Ralith Milith

By: S. Shabrez Noorani   Talking about substance abuse we cannot forget the factors leading to it. One of the greatest factor is mental stress.  While reading about drug abuse, I read a quote “ its not the drugs that make a drug addict, its the need to escape the reality”. I used to think an addicts life start when he is exposed by a friend to this and than seeking and consuming the drugs become compulsive. This is half truth. A research conducted by Dr. Humaira Azim (Titled: Case studies of drug abused youth of kashmir Valley) on 18 respondents found out how it becomes a need in the area that is turmoil ridden. A study conducted by Syed Amin and A. W Khan (Titled: life in conflict)  found out in kashmir the conflict has affected 55.72% of population. Further breaking it into age group it was found the prevalence of depression is highest (66.67%) in the 15 to 25 years age group, followed by 65.33 in 26 to 35 years age group. Unfortunately these are the age groups where dr...

Kashmir has been through the two decades of turmoil that resulted in an increase of psychiatric illness and psychosocial disturbances. A number of psychiatric problems have emerged like Depression, OCD, PTSD, Drug Addiction, etc. As long as the problem of drug addiction in Kashmir is concerned it has observed that this conflict ridden region has a tremendous rise in substance abusers over the past decade. United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) reported that around 70000 people are drug addicts in the Kashmir valley alone among which 21700 are females.                                                                               Representational Pic Several studies conducted in the valley revealed that youth particularly between the age group of 17-30 involved in this menace of drug addi...