High school years are the time when teenagers are most likely to be influenced into taking drugs, because of peer pressure and just to be able to fit in with a crowd. I went down through this easy way of acceptance, and started smoking hashish with friends. In the beginning, it was full of fun and my mates told me stories about how it is a harmless drug and the long-term effects are no more than the effects of tobacco smoke.
Hash smoking became more regular with friends and after a few months, I started to become paranoid. The paranoia began as fleeting thoughts which could easily be brushed off, and then they worsened in a way that eventually I was too paranoid to leave my house. I started to have suicidal thoughts and overwhelming feelings of being worthless.
This forced me to keep myself apart from my friends, which made them wonder what was wrong. I was too embarrassed to say why I wasn’t going to school, or hanging around with friends outside of school, so I lied and said that I had a physical illness which was less embarrassing and more easily accepted by people. Therefore, it got even harder to see friends, as they would ask questions. As a result, I nearly failed all of my school courses which worsened my feelings even more.
Eventually, with much effort and support, I started coming to Congress 60. In a nutshell, they concluded that the psychosis was due to hashish smoking. Congress 60 and its DST method of curing and their approach in dealing with addiction have helped me a lot in order to overcome my problems. Attending regular workshops and group meetings helped me get in touch with reality and distance myself from paranoia I was experiencing. Eventually, my addiction was cured through the DST method (tapering of hashish consumption by using opium as medicine) and my depression gradually got better.
Subsequently, I went back to high school to study, and I am now preparing myself for university entrance exam.
My point to this story is that one has to be strong to say “no” to drugs when within their peer group. If given the chance to go back, I would proudly say no and happily be an outcast in my friends circle. The fact is when one leaves school he doesn’t stay in touch with many school mates anyway.
Moreover, most of the people I knew who smoked weed those days, are still doing it today, and they either don’t have a job or don’t really live a happy life (5 years later). Scientific evidence is proving day by day that Hashish can and will ruin and destroy lives and cause mental/physical problems. There will always be skeptics who argue cannabis has no long-term effect on their mind or body whatsoever. But is inhaling a bit of smelly smoke and the feeling it brings, really worth the risk?
Written by: Traveler Ehsan
Translated by: Traveler Keyhan