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As better knowledge and understanding of the actions of alcohol become more and readily available, more sensible attitudes regarding it are arising, (but) it is also interesting to observe how little people want to learn about alcohol in a scientific way. They seem much to prefer their violently differing emotional fantasies about it. This was recognsied in the last century by a professor of medicine at the Ohio Sate University, Chauncey D. Leake at a symposium dubbed "Alcoholism"

This is as true today as it was then in 1957 when that statement was made. Alcoholics are viewed with a variety of emotions that range from the whole gamut from benign through disdainful amusement to outright revulsion. There is also a great deal of confusion. The most common question I hear from distraught parents or other family members is "why cant he/she just stop drinking? Why is she intetionally ruining her life? Why cant he drink like a normal person?

The answer to that is that an alcoholic, (unlike a drunkard "who could stop if he would",) would stop if he could." But in order for him to do that he has first to understand that it is not the sixth drink that gets him drunk, but the first. An alcoholics problem is not with how many drinks per se but with the liquid alcohol itself. More confusion is compounded by decades old myths and misconceptions that each camp clings to tenaciously preventing alcoholics from seeing this.

The manufacturers of alcohol further propagate these myths and their misconceptions out of their marketng ingenuity. Whether we are talking about beer, gin, rum, whisky, champagne, vodka changaaa, busaa, muratina, mnazi and so on, alcoholic beverages have the same destructive potetial as other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, mandrax, and bhang (cannabis sativa). But the manufacturers of these beverages constantly strive to portray people who use their product as gay, witty, succesful, social, happy, cool, sexy, fashinable people. By doing this they effectively shift the focus from the drinks to those who "abuse" or "drink irrespnsibly" - the drunks and heavy drinkers and of course the alcoholics. This language creates more revulsion for the "abuser" and conjures up other images of other abusers like "child abusers", "drug abusers" as if to seperate users of heroin and coacine and other illicit drugs from the users of alcohol and thus not have it viewed as a drug. But a heroin addict does not "abuse" heroin; he or she is addicted to it. How then would you tell a heroin addict to smoke or snort responsibly? How would you exhort a cigarette addict to smoke responsibly?

So how then do you tell an alcohol addict to drink responsibly?

At a meeting of over 3,500 heads of secondary schools and other learning institutions held in Mombasa last week, there was shocking revelation that 400,000 kenyan students are addicted to cigarettes, with 1,600 of these being girls. The figures for other drugs including alcohol are higher. The suffering is untold both to the addicted persons and their families. By and large, this is the loss of massive investment in this person as a productive Kenyan to help in the in the onerous task of nation-building. Finally, he becomes yet another statistic of those who died as a result of drug use.

But do we care? To us this person is just another statistic. Why worry after all if alcohol and other drugs dont get you, then you'll probably die in a matatu crash, botched carjac attempt, or shot by gangsters. But to the families of these people they are not mere statistics. they are beloved husbands, wives, daughters, sons, fathers, mothers, uncles and aunties. They leave great pain and emptiness after years of probably causing even greater pain. They leave behind guilt as the ones they have left behind wonder what they could have done. They wonder at what maybe they didn't do. They are left playing the anguishing but unfruitful game of "what if?"

So we ahve to care. As human beings it is our duty to care about our fellow man. Each one of us has a part we can play. But how do we help alcoholics who seem bent on self destruction? Do we ban alcoholic beverages? Do we gather more statistics to "shock" the public with? haven't we gathered enough statistics in all these decades? If we ahve why then does alcohol still drive amok through our towns and cities leaving in its wake a trail of destruction and death beyond belief?

We need to educate Kenyans on the drug alcohol - what it is capable of. We need to cross the raging river that has run for centuries with its trecherous undercurrents of myths and misconceptions. A fast-flowing river with mean rapids of prejudice ready to batter to death anyone unwary enough to be caught in its watery, rocky grip. Fortunately, on the other side of this river lies the truth; alcoholism is a disease and though it cannot be cured, can be managed. Alcoholism is not a sin, or moral depravity or lack of will power and that the stigma, shame and prejudice is all that stands between the afflicted person and help. It is this prejudice and shame that prevents alcoholics and their loved ones from seeking help.

And yet it is these alcoholics who hold the key to crossing this river, not with statistics but with their stories, which will counter centuries old myths and open Kenyan eyes to what the drug alcohol really is and is capable of and the true nature of the diesease alcoholism.

That is why I tell my story. In spite of the stigma surrounding alcoholics, I soldier on.

I pass on other stories I have heard for their story is also my story and ultimately by telling my story others will be encouraged to tell their story as my story becomes their story and finally our stories will become your story.

With every story told another length is put in place on the bridge to the other side. Everytime somebody stands up and says "I didn't know but now I understand," we are closer to the other side. Every time someone stands up and says "I am an alcoholic and this is my story..." we get even closer. These stories will encourage many to seek treatment, for as it stands now many are dying without ever knowing that help was at hand.

I heard stories from all kinds of backgrounds, but they all sounded like my story - they were my story. So I used them as those who told them intended them to be used: to get sober.

Now I pass them on for I was not given these stories to keep but to use and pass on. I tell them in schools, in the media, in churches, in houses and shout from the rooftops. We should all "go tell it on the mountain..."

David Ogot snr. is a freelance journalist/producer with personal experience with alcoholism. He can be reached at goinghomedotcom@yahoo.com website: www.goinghomekenya.org