Parents,
Teachers and Youth: The differing ethos of Knowledge and Attitudes to
Addiction.
Glimpses
from the Kripa Research Activity - 2008 to 2016.
A Report by
Dr. M. S. Menon,
MBBS, MD. Major, AMC (Retired).
(Medical
Director & Head- Kripa AIDS Initiatives)
The Kripa Foundation
(www.kripafoundation.org) is
recognized as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO), by the
Government of India, Ministry of Science & Technology. The focus of
research is on understanding the nature of addiction, its impact on individuals
and society and developing methodologies to better address the situation and
provide appropriate therapy with benefits that help individuals and community
at large to make life enhancing changes in the long term.
The differing geographical and socio-ethnic considerations in
the country define addiction and its outcomes as a disorder and practice with
huge variability depending on location, population and cultural background,
drug trade and practices, differing therapeutic options and the considerations
of the ‘Law of the Land’. In India the number of drug addicts is increasing day
by day. Changes in lifestyle, along with easy access to media and internet have
among other factors, lowered the age of exposure to drugs and alcohol among
youth. In
fact substance use by young people is on the rise globally, and initiation of
use is occurring at ever-younger ages. India per se also has a huge
at-risk young population with 40% being below the age of 18 years.
According to UN Convention Reports on Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances in 1961, 1971 and 1988, it is estimated that, in India,
by the time most boys reach the ninth grade, about 50% of them have tried at
least one of the gateway drugs. Many young adolescents are also observed coming
in for treatment with drugs getting more potent and newer synthetic and highly
addictive drugs being easily cooked up in home labs. Drug abuse continues to
emerge as a strategy used by youth to cope with multiple problems of
unemployment, abuse, neglect and violence. Be that as it may, there are
socially integrated young people of the industrialized and developing nations
who also indulge in considerable drug abuse. This could be attributed partly to
the fact that a significant portion of the world’s youth population is being
exposed to a more ‘drug use tolerant culture’ and that too at a much younger
age.
Two research efforts were undertaken in the quoted period.
One was directed at understanding the attitudes and family dynamics of parents /
codependents and their drug using children in a singularly closed in semi rural
community in a relatively remote region (the state of Meghalaya) and the other study
was located in the metropolis of Mumbai and was directed at evaluating the
outcomes of a single awareness intervention for teen age students, their parents
and teachers.
In the first study where
parents attitudes to their substance using child / ward was studied, the
criteria for making diagnosis for co-dependent were as follows: 1. Continued
investment of one’s self-esteem in the ability to control one’s self and others
in the face of serious adverse consequences, 2. Assumption of responsibility
for meetings other’s need to the exclusion of one’s own anxiety and boundary
distortion with respect to intimacy and separation, 3. Enmeshment in
relationship with personality distorted, chemically dependent, other
co-dependent, and/impulse-disordered individuals and 4. Three or more of the
following: excessive reliance on denial; constructions of emotions; repression;
hyper vigilance; compulsions; anxiety; substance abuse; stress related medical
illness; being the victim of past and current physical or sexual abuse;
remaining in primary relationship with an active substance abuser for at least
2 years without seeking help.
Family and relatives suffers bio-psycho-social stresses as
a result of living in this environment, which may impact on physical and mental
well-being and lead to the development of problems both for themselves and
other family members. This is a world wide phenomenon. These relatives need
help, both for themselves and for the addict in order to deal constructively
with their substance misusing relation.
In the study, majority of the parents/
guardians responded in the following manner: (a) don’t accept the substance
user child (b) were aware of withdrawal symptoms (c) agree that special help is
needed (d) were willing to help the child.
Parents felt the following would help the
child to overcome addiction: (1) religious teaching and interactions with a
religious teacher (2) professional counseling (3) rehabilitation programme and (4) medical treatment. Parental
suggestions on the best way to help the affected child included-teaching
religious values, ensuring a safe peer group, counseling by the parents and
help from professionals. Overall, a reasonably responsive parent group was
studied, who needed further in-depth understanding of the nature, extent and
manifestations of codependency and more facilitation towards empowerment.
KEY WORDS: parental awareness,
health education, professional counseling, rehabilitation, codependency.
