Thread by @fisayosoyombo

The Humans Of Yaba Left (II)

1. Not all drug abusers got into it willfully. A lot of people don’t seem to know, but this is the truth.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

2. While at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Yaba (Yaba Left), I listened to the story of a young man from the East who was driven to drugs by a string of events triggered by a bike accident.

The accident severely damaged one of his legs.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

3. Till date, he walks with a heavy limp even though the crash is several years old already.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

4. His early treatment days came with excruciating pain, but there was this day the doc administered a pain-relieving drug that worked to smooth effect (my memory doesn’t exactly serve me if it was codeine or tramadol,but I remember it was one of these two).

#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

5. This patient slept really well that day & woke up feeling nice. He asked the doc what drug was administered on him but the doc declined to say. Well, he sought & got answers from a doctor-friend of his, and that was the start of his slide into drug abuse.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

6. He began to use it without prescription. Then it became from one drug to another in search of a new level of ‘high’.

In my time at the ward, he was someone I looked at with empathy. I kept on telling myself it could have been me.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

7. Well, it is possible to blame him for a few bad decisions along the line that have complicated his dependence on drugs, I agree. But what kick-started the entire process? A motorcycle accident that he had no control over!
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

8. Two lessons. One. Never judge a person living with substance abuse; not all of them got into it willfully. As a matter of fact, many of them had scant idea what they were getting into when trying it for the first time.
#TheHumansOfYabaLeft

9. Two. Never use a drug outside the doctor’s prescription. No matter what the drug is, no matter what the active components are, no matter how good it makes you feel, always seek a doctor’s consent.

THE END

#TheHumansOfYabaLeft