the goan I network
PANAJI
“I want to stress the role of psychiatrists. All psychiatrists are not counsellors. More important than drugs is counselling. This awareness is not there in India. The drugs the psychiatrists prescribe for children can be harmful for children. If these drugs can harm adults, imagine what they will do to children. Drugs are being prescribed and pharma companies are making money,” Sardesai said.
She was speaking as chief guest on the state commemoration of International Day of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking organised by the Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Goa Police. “The drugs that are given to you, speaking from my own experience I can say, this is my second life. Symptoms are very clear… you get hot flashes, trembling, all kinds of side effects and you go through suicidal thoughts. India has to keep away from this. Doctors should know… these drugs are also like like cocaine and ganja, that doctors are prescribing. They are also very dangerous,” she said.
She called upon parents to give attention to their children and allow them to express their emotions as well as to give them adequate attention.
“They (parents) say to boys: ‘Don’t cry... don’t be emotional.’ Emotion is a sense of life, there is no shame in being emotional. Boys can also be emotional. Parents should try to understand why the children are emotional,” Sardesai said. She also urged parents not to pressurize their children to achieve what they themselves weren’t able to achieve.
“If you as parents could not achieve it, how would the children,” she asked highlighting that the inability to channelise emotions coupled with pressure often led children to psychotropic drugs.
She also urged the police to ensure that drugs are not easily available and that it wasn’t enough to blame emotional children for taking to drugs.
