ADDICTION WITHOUT BORDERS –

August 28, 2021 – Hassanein Ahmed, 27, also decided to quit drugs after a decade of addiction. “I decided to seek treatment for myself. I did not want to continue what I was doing,” Ahmed says. “Addiction is not a behaviour that is only related to drugs, but leads there.”

He spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly about growing up in the slum area of Gheit Al-Enab which was developed into Bashayar Al-Kheir in Alexandria. His mother went to the clinic, found an advertisement for You Are Stronger Than Drugs and discussed her son’s addiction with the doctor who directed Ahmed to Al-Azeema Centre. Today, he is on his way to receiving a literacy certificate after attending classes at the centre and is determined not to go back to addictive habits which led him to drug abuse.

“Addictive behaviour for me took the form of lying and theft, and devolved into drug addiction,” he admits.

Mohamed Said, 26, said he began taking drugs at the tender age of 13: alcohol, then pills, then heroin. “After 13 years of addiction, I succeeded in being sober for five months now, and I continue on my journey and counting the days of staying clean,” he says.

Like Said, Islam Gamal, 30, tells the Weekly he has been sober for three months and 13 days. “I count them by the hour and the day. The longer I stay clean, the further I am away from the path of drug abuse,” states Gamal.

Ahmed Al-Sayed, 40, father of four, is also proud of the time he has stayed drug free. Al-Sayed tells the Weekly how he neglected his family for three years during his addiction, but after seeing footballer Salah’s anti-drug campaign in Bashayer Al-Kheir he began attending narcotics anonymous meetings. And today, he follows up at Maamoura Hospital in Alexandria. “Since I’m a recovering addict, I must stick to the rules I learned during treatment,” confides Al-Sayed.

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