Every time we talk about addiction, we always focus on treatment, and on how to pull someone out of the crisis… but the real question is: why wait until they fall? Why don’t we work to prevent the fall in the first place?
Prevention is not just a Facebook post or a lecture in a school. True prevention begins at home… with the words we say to our children, with the way we embrace them, and with our reactions when they make mistakes.
At Relife, we believe prevention is not a slogan… prevention is daily work that begins with parenting, with education, with media, with the street… and with every place in society.
The young person who falls into addiction doesn’t wake up one day and suddenly decide… most likely, they have gone through stages of loneliness, depression, psychological pressure that no one understood, a constant feeling of rejection, failure, or isolation.
Prevention is to extend our hand at that stage—not when they need treatment, but when they only need to hear the words:
“I see you… and you are not alone.”
Let’s be realistic…
Young people today are under unnatural pressure: they have to succeed, work, please everyone, and keep up with everything. In the midst of all that, they find no space to express their fear, exhaustion, or weakness.
And when they break down, the solutions available to them are unfortunately quick and dangerous.
So, what do we do?
We start by teaching our children from an early age how to express their emotions.
We tell them that crying is not weakness, and that failure is not the end of the road.
We create spaces for them to be heard and to share.
We talk to them about addiction without fear or stigma.
We put them in front of the truth without exaggeration, but also without negligence.
In schools, there must be genuine awareness not based on intimidation, but on understanding… helping children realize that addiction is not just something “bad,” but the result of internal pain left untreated.
In the street, in the media, we must redraw the image of the addict… not as a criminal, but as a human being in need of help.
We must break the stereotype, and instead build a social awareness that supports one another rather than judges one another.
At Relife, we don’t just treat those who have fallen, we also work with those who haven’t reached that point yet… we try to reach homes, schools, and people at the very beginning of the road, and we tell them:
“We are with you… before the path bends.”
Prevention is not a luxury, prevention is a right… and every human being has the right to live in an environment that protects them, teaches them, and supports them.
