Radio Africa Group Digital Editor and media personality Oliver Mathenge has revealed in a candid Facebook post that he attempted to commit suicide twice.
Mathenge wrote that he hit rock bottom, ‘suffered uncountable meltdowns and sunk into debt’ as he battled alcoholism.
“I was breaking down. I messed up family and social relationships. I was messing up my job (until God decided I needed greater responsibilities to keep me in check). I suffered uncountable meltdowns. I sunk into debt (deep - as in deep to hundreds of thousands) as I sought to finance a champagne life on beer money. I tried to take my life twice (again, God had to show me there was still a lot to do on this earth. I lost friends because I could not be there for them unless there was alcohol involved. I also had friends who were cheering me on as I wasted my life, which was seemingly coming to a halt,” wrote Mathenge.
He revealed that had given up on life and alcohol was a ‘quick escape out of everyday realities’ and could not do anything without alcohol being involved.
“I had given up on life in a manner that pushed me to escape reality and seek to avoid everyday challenges. I could not survive a day without alcohol unless I was too hangovered to get out of bed. In between the day in the office, I would go out to have a few shots of whatever drink I thought my system needed. Some Fridays, drinking would start as early as midday and would sometime go on until Sunday (Yes, I would spend two days in bars like that’s all about life) I was a slave,” he added.
His turnaround, however, was in 2017 where he says he took the first step to ‘deal with the alcohol dependency, anger, disappointment and resentment’ that he was harbouring towards life.
“Alcohol took a lot from me. It took control of me. Sometime in mid-2017, I took the first step. I sought help not to deal with the alcohol dependency but to deal with a lot of anger, disappointment and resentment that I was harbouring towards life. It took a while to open up about what I saw was an “unfair” life. At the beginning of November, I was ready to make adjustments but it was the Drinksembar period, as we love calling it.
That month, I was back at it. Running away from my responsibilities for the bottle. I was back at it. But this would not be for long as reality started hitting me again that this was what I was supposed to be putting aside. The plan from mid-2017 was to reduce the drinking and partying it was never to stop until that night on December 29th. This decision happened after two beers and a shot of Jager.
I told myself that if I would go out on December 30th and 31st and not take alcohol, then I should not worry about starting the year sober. And it happened that I woke up on January 1 without having taken alcohol for two days and decided to challenge myself to another 98. And here we are. 100 days without alcohol.”
This comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s niece Nana Gecaga also took the bold step and revealed that she was also a recovering alcoholic.
In her tell it all interview on Churchill on Sunday, Gecaga said she would down an entire crate of beer and a bottle of hard liquor a day.
‘’Well it was 24 beers that's a crate a day and a half a bottle or full bottle of liquor,’’ said Gecaga.
