CURING ALCOHOLISMby Cathy Majtenyi
They meet every day. They mostly listen in supportive silence, sometimes sharing their own horror stories of where they've been, but always hopeful of where they're going. They all have one thing in common: they can never again partake in what has become a favourite pastime for many people in Kenya and around the world: taking a drink. The giant billboards that dot the Nairobi landscape show pictures of smiling, happy, people. But the smiles don't last long; the Tuskers or Pilsners that these seemingly fun-loving people hold in their hands are actually poison that can break up marriages, cause people to lose jobs, or even turn them into murderers, as some have so bitterly discovered. "Alcoholism is an allergy and a disease," notes Fr. Daniel Kenney. "You come to see that you're not a bad person, but you're a person who has an allergy." "Recovery is a life-long process," says Teresa Ngigi, program director of Redhill Place, an alcoholism and drug treatment centre in Limuru. "Once an addict, always an addict. They are only one drink away from the drunk." That is why thousands of people all over Nairobi attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings once a week, or even every day, to share their stories of alcoholism with others suffering from the same condition, to urge their colleagues not to take a drink that can send them into the downward spiral from which they came, or to seek help when they themselves feel the need to hit the bottle. AA is a support network of recovering alcoholics who adopt, and live by a programme that addresses the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of alcohol abuse. The programme is based on 12 "steps" designed to transform the alcoholic's mind and heart so that he or she will be able to resist the lure of the bottle. The first three steps are foundational and recognize that "we don't get messed up alone, and we don't go into recovery mode alone," says Fr. Kenney, co-founder of Redhill Place. A person admits that he or she is powerless over alcohol, needs to be restored to "sanity." We must "turn our lives and will over to the loving care of God" or a "higher power," for those who don't believe in God, he explains. The next three deal with "an honest and fearless moral inventory of all of our faults," says Fr. Kenney. People admit their failings and shortcomings to themselves and to others, and are willing to have God remove these failings and shortcomings from them. The last three steps focus on relationships, directing the alcoholic to make a list of people they have wronged and come up with ways to make amends for those wrongs. The final three steps are "maintenance strategies" that urge people to make a "daily moral inventory" of their lives so that they may immediately correct any mistakes, to deepen their relationship with God, and to reach out and support others who are going through similar struggles. In addition to supporting one another at meetings, AA members also have sponsors who are "honest, firm, and understanding" people of the same sex whom they contact any time when they feel tempted to take a drink. People are best able to live out the 12 steps if they attend meetings, explains Fr. Kenney. In fact, the success rate of AA is very high. Out of 100 alcoholics, an average of 67 will stop taking alcohol "if they work the programme." That compares to two people out of 100 who quit alcohol through sheer willpower alone; two with the help of counseling; two through medicine or psychiatry; and two through religion and prayer only. Alcoholics are in recovery for the rest of their lives and are never able to take another drink, because their bodies cannot physically or psychologically handle the substance, explains Fr. Kenney. "In 25-and-a-half years, I have not had any alcohol, but I still go to one meeting a week," he says. "Though I haven't had alcohol, I'm still recovering as long as I'm in this body of mine." Alcoholics Anonymous began in the United States in 1935 when a New York businessman visited his doctor friend in Akron, Ohio. The businessman had been sober for years, while the doctor was still struggling with alcohol abuse. The two friends: "Dr. Bob and Bill W." shared a great deal with one another and began to reach out to people with similar problems. Out of their work and sharing evolved the 12-step programme. The worldwide movement was born with the publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. AA first sprang up in Kenya in the mid-1970s. But it was Fr. Kenney who helped popularise and spread the movement in his eight years in Kenya. "When I came to Kenya, I met many people who were like me 25-and-a-half years ago," he explains. "It's my turn now to provide for Kenyans the privilege that saved my life." There are now approximately 33 AA groups in the Nairobi area that meet regularly. There are other groups in Mombasa, Malindi, Nyeri, Meru, and Asumbi. One alcoholic intimately affects the lives of an average of six other people, says Fr. Kenney, while a professional--who is one out of every 10 alcoholics--affects 60 people. While there appear to be no official figures, he estimates that there are two million alcoholics in Kenya; as a result, 26 million Kenyans are somehow affected by alcohol. From statistics culled from the Traffic Police, Redhill Place programme director Ngigi says that 65 percent of the 6,000 people who died in traffic accidents during one year in the late 1990's did so as a direct or indirect result of alcohol or substance abuse. Alcohol abuse is the vector for an equally deadly condition: AIDS. Fr. Kenney refers to a University of Nairobi study that found that more than 40 percent of people who had contacted AIDS in Kenya did so under the influence of alcohol. Alcoholism can hit people from all walks of life, says Ngigi. For instance, of the 14 alcohol and drug patients who checked into Redhill Centre at its opening on April 2 of this year, nine had studied abroad. Most were urban dwellers between the ages of 24 and 40; all but one were men. According to Ngigi, it is much more difficult for alcoholics to get help in the rural areas or for people there to admit that they have a problem. There are few or no telephone lines or other methods of communication so recovering alcoholics have difficulty in contacting their sponsors. Also, it is it is often assumed that it is "manly" to drink; and family members, especially wives, have the tendency to "enable" alcoholics by rescuing them from bad situations or otherwise covering up their condition. For women, drinking is such a terrible stigma that few women will admit to having a problem, Ngigi says. The recovery process--especially for hard-core or long-term alcoholics--usually begins with time spent in a detoxification centre where, under the supervision of a doctor, alcoholics will stop "cold turkey" to get the alcohol out of their systems. Withdrawal symptoms include vomiting, hallucinations, delirium, weakness, memory lapses, and despair. After this they can check into a residential centre such as Redhill Place. Patients stay there from three to six months and undergo extensive therapy. It is here where they receive a "crash course" in AA and the 12 steps. Once they check out, recovering alcoholics are urged to continue with AA and the 12 steps. All in all, recovery is a lifetime process in which God (or the "higher power") has to be the centre, says Ngigi. "The cornerstone of recovery is to stop denying."
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