In the second study,
a well known private high school in Mumbai approached Kripa Foundation to
conduct a preventative educative drug awareness session for their students
(Grade 8 to 12, age 14 upwards), their teachers and parents. The session aimed
to (i) increase the awareness of drug addiction and related issues (ii) enable
students to make informed choices and choose healthier lifestyle options by
reducing high-risk behavior and (iii) provide relevant inputs so as to
sensitize parents and teachers to risk and protective factors in addiction, so
that they can respond to relevant concerns in an appropriate manner.
In general, factors that may contribute
to youth experimenting at an early age and that which may influence their usage
patterns include the following: (1) Increasingly independent lifestyles of both
parents and children (2) Increasing substance use related media exposure in children
(3) Declining outdoor physical activities (4) Heightened risk taking, sensation
seeking behavior, easy access to drug (5) Easy accessibility of drug (6) False
Consensus and (7) Adolescents differ from adults in the way they behave, solve
problems, and make decision.
Drug abuse is a persistent public health
problem in modern society, and a disturbing new trend is the increased
recreational use of so-called “designer drugs,” “legal highs,” or “research
chemicals.” These drugs, collectively known as “new psychoactive
substances” (NPS), are synthetic alternatives to traditional illegal drugs of
abuse. There is a tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share
one's own attitudes and behaviors. Recent research by scientists at the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) using magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) has found that the teen-brain is not a finished product, but is a work in
progress. This may help to explain certain teenage behavior that adults can
find mystifying, such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional
outbursts.
Prevention programs are often designed to
enhance “protective factors” and reduce “risk factors”. Protective factors are
those factors that are associated with reducing the potential for drug use, and
risk factors are those factors that increase the likelihood of drug use. One
way to implement prevention strategies in schools is through comprehensive
health education. Effective health education curricula employ practices that
are grounded in research and focus on skill development such as accessing
information (such as telephone help lines, information on how to help oneself
or a friend etc.), advocacy (advocating for your own health and the health of
others), analyzing influences (positive and negative influences of media,
peers, family, self), strengthening coping mechanisms and interpersonal
communication skills (refusal skills, negotiation skills).
In this study, the primary benefit of the
awareness session for both groups was in the perception of alcohol as a drug.
It is interesting to note that both groups, students as well as teachers and
parents showed a post session increase in the percentage of correct responses
to the informative item ‘Alcohol is a
drug’. A related informative item ‘Alcohol causes as much problem as drug
abuse’ also showed a post session increase in the percentage of correct
responses. This study also highlighted the difference in the harm perception
between legal and illegal drugs in the society.
Students were animated in their discussion
about how the youth nowadays prefer marijuana over cigarettes and its
considered more ‘herbal’ or ‘safer’, which could be the result of aggressive
negative promotion of cigarettes, where youth have started substituting it with
other products which are also derived naturally from plants. Another point of
intervention that could be further explored in detail with both sets of
audiences (students as well as teachers and parents) is brought out through the
responses which talks about the relation between Addiction and HIV AIDS. Both
these are coexisting co morbidities driven by high risk behaviors.
KEY WORDS: educative preventative drug awareness, substance abuse,
high risk behaviors.
A focus on the development of the self
and self regulation along with values clarification, communication and
interpersonal skills, decision making and critical thinking would go a long way
in facilitating positive choices among the youth.
In conclusion, it has been observed that
there exists a rapidly growing need for educative sessions focusing on
prevention of drug use and high risk behavior owing to the highly dynamic
lifestyles youth nowadays is exposed to. This approach although limited in its
capacity, gives a good insight on the potential areas of primary intervention.
Acknowledgements on original research work:
To Fr. Joseph H Pereira - Managing Trustee Kripa Foundation
In Shillong: Z. Tsenthunglo Ezung
(Master of Science Candidate); Kripa Shillong Team.
In Mumbai: Krishna Iyer- Development
Manager, Kripa Foundation; Aninha Lobo - Associate Professor and
Head, Department of Psychology, Sophia College for Women
Gratitude to:
Mr. Linus Pinto ,Mr. Mozen Heredia and Team.
Comments
and correspondence may be addressed to Dr M. S. Menon at kripadar@yahoo.co.in
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