HOOKED...TO HAPPINESS

Pleasure-seeking behavioural addictions, in search of a dopamine hit, are on the rise

- Nirmal Jovial

A jitha Anilkumar describes her life as a series of tragedies. Her elder son died from a congenital heart condition. Her second son got addicted to drugs and gaming, became involved with a gang, and eventually took his own life. Her daughter, once a glimmer of hope, has cut ties. Though still legally married, Ajitha and her husband have been separated by wounds too deep to heal. “I had three children, but now I have no one,” she says, weeping. “It is because of my husband's addiction to alcohol and tobacco.”

Ajitha, 52, recalls Anilkumar being inebriated even on their wedding night. “When he was a temporary worker at a public sector undertaking, he did not have much money to drink more,” she says. “But once he became permanent and his salary increased, so did his drinking. Despite multiple warnings, nothing changed. I first admitted him to hospital in 2006. Around10 stints at de-addiction centres had no effect and he lost his job to alcoholism.”

Her second son, Anujith, would have been 23 now. She says he suffered the most in the chaotic environment created by his father's addiction and his brother's illness. “I could not give him the care he needed,” she says. “But, it was his father’s reckless decision that sealed his fate. Against my wishes, he enrolled Anujith in a ‘notorious’ government school in Ernakulam. That is where drugs found him.” Her voice trembles as she continues: “That is where I lost him. I did not know; it was only later that I began hearing about his links to drug dealers.”

During Covid-19, when Anujith was in class 12, he demanded a ₹33,000-phone for online classes. “His father never gave any money; I worked as an LIC agent to raise my kids,” says Ajitha. “I bought him a phone worth ₹10,000, but he refused to touch it. When he started showing suicidal tendencies, I gave in and bought him the phone he wanted, on EMI. I did not realise I was making a terrible mistake.”