Who Drank All These Booze?

By Bolu Onasanya

Shout out to all the ladies and fellas that down several bottles every night. Bottoms up right? Okay! This is especially for you. Let's see if you're the reason for the statistics.

The other day as I checked my BBM timeline, I found an image that I got tickled by and I saved it up immediately. It seemed like what I had been looking for, to get myself back to writing articles. It struck the right cord in me. The image was obviously an excerpt from someone's post that one of my BBM contacts had probably munched and used as display picture.

The DP read: "Who drank it? Nigerian Breweries recorded sales of almost N300 billion in 2015 while Guiness is expected to record sales of N275 billion, totaling almost N600 billion (about $3 billion) which is about 3% of our GDP... The average Nigerian is either a Christian or a Muslim. Both religions enjoin adherents to avoid alcohol. So who drank the N600 billion worth of alcohol?..."

Fascinating, isn't it? Nigeria is the leading alcohol consuming country in Africa, according to surveys. Basically, the amount of alcohol we consume each year, if a dam were made out of it, we'd probably solve our electricity issues - forget Kanji dam.

So this bothers me a lot. I've seen a number of statistics on depression published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and I think there is a close relationship between the prevalance of depression and our alcohol consumption. My point is, it is proven that alcohol can induce or worsen depression and guess what? The biggest alcohol consumers are sad, moody and depressed. What an irony. Alcoholics deal with depression and many try to manage the illness by consuming more alcohol.

So this is how it works; alcohol does a quick fix. Gives you a temporary memory loss - when you consume more that your body can take, that is. You down a few bottles and you can't remember what was wrong with you before the first bottle. A few more bottles and you may even forget your girlfriend's name - the consequense of that is worse than shitting yourself in public; trust me. Once the alcohol wears off, you're done for! You feel worse than before and then you need another dose to blank out or knock off that feeling. But then, who makes the money? Who laughs most after all your purchases? Usually not you.

The truth is, there are a lot of sad people around. You and I know that we go through our bouts of sadness from time to time. This country won't even let you not be sad. There's just got to be something to be sad about. But you see, a few people have found a secret door out of this depressing life. Some call it emotional intelligence and mehn, that stuff is deep!

My point in this whole gist is that we have got to be more conscious of ourselves and our environment. A lot of people are depressed o! From celebrities to politicians to regular every day, people. And folks aren't even trying to find help. We just put up a smiley on social media and post our best pictures so people can think we've got it all going on. Then deep inside us, we're dying and drowning in our struggles.

Find help honey! You can't keep all that hurt to yourself and think you'd be fine. You've got to do something more than encouraging yourself or watching comedy shows. You've got to talk to a professional. I'm not that professional yet, but I sure have a few valuable pointers that work for me and I have a few friends that are great coaches. Trust me, I have over 4 years of clinical experience in mental health (as a therapist and not a patient o), so I know what I'm saying.

There are a lot of peoplw out there that need help but are not asking. I've been involved in psychotherapy sessions for mentally ill people and the results are sure. I know first hand that many people need emotion intelligence coaching or cognitive behavioral therapy to be able to manage their lives effectively, but you know what? They'd rather be on Snapchat or Instagram 'chilling'.

Don't hurt yourself. Find help. Don't go to the bottles for help, talk to someone that CAN HELP YOU. Your life depends on it. Cheers!

This post is brought to you by JOYED UP. The 'Joyed Up' Movement is a strategic campaign against depression. Apart from providing valuable information about depression, its causes, prevention and cure, we also provide resources and services for people suffering from depression, anxiety, sadness and moods. We have professionals who are ready to LISTEN TO YOU and HELP YOU through your emotional & mental struggles. CONFIDENTIALITY IS ASSURED.

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