Back 'newspaper articles' index.

One of the most disheartening scenarios I constantly come across in my attempts to create awareness about the disease of alcoholism is that talented, gifted, warm and loving intelligent human beings who should be enjoying their lives are wallowing in misery

These people, indeed, have a lot to contribute to the Kenyan society but just continue on their tragic downward spiral as family members agonise over their seeming inability to find help for them.

Family members asking "what can we do? Why does he drink Like this? Why did she have to die is there no way we could have saved her?" Yet help is at hand help is available but do people want to know?

Of course they want to know what to do. The main obstacle preventing them from asking however, is stigma. Stigma which surrounds the disease of alcoholism the flames of which are fanned constantly, consciously or unconsciously by Kenyans of all classes.

Stigma which is supported by massive misinformation, prejudice and out and out myths many born as is usual in such cases out of fear which is in turn born out of lack of understanding.

Where does one turn for help? The church? The government? The media?

All three institutions usually have answers when all else fails. This then is the paradox when it comes to the drug alcohol and the disease of alcoholism. In an intricate jungle of centuries old myths and misinformation, denial and vested interests of those who benefit from its' manufacture and sale the loser is the alcoholic and their family.

Yet one would have thought at least the Church which is usually very vocal when it comes to issues impinging on the welfare of Kenyans would stand up and be counted. But no, for the Church is also a purveyor of prejudice when it concerns alcoholism

Last week Fr. Peter Migwi of the Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi was quoted by a section of the print media thus "most of us live in denial. We don't want to confess weaknesses such as alcoholism or deviant sexuality because we fear that we will be rejected."

Weaknesses! This was a senior member of the clergy unconsciously speaking his mind and consequently revealing his true feelings on the subject of alcoholism. Not only calling it a weakness but talking about it in the same breath as "deviant sexuality" clearly shows that our clergy still have a long way to go on this subject.

For how will the church help you if they too are not only ignorant but seem to feel there is nothing to learn for is not drunkenness a sin and alcoholism merely some scapegoat to allow people to escape their responsibilities?

By hanging on to the age old myths about alcoholism the Church is indeed doing a great disservice to hundreds of thousands of alcoholics and their families. Drunkenness is a sin for it is willful, a result of conscious choice. Alcoholism conversely is not a sin for one has lost control over alcohol and indeed has become powerless over alcohol and therefore there is no choice in the matter. For somebody to sin, the element of choice must be present.

Fr. Maurice Gelinas sums it up extremely lucidly in his very revealing book Alcoholism and You in which he emphatically states "alcoholism is NOT A SIN"

"A sin is something judged to be (a) wrong, done (b) freely and (c) knowingly, with all these conditions fulfilled together. If any one of these conditions is absent, there is no sin.

1. Drinking in excess of what is socially acceptable or to the point of intoxication is objectively wrong. No argument.
2. Drunkards (given to excessive use of alcohol: often drunk) are not necessarily alcoholic. Generally the drinking alcoholic is a drunkard. The basic difference between the two is a matter of control: the alcoholic has lost the ability to control his drinking of alcohol (the main characteristic of this disease), while the drunkard still has that ability. If no ability to control, the no freedom of choice.
3. The alcoholic does not intend becoming one, no more than the syphilitic intends his disease. In both cases there could have been, and most probably were, objectively sinful acts linked to the disease but the disease itself that is linked to those acts is not a sin.

"Further proof that the alcoholic did not plan becoming one is his vehement and adamant denial that he is one, even when confronted with irrefutable evidence, irrefutable to everyone but him, of his habitual alcoholic behavior and of the problems his drinking creates in one or other area of his life," argues Fr. Gelinas.

Yet the clergy still persist with their 'demon rum' sermons castigating their congregation to "repent your evil ways! Stop your wickedness! Do not give in to Weaknesses!" On and on they harangue and thus turn away any would be alcoholic seeking for help as well as recovering alcoholics who having embraced God or a 'Higher Power' during recovery or are still in the process of finding Him find they cannot reconcile what they have learnt about alcoholism with these sermons.

These sermons and attitudes further reinforce false beliefs held by family members that indeed their loved one is only suffering from "weakness" and "lack of will power " or is "immoral" and this prevents them from seeking out help as they cover themselves with the smelly, thick, oozing coat of shame.

Ultimately by doing this they continue to suffer.

Trying everything in their power and spending vast sums of money (where it is available) to try and 'help' their loved one 'get serious' with life. They feel guilty, that somehow they caused the person to drink like this.

"It must be something we did or didn't do! She is angry at us. If we get him a proper job he will settle down." Are all reasons I hear time and time again from pain crazed mothers, fathers, wives and husbands.

But worse still, when the Church is not busy perpetuating misconceptions and peddling myths, they simply duck the whole issue and hope it will go away. They do not talk about it instead praying that things will somehow make themselves right. Well they do not.

Early this month I presented a paper during a one day workshop organised for the Diocesan Clergy St. Stephen's Cathedral Nairobi where the target audience were the entire church clergy, lay leaders, mothers union and other opinion leaders. It was during this function, that another presenter Dr. Samuel Gateere did not mince his words about what the Churches role.

Launching into the Church Gateere came out shooting from the hip. Christians he felt have almost come to believe the world is as it should be. "They feel that if they repeat this again and again it will be the truth. You think things are the way you wish things to be, the way you would like them to be. This is self delusion and Christians are swimming in this."

What makes the whole issue all the more painful is that alcoholism is a treatable disease.

What hinders this is lack of widespread recognition of the fact that it is a disease. Even during a lot of the workshops I have attended the very persons charged with passing this message are the self-same people who do not believe in its' validity.

How then do they expect to effectively pass the message when somebody says "alcoholism is a chronic disease" yet you can see they feel in their guts that it is a moral or self inflicted problem.

The Kenyan church needs to come out openly and learn about this disease so as to help their congregations. They need to store away for good the 'demon rum' sermons whose time has passed and which are of no use to alcoholics or their families. All manner of relevant literature and audio-visual material abounds.

Let clergy talk to recovering alcoholic's (and there is no shortage of them) as well as allow them some minutes to talk to the congregations all over the country. For alcohol is here with us and it is here to stay whether we like it or not.

Trying to ban it is a pointless task. The only way to conquer alcohol is to understand it. I fought it for 27 years to no avail. Everything I tried failed. But today I understand it and with that knowledge has come a miraculous change.

Kenya is at least 25 years behind Western countries as far as public awareness of alcoholism and the effects of alcohol is concerned given the fact that the Kenyan public are totally unaware of two ever so basic facts namely that alcohol is a dangerous drug and that alcoholism is a disease. We have no comprehensive up to date policy on alcohol to regulate its manufacture, sale and consumption.

Even in the United States of America where permissiveness is flaunted they long ago realised the dangers inherent in unregulated alcohol sale and consumption with the result that most States revised their minimum drinking age upwards from 18 to 21. Here in Kenya there does not seem to be any minimum drinking age and the Church is resolutely mum as several generations disappear.

For it is at this age that many disastrous decisions and consequences occur as young people consume alcoholic beverages.

Continues next week

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