Actress Tonto Dikeh has opened up about her past battle with addiction while advocating against drug abuse.
In a lengthy post shared on her social media page, Dikeh recounted her experience on what she described as a dark path, stressing that substance abuse does not heal pain.
The actress urged members of the public to say no to drugs and to show compassion to those struggling with addiction.
She wrote, “SAY NO TO DRUGS. I’ve been down this dark road, and I can tell you firsthand: substances don’t make the pain go away. The hurt stays, and addiction slowly steals your life, one day at a time.
“The chaos around you doesn’t define who you are; it’s just masking a heart in pain. If I could break free and get help, so can you.
“I was once the chaos people judged. The noise. The mess. The broken decisions.
“But what many didn’t see was the truth behind it all. behind the anger, the addiction, the self-destruction, was a soul screaming for help, not attention.
“I wasn’t lost because I loved the darkness. I was lost because I was hurting. I was desperate for relief, for peace, for someone to see past my actions and hear my cry”.
Dikeh described drugs as a symptom and not the root problem, adding that addiction was her escape from pain she could not articulate.
She added: “Drugs weren’t the problem, they were the symptom. Addiction wasn’t my identity, it was my escape from pain I didn’t know how to name.
“And yet, God heard the cries I couldn’t articulate. When people saw chaos, Heaven saw a wounded soul worth rescuing. When I was written off, God was writing a comeback”.
The actress urged the public not to stigmatise those struggling with addiction but to continue praying for them.
