Abu Dhabi: Parents should watch out for early signs of drug abuse in their children as it may begin as a form of curiosity in children and go on to become a habit, the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) said on Monday.
Dr Ali Al Marzouqi, Director of the Public Health and Research Department at NRC, warned parents about the gravity of substance abuse adding that parents often think it unlikely to happen within their own family and are often surprised to discover that their child is an addict.
“The NRC has dealt with many cases [wherein] parents were shocked to know that their children were using drugs,” he said.
“Drug abuse may begin as a curiosity for some people who start with small quantities. The doses gradually increase until [the individuals] reach the stage of addiction, at which point the patient faces the negative effects of drug withdrawal when they try to stop and end up committing crimes to get more drugs to feed the addiction,” said Dr. Al Marzouqi.
He urged the community to treat drug addicts as ‘patients’ and not to stigmatise them. “Drug addicts need the support of the whole community and their families to address the situation they have reached… to enable them to resume their normal life,” he said.
He pointed out that some cases of drug addiction, especially among adolescents, are a result of social, financial, family or educational pressures.
“In these cases, the patient thinks they can resolve these problems by resorting to drugs, only to fall victim to an even bigger problem,” said Dr. Al Marzouqi.
He attributed the start of the habit to keeping bad company. “Unfortunately, the reality is that bad friends encourage [people] to resort to drugs. People who are unable to tolerate tough circumstances, or face life’s difficulties under peer pressure, are more vulnerable to drug abuse,” he said.
It is sad to see that some families do not face up to the fact that their children are drug addicts, for fear of being stigmatised, he said.
“[The families] mistakenly believe that the problem is simple and can be solved within the family, without taking their children to be treated by specialists,” he said.
At other times, parents sometimes lose faith in their addicted child and kick them out of the house. “Parents must view their drug-addicted child as a patient who needs sympathy - they must help them seek treatment and also take part in the therapeutic process,” Dr Al Marzouqi said.
The NRC concluded an agreement with Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council (ADTC) aiming to find suitable jobs for the centre’s patients, while providing financial support for them and their families, as part of the center’s societal role.
Dr Al Marzouqi praised the Khalifa Student Empowerment Programme’s Aqdar (meaning ‘I can’) initiative, aimed at raising awareness about drug risks. “Prevention is better than treatment,” he said.
He also called for awareness and outreach campaigns across social networks to intensify messages that resonate with the way the young generation thinks.
The NRC has created a strategy focused on raising awareness for prevention, he said. “As part of this initiative, several measures were launched this year to prevent young people from falling into the clutches of drugs, including the Fawasel Programme,” he said.
“This five-month initiative was implemented for the second year at private schools with the aim of empowering youngsters to deal with the influence of bad friends. The programme also trained teachers and parents to communicate with the adolescent child in a simple way,” said Al Marzouqi.
A series of awareness lectures were launched in cooperation with the Family Development Foundation, geared towards parents through their community centres in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. A campaign targeting 70 schools in the emirate was launched in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) to raise awareness of the early signs of addiction.
