Nasha mukti kendra in Sri Muktsar Sahib.

Where the centre is

On Abohar Road, near the Setia petrol pump. It is a residential drug rehabilitation centre, not a clinic that shuts in the evening, and there is no appointment system. You can come and look at the place before you decide anything, and you can come with the patient or without him.

The registration number is on the board at the gate, so you do not have to take our word for anything. The full address and the way to reach us are on the contact page.

ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿੱਚ

ਆਸਰਾ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਮੁਕਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਵਿੱਚ, ਅਬੋਹਰ ਰੋਡ ਉੱਤੇ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਤੋਂ ਮਨਜ਼ੂਰਸ਼ੁਦਾ ਨਸ਼ਾ ਛੁਡਾਊ ਕੇਂਦਰ ਹੈ। ਆਪਣਾ ਮਨੋਰੋਗ ਡਾਕਟਰ 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

आसरा श्री मुक्तसर साहिब में, अबोहर रोड पर सरकार से मंज़ूरशुदा नशा मुक्ति केंद्र है। अपना मनोरोग डॉक्टर और स्टाफ़ चौबीस घंटे। दाख़िला रात में भी हो सकता है। पहले आकर केंद्र देख लीजिए, फिर फ़ैसला कीजिए। फ़ोन +91 83601 40700।

Which parts of the district families come from

Muktsar city, and Malout, Gidderbaha, Lambi, Bariwala, Badal, Kabarwala and the villages around them. Being in the district helps more than families expect. Admission, paperwork and anything else somebody has to come in for gets done without a day of travelling at both ends.

Families from further out reach us here as well, from the Abohar and Fazilka side, and from across the Rajasthan line. If you are on the Faridkot or Firozpur side, there are separate pages for those districts.

The cotton belt has its own pattern

This is cotton country, and cotton means money in the house twice a year and very little in between. Families here describe a cycle that people in a salaried town do not recognise. The money arrives, it goes fast, and the next four months are borrowing. Addiction fits into that cycle badly, and it is usually in the lean months that a family finally rings somebody.

There is a second thing about this district. Doda post has never been treated as a drug here. There is literally a village called Doda in the district, and for most of the older generation the stuff was as ordinary as tea. That makes it the hardest dependence to get a family to name out loud.

• Doda and post. Older men more often than young ones, and nobody counts it as a drug until the body starts giving way. How doda is treated.
• Chitta and heroin. Younger men, and the one families discover last because it hides longest. How chitta 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 only treating the body does not hold

What families tell us 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, the man walks out clean and comes back to the same 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.

The government route

If money is the problem, look at the government side first. The civil hospital at Muktsar and the district health services run de-addiction treatment, 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 usually come to us after that route has been tried and the man has relapsed, or when they want him somewhere for a few months rather than at home.

What the treatment involves

About four months, residential throughout, in three stages.

• 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.
• Rehabilitation, the part most places skip. Routine, yoga, gym, sports, and enough time for the habit to lose its grip. The full programme.

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. 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 this 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 Muktsar hears anything from us.