I lost jobs twice due to alcoholism

Alcohol consumption increases during the festive season. This festive season, health and science brings you a series of stories about people who have battled with and overcome alcohol addiction.

In our second issue of the series, Andrew Ssempebwa told Rebecca Nalunga how alcohol used to make him feel like a man

I can best describe my relationship with alcohol as an affair gone bad; warm and passionate at fi rst, then possessive and suffocating until I was struggling to stay alive.

My dream was to be a songwriter. As a teenager, whenever I attended music shows, my mind raced with ideas on how to improve the songs.

To feed my passion, I wrote poetry and watched music documentaries.

The business administration course I pursued at Kyambogo College was unfulfi lling, but I had to live up to my family’s expectations. When my sister got me a job as a sales executive in a boutique, the freedom of spending as I wished was a welcome feeling. Soon, I began going to Angenoir night club in Kampala, where I would team up with old schoolmates.

I would dance the night away as I watched deejay Alberto spinning the discs. Those were my happiest moments until I eventually began to feel left out whenever my friends drank beer and I did not. I bought my fi rst beer, a Nile Special at sh2,000.

Standing among my peers, I felt like a man; suddenly we were on the same page, discussing similar issues and plans.
We frequented bars, attended house parties, where there was lots of alcohol.

It was not long before my mother noticed a change in my behaviour. Her pleas that I come home early and stay away from bad company fell on deaf ears.

My boss could no longer tolerate my absenteeism and fi red me. Without the money, I could not sustain a beer budget and stooped to local gin like “kasese.”

For sh200, I could get a drink in the slums of Katanga and my friends always had a place for me to crash if I was too drunk to get home. My fear for authority flew out of the window as I bandied words with and dared policemen.
My girlfriend began to complain about my disrespect towards her whenever I was drunk. I became rude and callous.

My friends would join me in demeaning her

This of course put a strain on our relationship and I always promised myself I was going to stop drinking. Inwardly, I wanted to stop hurting the people I loved, but the force to drink was too strong.

My brother secured me another job as a cargo officer in Eagle Air, but that too did not last. I was facing a career crisis, I was out of control and I knew it, but I could not stop.

Thankfully, a family friend visited and suggested rehabilitation at the Alcohol and Drug Unit in Butabika Hospital.

With group sessions and counselling, I stopped drinking. Looking back, I wonder what I had done to myself. I knew alcohol treated me badly, but like the perpetrator in an abusive relationship, I kept going back.

I would never have stopped drinking without the support of my family, especially my mother.

Andrew Sempebwa