This is saddening..
Life for a 56-year-old mother in Singapore has turned into a daily battle, one she openly shares is “worse than death.” Her anguish stems from her 27-year-old son’s severe addiction to special e-vaporizers, known as “Kpod” vapes, which are mixed with drugs. This addiction has tragically transformed his behavior, leading to him physically abusing his mother and even attempting to take his own life, she told Shin Min Daily News.
The mother first noticed worrying changes in her son around October last year. He had been working at a bubble tea shop for less than a year but suddenly quit his job that month without telling anyone, giving up his salary. Soon after, he started shaking and walking in an unsteady way. This made his mother suspicious, so she looked through his room and there, she found the vape pods. After losing his job, he spent all his days at home, just vaping, playing games, and watching TV, she added.
The situation took a terrifying turn on November 18. When the mother tried to talk to her son about his vaping habit, he became very emotional. He told her he wanted to “take his own life.” She didn’t call the police right away, but instead, he was taken to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). However, after only a few hours of evaluation, they allowed him to go home. The very next day, the nightmare continued. After another talk about his vaping, he lost control again and tried to jump out of their living room window. His mother bravely grabbed him from behind to stop him, but in the struggle, he ended up attacking her. She recalled how he “grabbed her by the neck and slammed her head against the wall.”
After a heated exchange, the son ran out of their flat, saying he wanted to jump down from the corridor. Once again, his mother held onto him tightly, trying to stop him. This desperate struggle was seen by their elderly neighbors, a couple in their 70s, who tried to help. But the son warned them to stay away. The whole frightening event was even captured on CCTV footage that the mother later shared with Shin Min. Because their neighbors had called the police, the Central Narcotics Bureau detained the man for a few hours. Despite her own neck and foot injuries from the struggle, his mother later bailed him out before going to the hospital for her treatment.
She applied for a Personal Protection Order to keep herself safe from him. She also asked the court for him to undergo mandatory treatment for one year, starting from May 30. For a short while in February, things seemed to get better; his hands stopped shaking, and he no longer walked unsteadily. But her nightmare didn’t truly end. It turned out that maybe his condition had improved simply because he didn’t have money to buy vapes.
Just last Thursday, June 19, her son said he was going out because a friend wanted to buy a keyboard. Since his recent behavior had been good, she had lowered her guard, giving him S$10 for transport and asking him to share his location. But he didn’t come home by 10 PM and later claimed he was smoking downstairs with friends. When he finally returned, his eyes looked “dull,” she said. He then left again that same night, saying he was just buying coffee. Later, his mother found out he had sold his keyboard and had S$100 in his bank account. She strongly suspects he used S$77 of that money to buy “Kpods” again.
The mother hides her wallet every day after coming home. She found out he had borrowed money from both moneylenders and loan sharks, and she had already paid S$4,000 on his behalf to clear those debts. If he needs to buy food or cigarettes, she now insists on buying them for him herself or gives him the exact change and asks to see the receipt. She now suspects he might have been using “Kpods” even earlier than last October, learning that his cousin had introduced him to them at a nightclub just to give him a “high” because he couldn’t sleep. The mother is heartbroken that she “could not help him break the habit,” which has seriously affected his life. He now eats only one meal a day, speaks in a way that’s hard to understand, and can’t even answer simple questions or recognize people at the door. As she expressed, “As a mother, I am very heartbroken. I am living a life worse than death every day.”
