A father brings in his teenage daughter and begs, "Please save my daughter, she's suffering."
A mother worries about her 17-year-old daughter's changed behaviour after she had run away for two weeks. A woman in her 20s is in pain after her husband lured her into his world of alcohol and drugs and then divorced her.
Stories like these are the stuff of daily life at the first drug rehabilitation clinic for women at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, reports local English language daily Arab News. Dr Mona Al Sawwaf, psychiatric consultant and head of psychiatric unit at King Fahd Hospital, supervises the clinic, which opened eight weeks ago.
The most important part of her job is to help and understand, she told Arab News.
"Drug addiction is a disease, not criminal behaviour. Men with drug problems have treatment facilities such as Al Amal Hospital, so why not a facility for women where they can come to a general hospital as regular patients without any social stigma?"
Women addicts are not questioned or charged with a crime. Until recently, talking about psychiatric disorders, let alone addiction, was a stigma. But now, Dr Al Sawwaf finds that there is more awareness among people, especially women, recognising the problem and seeking treatment."
The clinic treats not just addiction to hard drugs like heroin, but the whole list starting with nicotine. "It's heartbreaking to see youngsters and teenagers smoking sheesha in public places. Although most of society don't approve of this, they think it is part of modern life."
There is no research on the rate of drug addiction among women in Saudi Arabia, but from her own clinical observation Dr Al Sawwaf does not believe it is high.
Since the clinic opened it received 12 cases for a variety of addictions including heroin, hashish and amphetamines.
"Amphetamines are a major nightmare for men and women, especially teenagers, because students take them during exams to improve their performance. However, even though amphetamines increase alertness, they reduce concentration," she said.
Amphetamines are highly addictive. "Fifty per cent of those who take it end up drug addicts, and more than 70 per cent end up with psychiatric disorders starting with depression and ending with schizophrenia. Up to one-third commit suicide," she said.
Most of the patients are in their teens to mid-20s.
Peer pressure is the main reason for drug addiction among women. Some of those who take pills get them from a friend because they have a problem at home. The friend offers them the drug saying it will help them relax and forget, and before they know it they have become addicted.
Depression can be a reason for using drugs, and drug use can in turn lead to depression. There are two types of depression: biological and here twice as many women are afflicted as men and reactionary.
"I don't think depression is on the increase, but doctors and society are becoming more aware of depression. Drug-induced depression is on the rise because the use of drugs internationally is increasing," Dr Al Sawwaf said.
Suicide can be one consequence of abusing certain drugs. The person may have a genuine will to kill herself, or it may be a way of getting away from extreme stress. "Suicide is not a diagnosis in psychiatry, it is part of a syndrome," she said.
Suicide can happen by pure chance or miscalculation like taking an overdose. Internationally, the number of people committing suicide is rising.
In Saudi Arabia, there were 400 suicides last year and a far more attempts.
A recent survey of more than 2,000 students in Jeddah, aged 13 to 25, by a researcher at King Abdul Aziz University, found that 65 per cent of the boys and 72 per cent of the girls showed symptoms of depression; seven per cent of the girls admitted that they had attempted suicide (more than twice the rate of the boys).
According to the survey, drug use was nearly five per cent for both sexes, as was the rate of alcoholism.
Gulf News
