Zoleka Mandela posts a sobering reminder of how her “depressed and suicidal” state drove her into addictions.
|||Zoleka Mandela has taken to social media to remind fans of the dangers of drugs and alcohol - based on her personal battle.
Mandela used an old picture of herself to illustrate her struggle, and further explained the toll her behaviour took on her children.
Alongside the picture, posted on Instagram, she wrote: “I took this picture in 2009, heavy into my addiction to cocaine and alcohol. This was what I looked like on a good day, I thought I looked cute but I looked like the very Hell I was causing my kids and my family (sic). “
She continues: “Weekends felt like one day, an entire weekend without showering or brushing my teeth. In rehab they teach you about how a lack of hygiene always accompanies drug addiction as well as 2 important life skills - hygiene and nutrition, I was overweight but I barely ate as much as I drank or snorted cocaine.
She went on to describe how her physical appearance deteriorated.
“I had a phuza face. Look how swollen my face is in this picture? Alcohol causes that puffiness, dehydrates the skin and body ... Not forgetting the effect 10yrs of cocaine use was doing, I used other drugs too but cocaine was my choice of drug.
“I'd sleep with make up on and if I had to go somewhere, I'd reapply it ... I felt so ugly on the inside though.
She also described the detrimental effects addiction had on her mental health.
“Most of the time, I just wanted to die ... I was depressed and suicidal and the only things that made me feel better about myself was men, sex, alcohol and drugs!
“I didn't know it then but I know it now, getting help (rehabilitation) was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. I never knew how to ask for help but I finally did it.
She concluded: “Next month on the 11th of August, I will celebrate being 6yrs clean and sober! Sobriety saved my life."
Mandela's post was flooded with messages of encouragement and praise. Among them was that of TV personality Lorna Maseko, who wrote: Your story is so inspiring ..... Thank God for grace .... #OnwardsAndUpwsrds"
Mandela released abook ‘When Hope Whispers’, in 2013 which recounts her battle with her addictions, losing her child, breast cancer and some of her prominent family’s experiences.
