When the Drug Becomes the Life

By Siddhartha Sinha

At 19, Sanjay’s world had narrowed to brown sugar. Six months of treatment helped him reclaim it. Today, he runs three de-addiction centres and says he has helped more than 300 young people.
RANCHI, India —
Addiction rarely begins with an intention to destroy a life. It may begin with curiosity, peer pressure, stress, loneliness—or the seemingly harmless thought: “Just once.”

For Sanjay Pathak (name changed), tobacco came first. Drugs followed. By 19, brown sugar had begun to organise his life around a single priority: the next dose. Education slipped away. Career plans collapsed. Relationships deteriorated. The future, once full of possibilities, became increasingly irrelevant.

That is one of addiction’s most destructive effects: it shrinks a person’s world until the substance becomes more important than the life around it. When a family watches a son disappear. For Sanjay’s father, addiction meant years of fear and helplessness.
There were arguments, broken promises, demands for money and constant anxiety about when his son would return and in what condition. The family tried persuasion, but nothing seemed to penetrate the grip of the drug.

Eventually, Sanjay himself asked for help. His father brought him to Dr. Siddhartha Sinha, senior psychiatrist at RINPAS, and treatment began. Sanjay later entered a de-addiction facility and, by his own decision, went to a rehabilitation centre in Bengaluru.
For six months, he fought to remain drug-free. Craving did not disappear simply because he wanted to stop. Recovery required more than removing the substance; it required learning to live without it.

Detoxification removes a drug. Recovery rebuilds a life. Addiction is not simply a failure of willpower. Dr. Sinha says brown sugar and other addictive substances can profoundly affect judgement, decision-making, behaviour, emotional regulation and social functioning.
Repeated drug exposure can strengthen the brain’s associations between the substance and reward or relief. Craving can become powerful even when the person understands the consequences.

That does not erase responsibility. But it changes the clinical response. “Substance-use disorder is a complex medical and psychiatric condition,” Dr. Sinha says. “It should not simply be viewed as a character defect or a lack of willpower.”
Treatment may require medical care, psychological intervention, relapse-prevention strategies, family involvement and continuing follow-up.
The family is part of the recovery. Sudden deterioration in studies or work, repeated demands for money, secrecy, lying, irritability, sleep changes, withdrawal from family or a dramatic change in social circles can be warning signs.

They do not prove drug use. But they should not automatically be dismissed as bad behaviour. Families often respond with anger or shame. Psychiatry asks for something more useful: assessment, treatment and boundaries. Stigma can delay care. Support, on the other hand, can keep the door to recovery open. He went back to help others.
After treatment, Sanjay rebuilt his life. Then he decided to help people still trapped in the cycle he had escaped. Today, he runs two de-addiction centres in Mumbai and one in Pune. He says more than 300 young people have been helped through them.

His transformation is striking: the young man who once became a source of anguish for his family is now trying to prevent other families from experiencing the same pain. But recovery is not simply abstinence. It is the return of work, relationships, routine, dignity and purpose.

Sanjay’s story does not mean everyone will recover in six months. Addiction can be chronic, relapsing and complicated by other psychiatric and social problems. It means something simpler—and more important: A person can be deeply trapped without being permanently lost.

At 19, Sanjay’s life had narrowed to the next dose. Today, he is helping others imagine the next year. And perhaps that is the clearest definition of recovery: not merely learning to live without the drug, but finding a life worth staying free for.

(Dr Sinha is a Specialist Psychiatrist at RANCHI INSTITUTE OF NEUROPSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED SCIENCES)