Renowned Nollywood actress Chacha Eke has bravely shared her experience with mental illness, shedding light on why she and her husband made the decision not to keep valuable possessions at home.
Having faced a bipolar relapse in the past, the esteemed actress has now become an ambassador for mental health. She revealed how her husband took precautions by ensuring they did not have valuable assets at home, fearing the potential harm they could cause.
Chacha vividly recalled a distressing incident that occurred at the Ritz Hotel in Enugu, where she experienced a severe episode that resulted in her breaking and damaging everything in sight, leaving her family with only the clothes they were wearing.
In her words,
“To be frank if the disorder that I have been battling with didn’t sufficiently disgrace me to the point that it has, chances are I won’t be here championing.
My psychiatrist was my biggest nightmare, I wish I could kill him because it was him for the first time after years of man!c episodes, after years of violence, it was from his mouth I heard the name of what was wrong with me and I was pained.
I felt an ugly experience in Enugu in the Rit Hotel where I smashed everything, wrecked the whole hotel, and reduced everything that my family had to only what we were wearing. I went untreated.
Two years we came to Asaba and I had another manic. This time I wrecked the whole house. It was a habit, at some point we didn’t have house properties because it was only a matter of months before I wreck it.
He took me to FDAH and after some days, he came and gave me the verdict, the diagnosis. I didn’t like taking drugs so I flushed them down the toilet when they discharged me. I had another relapse and they put me back in the hospital”.
