IN FOCUS: Breaking the cycle of drug addiction passing from parent to child
SINGAPORE: When Mr Alvin Chiong was growing upwardly, he watched equally his father, who he says was an opium addict, fed his drug habit in the family dwelling house.
He did not see anything wrong with information technology at the time.
"I just felt similar it'due south normal," said Mr Chiong, now 49.
During times when his male parent – who Mr Chiong says was also addicted to alcohol and gambling – did not get his ready and went through withdrawals, his family would have to face his trigger-happy outbursts.
When he was seven, his mother had enough and left, leaving him and his brother with their father.
At the age of ix, he decided he did non want to have money from his begetter anymore and opted instead to work a diversity of part-time jobs to support himself, such as selling otak-otak and newspapers.
Unable to find love at home, Mr Chiong said he chose to "outsource" his demand for companionship.
"I wanted to exist recognised, I wanted to find my own identity. And so I mixed with the neighbourhood boys - and virtually of my neighbourhood boys that I mixed with were all doing drugs," he said.
"I started glue sniffing, I started taking sleeping pills and I proceeded to marijuana before I fifty-fifty collected my IC (identity menu) at 12 years sometime," he said.
Though his begetter was an aficionado, Mr Chiong admits he gave little thought to the possibility that he was heading down the aforementioned road.
"To exist honest, my begetter was not in my mind anymore … I only wanted to feel happy. I just wanted to do what I want to do," he said.
Mr Bruce Mathieu besides had negative influences as a kid. He grew upward with four relatives who were drug abusers.
"I actually grew up in an environment where drug abuse was very rampant," said the 50-yr-old.
While his mother had told him "drugs are bad for you lot", that was the extent of his cognition of drug abuse. Curiosity got the better of him, and that led him to eventually try drugs for himself.
READ: More admitted to drug rehab centre in 2019, driven by changes in law aimed at reducing relapse
Mr Mathieu recalled that when he was growing upward, his female parent had to go out to work all the time.
"Being alone at abode, I got a scrap lonely. So I started going out looking for friends, for peers," he said.
He brutal into bad visitor and started getting into fights. Shortly after he entered secondary school, Mr Mathieu joined a gang, by and large out of a need for a sense of belonging, he said. Three months after that, he smoked marijuana for the first time.
"Information technology became my problem for the next 30 years," he said.
Past the historic period of fifteen he was hooked onto another drug - heroin.
"And so heroin became the scourge of my life for many, many years," he said, adding that he was introduced to yet some other drug, meth, in his 20s.
However, the police force somewhen caught upwardly with him, and at the age of 22, he was imprisoned for drug possession and drug-related offences.
Mr Mathieu said he felt similar there was no turning back later on his first stint in prison.
"The first time I came out of prison, just imagine … 1 would think the very first fourth dimension you're away from your mum for so long, all you desire to do is go back, hug your mother, enquire for forgiveness, you know?"
But that was not the example, Mr Mathieu said.
"The offset thing I did when I stepped out of prison, I called a cab. I took a cab to my supplier … I smoked heroin, got high and then I went dwelling house."
He ended up going in and out of prison several times over the next three decades.
Mr Chiong and Mr Mathieu are just two examples of inter-generational drug abuse, where drug-taking by parents can play a role in their children developing their ain habits and ultimately addictions, later in life.
LINK Betwixt PARENTAL DRUG ABUSE AND THEIR CHILDREN
In 2017, psychologists from the Singapore Prison house Service (SPS) concluded a decade-long written report on the bear on of parental drug abuse in Singapore.
The written report establish that of the 7,880 parents incarcerated for drug offences between 2008 and 2017, 1,203 had at least 1 child who had offended.
This means one in every five children of drug offenders had themselves committed a criminal offence, with the top two existence drug-related offences and property crimes such every bit break-in.
The results of the study were published earlier this year in the Abode Team Periodical, a publication past the Home Squad Academy.
The SPS study also looked at ii groups of youths with parents who had previously been admitted for rehabilitation in prison house for drug abuse.
One grouping was made of youth offenders from the Reformative Training Centre, the Drug Rehabilitation Centre every bit well as the Community Rehabilitation Centre – 81.8 per cent of whom had drug antecedents or had committed drug-related offences – while the other group was made upwards of non-offenders.
It found that parental drug abuse had similar furnishings on both groups, including weakened attachment to parents, lack of social support as well as exposure to drugs within the domicile.
"As a result of their parents' regular drug abuse, l per cent of participants grew up in a dysfunctional surroundings when their abode became a drug den for their parents and their parents' drug-abusing friends," the report said, noting that children often saw drugs and drug paraphernalia such as syringes left lying effectually at home.
The study suggested that abiding exposure to the drug use of parents could accept normalised children to observed antisocial behaviours, noting that a "pregnant portion" of the participants had adult permissive attitudes towards drugs.
The written report's findings are consistent with other research conducted on the topic, it noted.
READ: 'I want to alter … and I need assistance': The repeat drug abusers on a mission to stay clean
Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association (SANA) executive director Abdul Karim Shahul Hameed said SANA's own observations of its clients mirrored the findings from the SPS written report.
"Children whose parents were involved in drugs may adopt a more lax view towards substance utilise. Frequently, these children end up seeking a sense of belonging and acceptance outside the home, and inadvertently end up mixing with the wrong company and getting involved with substance utilise," he said.
One of the biggest challenges children in such situations face is the lack of adult caregivers to provide them the care and support that they demand, he added.
Since these children are likely to exist exposed to confusing and stressful situations such as watching a parent become arrested, information technology is important for them to take outlets to process these feelings and understand such experiences, said Mr Abdul Karim.
