Girls, Interrupted? Not with this miracle worker

Divya Bajaj, 28, is a psychologist. She is also the co-founder of the only exclusively women’s de-addiction and rehabilitation centre in the country. Miracle Foundation, the organisation she started in March 2008 in Hennur, sees plenty of women walking in seeking help. Bajaj is there for them. Some receive her help and go on to reclaim their lives. Some do not.

“Recovery rates for addiction are pegged at 5%-8%. For Miracle Foundation, we saw a success rate of 42% last years,” says Bajaj. She was just another kid who liked to party hard. By the time school came to an end and college was almost over, Bajaj had lost several friends to drug and alcohol overdose. “That included my best friend,” she says. She knew she had to address the problem.

A masters degree in psychology followed and in 2008 she opened the doors of Miracle Foundation to women from all across the country. Miracle Foundation offers residential rehabilitation facilities to women addicted to drugs or alcohol. It takes almost four to six months for people to walk out of those doors.

The 12 step module for de-addiction forms the basic premise of treatments here. “When women check in, we get their blood tests done, we do a psychiatrist’s evaluation, we do group therapy, we put them on a medically monitored detox plan. We supplement the treatment with counselling (either group therapy or one on one sessions), meditation and Yoga. Anger issues, any history of sexual or physical abuse are addressed and there is a relapse prevention programme in place too,” says Bajaj.

The women also draw a lot of sustenance from each other. “If we have a make-up artist in residence we do group make-up sessions, if we have a good chef, we do cooking classes and so on,” she describes.

Miracle Foundation also provides a rehabilitation programme that helps integrate some of the women into the mainstream. “If the women are educated, we see to it that they are already placed by the time they leave,” says Bajaj. “It is difficult for women from villages or women from lower income groups. Any attempts to set their lives straight is not welcome by the family,” she adds.

There are no set markers as such to determine tendency to addiction. There are some who have a prior history of abuse but a lot do not. “From what I have come across, having an alcoholic in the family makes a person 60% more likely to have an addiction and educated women are more likely to be addicts. They have the money to buy the substance, they are often subjected to coercive peer pressure — you know-- a need to fit in with co-workers and the likes,” she explains.

It is difficult to frame words of caution around a problem that is so devastating in its aftermath she feels. But then she points out, it is time to set some perceptions straight. “When you think of an addict, the immediate picture is that of a college kid. It is not true, Some of them experiment and leave it behind as they grow old, though some obviously do not. The main problem lies with the thousands of housewives who are addicted to prescription drugs. They have minor problems, mid-life crisis, mild depression and they are prescribed some sleeping pills or other prescription drugs, and then they continue to flag the same prescription to buy more drugs falling into a vicious habit. They suffer silently, it is a hidden habit and there is no help for them. Even when they tell their families, it is a stigma that no one wants to bring out in the open,” Bajaj explains.

And that’s where the battle begins. For now, Bajaj is doling miracles out on a daily basis, fighting stigma, fighting addiction, fighting despair to bring some women out of the shadows of a destructive addiction.

Contact: Miracle Foundation, 88, Doddagubbi Kothanur Post, Byrathi Village Kothanur, Bangalore 080-28445113/ 9845673308
m_anindita@dnaindia.net