Nasha mukti kendra for families from Abohar.

Orchard work does not keep office hours

Abohar is kinnow country, and that is not a decorative fact. It sets how the year runs for a very large number of families here, and it shapes the thing this page is about.

Orchard and farm work is seasonal and it is often done away from the house. A young man goes out with a group for weeks at a stretch, especially around picking and loading, and he comes back with money in hand. Both halves of that matter. He is unwatched for long stretches, and then he is holding cash.

Families describe the same shape again and again. Nothing looked wrong during the season because he was not there to look wrong. The trouble became visible in the quiet months, when he was at home all day with nothing to do and no money left, and the temper and the sleep and the borrowing started.

If you are reading this in the off season because something has finally become obvious, that is the usual time for a family to ring. It is not late.

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ

ਅਬੋਹਰ ਤੋਂ ਕਾਫ਼ੀ ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ਸਾਡੇ ਕੋਲ ਆਉਂਦੇ ਨੇ। ਆਸਰਾ ਦਾ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਨਾਲ ਦੇ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹੇ ਵਿੱਚ, ਸ੍ਰੀ ਮੁਕਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਿਖੇ ਹੈ। ਸਰਕਾਰ ਤੋਂ ਮਨਜ਼ੂਰਸ਼ੁਦਾ, ਆਪਣਾ ਮਨੋਰੋਗ ਡਾਕਟਰ, 50 ਬੈੱਡ, ਤੇ ਸਟਾਫ਼ ਚੌਵੀ ਘੰਟੇ। ਦਾਖ਼ਲਾ ਰਾਤ ਨੂੰ ਵੀ ਹੋ ਸਕਦਾ ਹੈ। ਪਹਿਲਾਂ ਆ ਕੇ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਦੇਖ ਲਵੋ, ਫਿਰ ਫ਼ੈਸਲਾ ਕਰੋ। ਫ਼ੋਨ +91 83601 40700।

हिंदी में

अबोहर से काफ़ी परिवार हमारे पास आते हैं। आसरा का केंद्र साथ वाले ज़िले में, श्री मुक्तसर साहिब में है। सरकार से मंज़ूरशुदा, अपना मनोरोग डॉक्टर, 50 बेड, और स्टाफ़ चौबीस घंटे। दाख़िला रात में भी हो सकता है। पहले आकर केंद्र देख लीजिए, फिर फ़ैसला कीजिए। फ़ोन +91 83601 40700।

Which areas families come from

Abohar town, Khuian Sarwar and the villages and farms spread around them. Families ring from places we have to look up on the map, and that is perfectly all right.

On the Malout side there is a page for Malout, and the centre nearest to Abohar is described in full on the page for Sri Muktsar Sahib.

A big town that is not the district headquarters

Abohar is one of the larger towns in this part of Punjab, but the district headquarters is at Fazilka. Families here are used to the gap between the two. Anything official tends to mean a trip, and a trip means a day gone and a question from somebody about where you were.

It is worth saying that an admission with us needs none of that. There is no appointment, no referral and no district paperwork to arrange first. You ring, you describe the situation, and if it suits you he can be admitted the same day. You can also come and look at the centre first, with him or without him, before you decide anything at all.

The Rajasthan line is right there

Abohar sits close to the Rajasthan boundary, and Sri Ganganagar district is on the other side of it. For families here that has one consequence worth knowing.

Doda and post were never treated as a drug across that line, and for years they were sold through licensed outlets in Rajasthan. Those outlets closed in 2016. The supply stopped, the dependence did not, and men who had been on a measured quota for years had to find it somewhere else. Some of what circulates on this side has that history behind it. There is more about that on the Sri Ganganagar page.

Admission with us does not depend on which state your address proof is from.

What families here bring him in for

• Chitta and heroin. The largest number, mostly younger men, and the one families discover last because it hides the longest. How chitta is treated.
• Doda and post. Older men more often than young, and ordinary enough here that nobody counts it as a drug until the body starts giving way. How doda is treated.
• Medical store tablets. Started for pain or for sleep and carried on long after the reason went away. How that is treated.
• Alcohol. The one families try hardest to handle themselves, and the one where stopping suddenly at home can cause fits and can kill. How alcohol is treated.

Why a few weeks is never enough

What we hear from this side on the phone is nearly always the same. He was admitted somewhere, kept a few weeks, came home, and was back on it inside a month.

That happens for one reason. Only the body was treated.

Behind the drug there is very often something else. Depression, anxiety, sleep that stopped years ago, or something that happened once and was never spoken about again. If nobody treats that, he walks out clean and comes back to exactly the mind he left with. Aasra has its own consultant psychiatrist on staff, Dr. Amanullah Ghori, M.B.B.S., DPM, not a doctor who visits twice a week. Most drug rehabilitation centres in this belt do not have one at all.

There is a second reason that applies particularly here. If he goes home after three weeks and the next season has not started, he has nothing to do all day in the same town with the same people. Four months buys enough time for that to stop being the whole danger.

Our programme runs about four months, residential throughout.

• Medical detox first, under supervision, because the first week is the dangerous one. What detox involves.
• Counselling, daily, individual and in groups.
• Rehabilitation, the part most places skip. Routine, yoga, gym, sports, and enough time for the habit to lose its grip. The full programme.

The government route

If money is the problem, look at the government side first. Fazilka district runs de-addiction treatment through its civil hospitals and district health services, and Punjab's OOAT programme provides outpatient opioid treatment at low or no cost. What is available and what it costs changes from time to time, so confirm the current position directly with the civil hospital or the district health office rather than trusting anything you read online, including this page.

We are not going to talk you out of a free option you can actually reach. Families come to us when that route has been tried and has not held, or when they want him somewhere else for a few months rather than at home.

Bringing someone who does not want to come

Almost nobody arrives here willingly. If he is refusing, that is not a reason to wait, it is the usual starting point.

Ring and tell us the whole situation, including the parts that are hard to say on the phone. We have handled this a few hundred times and we will tell you what has worked for families in the same position. Never plan it alone at the last minute, and never make a promise you cannot keep, because it costs you his trust for months afterwards.

Confidentiality

No name and no photograph leaves the centre without written permission from the family. The men in our video testimonials chose to speak. Most families do not, and that is completely normal. Nobody in Abohar hears anything from us.