"Children with caregivers who are able to provide emotional and mental support during such situations often fare amend, and are less likely to turn to antisocial behaviours to cope," he said.
"The presence of positive influences through caregivers and relatives will also deter a kid from seeking social connections and belonging outside the home, where they are likely to be exposed to antisocial behaviours such as underage smoking and drinking to fit in with others.
"Many children with a family history of drug abuse were constantly confronted with feelings of inadequacy or difference amongst their peers, which makes information technology even harder to form a strong social circle," he added.
Mr Abdul Karim added that SANA's own research on female offenders establish that the children of drug offenders are more likely to become "parentified" – that is, they unknowingly have on the responsibility of caring for drug-using parents.
"Parentification involves two aspects – taking on concrete tasks for the family such as caring for themselves and their younger siblings or other family members, and emotional parentification where the child takes on the role and responsibilities of an emotional back up system for the family," he said.
"Our study showed that parentification can affect the evolution of the child, particularly in increasing one's susceptibility to mental health issues and substance utilize, something which we have observed in some of our clients," he added, though he noted that at that place are also children of drug offenders who have done well for themselves.
SPS said it recognised the impact of drug corruption and incarceration on family stability.
"Through interviews conducted upon the offenders' access to the prison house, SPS helps to facilitate the timely identification and referral of needs presented by the offenders' families, including that of their children, to resources in the community," SPS rehabilitation and reintegration sectionalisation director Caroline Lim told CNA.
"Offenders can also request for assistance on behalf of their families and children at whatsoever time during their incarceration," she added.
SPS collaborates with the Ministry building of Social and Family Development equally well as others to aid stabilise families afflicted by incarceration and protect children against the hazard of offending, she noted.
Ms Lim as well pointed to SPS' membership in the Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-offenders (Intendance) Network, which is made up of government agencies and social service organisations.
"These agencies and other partners piece of work closely with SPS to run programmes and services aimed at addressing the touch of parental incarceration, such equally casework and counselling, tuition assistance, parenting programmes, family bonding programmes and so on," said Ms Lim.
READ: Drug rehabilitation is to aid abusers from all backgrounds to kick the habit: Shanmugam
"I WANTED TO CHANGE MY LIFE"
Mr Chiong was around 22 when he was arrested for the starting time time –admitting for fighting, non drug taking.
Though he was arrested several times afterward that, at that place was no worry on his part about getting caught – just concern over whether he would be able to become his supply of drugs.
He turned to drug running, eventually quitting his job in graphic design to become a drug pusher.
Even after getting married and having 2 children, Mr Chiong was arrested several times for drug activities.
He attempted to mend his means, on numerous occasions checking himself into a halfway business firm to try to break his drug addiction, though he relapsed each time.
"I told myself, I have to end this once and for all. I decided to allow go of everything, I wanted to change my life," he said.
He checked himself into a halfway business firm for 3 years to ensure he would not render to a life of drugs and crime. His wife sought a divorce in 2011, but he stayed on at the halfway firm.
After his three years there, Mr Chiong was finally able to turn his life around, reconciling with his wife and working a number of jobs and becoming an anti-drug advocate, volunteering with the prisons and SANA.
Mr Mathieu vowed never to be an absentee parent, later his ain experience of growing up without his male parent.
He got married and had a child, but ultimately lived out his worst fears after being imprisoned.
He recalls a visit from his married woman and daughter in April 2013, on the girl's quaternary birthday. She was in a brand new dress, which she wanted to show off to him.
She chosen to him through the drinking glass partition separating them and asked him to carry her.
"I didn't know what to do … there was glass there, what could I do? I simply shook my head."
His daughter'due south tears were the turning signal for him. He renounced his gang affiliations, and establish the motivation to turn his life around and committed himself to his Christian religion.
The SPS report noted the enquiry pointed to the importance of parents and their caregiving roles in impacting a kid'due south hating behaviour, and highlighted that children inadvertently suffer the consequences of parental drug abuse.
"Equally a effect, children of drug-abusing parents constitute a vulnerable grouping in the community and they should be provided with the necessary support to reduce the negative impact experienced as a result of parental drug abuse and incarceration, besides as to prevent 2nd-generation offending," the study said.
READ: Drug crimes cost Singapore Southward$one.23b in 2015, new study shows
Both Mr Mathieu and Mr Chiong worked together at The Living Well Cafe, a social enterprise located at Tan Tock Seng Infirmary which employs vulnerable individuals such as ex-offenders.
Mr Mathieu all the same works in that location, while Mr Chiong has joined the M2Buffet, another social enterprise located at The Adelphi.
Now an anti-drug abet, Mr Mathieu says some of the students he speaks to however want to try drugs for themselves, despite having heard about their negative effects.
"Drugs are something that'south non worth meddling with … Y'all always recollect that you accept the upper paw, only that is a lie that your brain invents so that you go and effort drugs.
"When drugs have their claws in you lot, you're screwed. Because drug addiction is going to exist a lifelong battle."
When asked whether he is worried virtually his daughter making the same mistakes as him and becoming a victim of inter-generational drug abuse, Mr Mathieu said he is strict only nurturing, and hopes to impart the lessons needed for his daughter to brand the right choices.
Mr Chiong meanwhile accepts that his responsibility to his 2 boys now is to lead by case.
"I'1000 not worried most anything, they have to brand their own choices in life. I can just be past their side to give them advice.
"Any choice you make now, be prepared for the consequences later," he said.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/focus-breaking-cycle-drug-addiction-passing-parent-child-279986
0 Response to "IN FOCUS: Breaking the cycle of drug addiction passing from parent to child"
Publicar un comentario