Ever since she got married and found a job as a Government School teacher in Kancheepuram, G.Muthumeenakshi constantly fought with her emotions. Hiding them inside was not easy as she watched her husband gradually ruining himself with alcohol.
Initially she did not pay attention as G. Kumar, her husband, would tell her he was drinking occasionally with friends for fun. “But many times he would also taunt me,” recalls Meenakshi, “for the job I had and complained that it was keeping me busy.” Soon she began noticing that the hangover stuck with her husband for longer hours and irritation and frustration became his permanent companions.
“We would often fight, feel tired and exhausted and he resorted to drinking more to numb the pain of any feelings,” says Meenakshi, “but I had my every sense alive trying to figure out how to cope with the situation.”
Those were only days of helplessness, she says, as her husband would be in a denial mode even though there would be empty bottles lying around in the house. He refused treatment and even turned violent at the mention of it, drank every night and did not sleep. With each passing day, he sank into a hopeless depression.
Seeing the common co-morbid condition of Kumar, Meenakshi even thought of leaving him or killing herself. But then she also had a toddler son to care for.
After five years of physical and mental trauma, when she got transferred to Madurai in 2009, she found hope. Four years ago when Kumar fell unconscious, he was taken to M.S.Chellamuthu Trust & Research Foundation where he began doing their 21-day programme.
“It was tough and painful too,” says Kumar, who is now more than three years sober. Yet again, it did not happen without the support of his wife who has been bringing him for regular follow-ups, attending the family counselling sessions and putting up with the pressures of her professional and domestic life.
Herself on the brink of a breakdown, she says, had it not been for the staff at the MSC Trust, she would have never found the peace of mind.
“He is a changed man today. He has become more caring and responsible,” says Meenakshi of her husband. Recently when I had fever, he remained with me the entire day taking care,” she smiles. And this one day’s gesture absolved him of all his follies in the past and the duo are now working on a trust-building relationship.
Similar is the story of T. Kamatchi, a young mason who started drinking at the age of 23. He used to be very warm and a boy of sunny disposition, says his mother Poomakka. But after his father’s death, the financial struggles of the family took the boy away. “We did not even realise when addiction enveloped his life. He began staying away from home for long hours and when he returned, he would always be in an angry mood picking up fights with his four younger siblings,” says Poomakka.
Such was the situation that his family started hating and avoiding him. He would smash glasses and even broke the TV once. “Only now I realise how unimaginable and unbearable the pain my family endured must have been,” says Kamatchi, who joined the detoxification programme of MSC Trust in 2013.
At 32 now, he would love to have a family to call his own, but just can’t seem to find that one right person, who would love him unconditionally irrespective of his history.
Both Kumar and Kamatchi are stories of triumphs that have been coming out of MSC Trust in Madurai since 1995. The dedicated staff at The Trust under its founder and city’s well known psychiatrist Dr.C. Ramasubramanian believes that every addict deserves the chance at recovery. That is the reason why in the last two decades they have successfully treated 7,200 people.
With an overall recovery rate of 55 per cent from their de-addiction centres, the Trust was recently recognised for its outstanding service towards societal transformation and was selected for the first Abdul Kalam Seva Ratna Award in the category De-addiction Mission, which received entries from nine organisations across the country.
The Award -- comprising a Golden Medal with a cash prize of Rs.One Lakh, 10 gram Gold Coin and a Citation by Abdul Kalam Vision India Movement – was presented to Dr.C Ramasubramanian by the Dalai Lama last month.
Anxiety and depression as a fall-out of drug and alcohol abuse, dependence and addiction are choices that people make for various reasons. These choices can be unmade as long as there are people to help and support the victims on the path to recovery. It requires courage to face the reality both for the sufferer and the care-giver. And the MSC Trust continues to make a difference to the world of people with mental illness and disabilities. It is all about making life a little less difficult for others.
(Making a difference is a fortnightly column about ordinary people and events that leave an extraordinary impact on us. E-mail soma.basu@thehindu.co.in to tell her about someone you know who is making a difference)
