% for alcohol, 1.17% for volatile solvents, and 0.9% for cannabis.2 Substance use in this population comes with its unique complications like poorer prognosis, adverse impacts on physical, psychological, and socio-occupational functioning, and other risky behaviours, warranting a need for special attention in terms of prevention, recognition, and management.
Now, these are disturbing number of addictions, facts and plights to go through. Aren’t they? But in fact, there is certainly hope despite the situation. Though addiction is a progressive disease, it is not necessary to succumb to this blood sucking monster. Instead, the social exclusion and isolation can might as well be treated as an opportunity to achieve sobriety.
It could feel as the hardest deed for each of us to concentrate at the moment, but it is also quintessential to fight the war at hand by re-thinking addiction, re-discovering ourselves, re-building life and saying ‘No’ to the life wreckers. Each crisis is thrown upon us to help us re-evolve and reach that light at the end of the tunnel. So why not contact a rehab immediately to get rid of addiction and find that long awaited solace in life.
Phoenix Rehab Services is a leading Rehabilitation Centre in India for Substance Abuse and Behavioural Addiction. At Phoenix, we can help provide the right tools to you or your loved ones on the journey to lead a healthy life free from addiction. Our reliable & effective Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Program is headed and supported by experienced & dedicated de-addiction therapists and is driven by motivated staff that is equipped to handle the various needs of patients and has years of experience in treating addiction.
Our top inpatient de-addiction program in the world, expert team handling this program, our state-of-the-art facility located in Hyderabad, India and our multi-disciplinary and medically guided holistic approach to individual patient scenarios will help you heal from your physical, psychological, emotional, social and spiritual ailments towards total Recovery.
Our Integrated Drug & Alcohol Addiction Recovery Program is a 12 Step Program approved by the World Health Organization. We are proud to mention that we enabled hundreds of successful recoveries from around the globe. In fact, the very first in-patient in our rehab happened to be from overseas.
