Nasha mukti kendra for families from Jagraon.

The months spent waiting for a visa

Families from this side describe a pattern that people in other parts of Punjab rarely mention. He finished school or college, the plan was abroad, and then there was a wait. A test to pass, a file to process, a refusal, another attempt.

Those months are dangerous in a particular way. He has no job because he is supposed to be leaving. He has no routine because there is nothing to get up for. He often has money, because the family is saving for his ticket or someone abroad is helping. And his friends are in exactly the same position.

A refusal letter is a common turning point. Families tell us the habit was small before it and large after it.

If that is the story in your house, it is worth knowing that it is a very ordinary one here, and that treating it now is far easier than treating it after he has gone.

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ

ਜਗਰਾਉਂ ਤੋਂ ਕਾਫ਼ੀ ਪਰਿਵਾਰ ਸਾਡੇ ਕੋਲ ਆਉਂਦੇ ਨੇ। ਆਸਰਾ ਦਾ ਮੁੱਖ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਨਾਲ ਦੇ ਜ਼ਿਲ੍ਹੇ, ਡਰੋਲੀ ਭਾਈ, ਮੋਗਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਹੈ। 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

जगरांव से काफ़ी परिवार हमारे पास आते हैं। आसरा का मुख्य केंद्र साथ वाले ज़िले में, डरोली भाई, मोगा में है। 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

Jagraon town, and Sidhwan Bet, Raikot, Hathur and the villages spread around them. The centre itself, with the full address, is described on the Moga page.

When part of the family lives abroad

Some of the calls we get about Jagraon do not come from Jagraon at all. They come from a brother in Canada or a sister in England who has heard something from home and does not know who to ask.

That is fine, and it is often helpful. We can speak to the relative abroad on WhatsApp as well as to the parents here, so that everybody hears the same thing and nobody is relaying it second hand. If the family abroad is helping with the cost, they can ask their own questions directly.

What we will not do is speak to anybody the family has not told us to. That includes relatives abroad.

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.
• 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.
• Medical store tablets. Started for pain or for sleep and carried on long after the reason went away. How that is treated.
• Doda and post. Older men more often than young, and treated as ordinary for so long that nobody counts it as a drug until the body starts giving way. How doda is treated.

Treat it before he leaves, not after

Families sometimes hope that going abroad will itself be the cure. A new country, a job, distance from the friends. It rarely works that way. The habit travels with him, and over there he is alone with it, far from anybody who could notice.

Behind the drug there is very often something else that nobody looked at. Depression, anxiety, sleep that stopped years ago, or something that happened once and was never spoken about again. 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 have none at all.

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, which is where the reason behind the drug gets dealt with rather than parked.
• 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. Ludhiana 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 Jagraon hears anything from us, and nobody abroad does either unless you ask us to speak to them.