Rehabilitation centers are curios places. All of us should make a point to visit at least one or two facilities during our lives. Much to my surprise and disappointment I was thoroughly underwhelmed by my experience on the different occasions I have visited. My image of the people I would find there was warped and very far from the reality of the pleasant, brilliant, kind, breathtakingly beautiful and dashingly handsome men and women taking up temporary residence at rehabilitation centers across the city. This was a common feature across both the low and high-cost facilities.
Rehabs are full of teachers, doctors, bankers, accountants, media personalities, lecturers and students: in short people like you and me. They all have different but very similar stories of pain of how they ended up in rehab. Frankly, anyone of us could end up in rehab with the right set of circumstances and predisposition to addiction. By definition, addiction is a persistent, compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance. There are two types of addiction: substance (for example drug use and alcoholism) and process addiction (for example gambling and sexual activity).
Addiction is a strange and complex disease aye, in the sense that it is not linear. A combination of different things could drive you into addiction right from genetics, stress, to childhood trauma (which is a whole other messy kettle of fish that shall be addressed another day). Anyhow, there was this fine babe at the last rehab I visited toward the tail end of last year who had this aura of beauty that made her immediately stand out and drew me to her like a moth to the light. Karembo is what we will call her.
From looking at her you could tell that she held tales of the ruins of a once beautiful castle. Don’t get it twisted, she was still beautiful in the flesh, but must have been a real head-turner in her prime before alcohol and marijuana took over her life. Karembo was an A-student who had had her first dalliance with kamnyweso to cope with the pressures and stress of med school. Soon after, liquor alone was not enough to do the trick and her pernicious friends introduced her to marijuana that would help them with studying for the long hours that med school called for.
Rehabs are awash with stories of good people whose only misdeed was resorting to substance abuse to numb or cope with the perceived or real pain, pressures and stresses of their lives.
All was fine and dandy over the years. She graduated and was posted to a hospital in Maua for her internship where she also dabbled in a lot of miraa but stayed ever faithful to alcohol and Mary Jane which by now she could not go a day without. But, she was still the star intern; all the consultants and registrars commended her work and all the patients loved her, especially the mothers because she was ever so gentle and loving while handling their children. Internship ended with her being posted to a hospital in Nairobi, where she went on to work for a number of years before the drugs starting getting the better of her and she started missing work with increasing frequency. Whenever she showed up, she was high out of her mind. She had since given up on taking showers which prompted the hospital to take disciplinary measures that involved mandatory admission to a rehab. The six weeks she had so far spent at the facility had uncovered through therapy, sexual abuse in her childhood by her uncles who had fondled and petted her willy-nilly coupled with a mother who dismissed her reality. She was sorting through all the other trauma she had collected in her 27 years.
Rehabs are awash with stories of good people whose only misdeed was resorting to substance abuse to numb or cope with the perceived or real pain, pressures and stresses of their lives. The journey to addiction started with one sip, shot, sniff or smoke that then spiraled out of their control taking over their whole lives. The good news is that addiction is a treatable disease which people have come back from and completely rebuilt their lives. There is a peculiar drinking culture in Kenya where anytime is time for a drink and we are a very generous lot. Mtu heri akunyime food lakini si pombe ama puff. Let us normalize accepting people’s “I don’t drink” without many questions and offers of free booze. Okay, thanks, bye.
Mimi wako kwa hali na mali.
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