For over a week now, I have been trying to gather my thoughts to tell you about an encounter I had with a drug addict. I wasn’t sure how to approach this story or where exactly it should lead, but one thing I know for certain is this: I came here to tell you to stay away from hard drugs, drug abuse, and anything that alters your mind to the point where you lose control of yourself.
The entire experience lasted no more than 10–20 minutes, yet in those few minutes I found myself thinking about how quickly a situation could turn dangerous and how helpless one could feel in a matter of seconds. It left me shaken, and to be honest, a little traumatized.
Before now, drug abuse was something I mostly heard about or saw from a distance. But experiencing it up close changed something in me. It made me realize how unsafe environments can become when people are under the influence of hard substances.
Let me give you a bit of context.
I had stepped out briefly with my parents’ neighbour. On our way back, we needed to take a tricycle, what we call keke or napep here in Nigeria. Usually, I avoid sitting at the back, but since there were two of us, I sat there and ended up in the middle. Just before the ride started, a man joined us and sat right beside me.
While the driver stopped to buy fuel, the man called someone from across and he got something in a small nylon bag. I noticed him sniffing the substance shortly after. Within minutes, his behaviour changed drastically.
He became restless and unpredictable.
One moment his hand would swing and hit me, the next moment he would lean dangerously out of the tricycle. His movements became so unpredictable that it began to disrupt the entire ride. At some point, he started distracting the driver as well. My fear quickly shifted from discomfort to genuine concern; concern that he might jump out of the vehicle, hurt himself, or even cause an accident that could injure everyone inside.
Halfway through the journey, I asked the driver to stop because I no longer felt safe.
Sometimes you don’t fully grasp how dangerous something can be until you experience it firsthand. That short ride was one of those moments for me. It reminded me how substance abuse doesn’t only harm the person involved, it can put everyone around them at risk.
So if you’re reading this, please hear me clearly: stay away from drugs and harmful substances. Curiosity is never worth the risk. What may begin as experimentation can easily spiral into addiction, loss of control, and damage that extends far beyond the individual.
I won’t lie, the experience shook me. Since then, I have found myself feeling increasingly uncomfortable around environments where people are under the influence of drugs, smoke, or consume excessive alcohol. It’s difficult to feel safe in spaces where people are no longer fully in control of themselves.
Drug abuse is often framed as a personal choice, but the truth is that its consequences rarely remain personal. It spills into public spaces, into families, into communities, and sometimes into the lives of complete strangers.
If you are already struggling with substance abuse, I sincerely hope you reconsider the path you’re on. Please seek help. There is always room for restoration, healing, and a new beginning. The earlier you stop, the better.
If you have never picked up a smoke, never ever try it. Don’t!
No high is worth losing yourself, or putting others in danger.
Sweetheart, I am so sorry that you experienced that. It sounds scary AF. You, and others could have been seriously injured and that's not OK.
However, addiction is not a personal choice. If someone is struggling with addiction (emphasis on struggle), "reconsidering" isn't as simple as you think.
79.9% of people who use drugs globally do not meet the criteria for "problematic use" or "substance use disorders". That means only 21% of all the people in the world who use drugs actually become addicted or use drugs to such a degree that it's harmful to them or others.
So what separates the addicts from the recreational users? What determines whether someone will get hooked? (I'm not talking about dependence, i.e., someone who develops a physical dependency on medication; I'm referring specifically to addiction.)
There are several factors, but the most prominent of the lot is trauma.
Think about that for a moment.
People who get addicted to drugs are, whether they realise it or not, traumatised. Most often that trauma occurred in childhood.
People get addicted to drugs, not because they don't care about anything other than having fun, or because they just wanna get high and enjoy themselves (even though it might start that way), but because using the drug provides relief from suffering.
Judging people and telling them that they are bad or doing something bad is futile. They already know this; they already feel shame, whether they admit it out loud or not. Adding more shame and criticism doesn't help people to get better; it increases the odds of death.
Compassion and empathy do inspire and support. If you're not in a space where you have capacity for that, that's also OK. But you know what they say: if you don't have anything nice to say....
I hope you have a safe space where you can process and work through the residue of the experience and that your symptoms dissolve quickly 🖤
This is so traumatizing, there’s nothing to be enjoyed in taking drugs or any substance.