Mr. Chetan Sharma

Founder and Director

Action is the magic word in recovery

Since 13th Jan 2016, in the field of Recovery, Chetan Sharma, Director, Prayas Sewa Samiti Dehradun, has much to be grateful for. In a freewheeling chat with Chander Mahadev Professor, Amity School of Communication Lucknow. He spells out his Recovery philosophy and why the program duration is for 5 months at his Centre. Why is the AA Recovery program so relapse-prone & how come Rehabilitation centres don’t enjoy a clean image? Let me make it clear that addiction is not a social evil, it is a disease. At prayas our mission is to treat the disease, not punish the addict. Many centres are ill-informed about the delicate process of recovery and don’t follow the philosophy of Love, Care & Concern that we are committed to. Many centres resort to unethical practices to break the newly admitted patient’s strong sense of denial, whereas this is furthest from the truth.

Why do you suggest a 6-month 12-Step Recovery Programme in your center?

We have arrived at the time duration after holding long discussions with Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Recovery Coaches, counselors and recovering alcoholics/addicts. Addiction is a disease of chemical dependency and while we were in addiction, we have become powerless our addiction. We did not become addicts in one day. No doubt then, long years of using chemicals has caused us damage in all spheres of life. So when a patient gets admitted it takes him a long time to accept his disease & the immense damage he has caused to himself. His family and on the financial front. The road to recovery is a time-taking process and at times even five months may not be enough.

Can you expand on this?

The patient who checks into Prayas takes at least two months to recover physically. It is only after this time period that the patient is willing to admit as much. Once he is into recovery and accepts his willingness to come clean, it takes another two months to become emotionally and mentally strong. It is only in the fifth month that the patient begins to get spiritually evolved and is in a position to understand the 12 spiritual principles of AA and put them into action. As Recovering alcoholics say, Action is the magic word.

Did you come clean the first time you were admitted into a rehabilitation center?

When I came into the programme for the first time, I was admitted into Naveen Kiran Rehab when the late Amar Palji was the Senior Counselor and Founder-Director. I still nursed reservations and was not ready to keep away from the first drink. So when I went out I began using again and within 1 Month was admitted for the second time in Naveen Kiran Rehab & it took me many more treatments to follow the road of RECOVERY,Until I founded Pryas Rehabilitation Center. How did you learn to allow the AA/NA program to help you live a clean and disease-free life? It works best on those who are unlettered or illiterate. What Rehab counselors and experts wish to point out is the fact that the more we use our intelligence to work the programme, the more difficult it becomes to keep it simple

Can you disclose your future plans?

Now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his intentions clear about a drug-free & addiction-free India, we have plans on improving our deliverable by setting up a Prayas Sewa Samiti Research Cell so that we can serve the patients better. Talks are on and we hope to makes some headway in this regard during the course of the year. We hope to publish research papers and make the centre’s functioning more scientific.