A recovering Nigerian man identified as Abraham has opened up about his nearly 10-year battle with drug addiction, revealing how substance dependence cost him his job, damaged his relationship with his family and left him with lasting physical consequences.
Abraham shared his experience during the fourth episode of Season Four of NarcoTales, a programme aired on NDLEA TV, where he recounted how his addiction gradually took control of different aspects of his life.
According to him, he realised how severely the addiction had affected him after he lost a job at an oil company because of an offensive body odour that his colleagues had repeatedly complained about.
He said his colleagues would open the office windows and air conditioner and spray air freshener whenever he arrived at work because of the smell.
“I couldn’t last on the job beyond a couple of months. They had to let me go and put me on sick leave,” he recounted.
Abraham said losing the job became a turning point because he realised that the substance was no longer helping him deal with the pain that had initially led him to use drugs.
Instead, he had become dependent on the substance and would take it whenever cravings emerged, describing the process as almost automatic.
“At that point, I knew that the initial pain that made me start taking it, I was no longer feeling it. But yet, I was taking the drug based on impulse,” he said.
He explained that the addiction affected virtually every part of his life, including his finances, health, career and relationships.
His family also suffered the consequences. Abraham said his parents eventually separated while his mother was trying to help him overcome his addiction, while his relationship with his siblings became strained.
He said that even after recovering, the years of addiction had left such a deep impact that he and his siblings now felt like strangers.
Beyond the financial losses, Abraham described time as the greatest thing he lost during his years of substance dependence.
He said he watched as people around him progressed with their lives, securing jobs, getting married and building their futures, while his own opportunities passed him by.
“I lost almost 10 years of my life due to this,” he said, adding that while money could be lost and recovered, “time is something you can’t regain.”
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