In between periods of alcoholic binge while in high school till college, Oscar Bamwebaze Bamuhigire tried to stop a vice he started when he was 13. Not until he fully submitted to the guidance of Alcoholic Anonymous and gained a spiritual relationship with God that his drinking stopped. Till now.
Quitting alcohol meant he gained the confidence of his family, gained his self esteem, finished school with a second honours degree in Psychology, started a counseling center for alcoholics, wrote for newspapers, appeared on radio and TV on alcohol and drug addiction talks. He also wrote The Healing Power of Self Love, a self improvement book already out in circulation.
Reaching this recovered state was not that easy through ten years of an off and on affair with alcohol. Oscar says, “I cannot exchange my worst moments when sober to my best moments when drunk.”
The promise to quit and the temptation to drink for the last time or just for an occasion to celebrate, left harrowing imprints of the story of a ten-year alcoholic who finally stopped his addiction with AA’s guidance and submission to God.
Oscar Bamwebaze Bamuhigire from Kampala, Uganda started drinking and smoking marijuana at 13. He was detained in jail at the age of 14 for being idle and disorderly. He run away from home twice, and suffered poor grades.
By the end of ‘86, drinking and drug use escalated with his ‘glass mates’ in college. He was suspended from school. Other drinking buddies were suspended. Others died.
In one occasion, he urged his classmates to steal teachers’ chickens. He was expelled. He thought of committing suicide. He vowed never to drink again for the next five months, if ever. He stayed home and stayed sober for six months.
His parents were impressed and put him back in school at Makerere University in 1992. He met his former ‘glass mates’ who celebrated his ‘miraculous return’, with some booze. A half glass of wine became a glass to a bottle towards dawn the next day. A drinking binge resumed.
To stay away from his ‘glass mates’, his father sent him to a diploma school. He was distressed. Yet, rather than not go to school, he enrolled at the diploma institution and met Ozidi whom he noted “there was something in him which I liked”.
What he liked in Ozidi turned out that he drank booze. They struck a deal to drink only on Saturdays. The vow was broken when Oscar spotted Ozidi drinking on a Monday. That started another drinking binge.
That also meant a cut on financial support from his family. And because he wanted to finish an education, he walked 6 kilometers everyday to go to school.
He continued drinking. In one of his binges, he was detained in prison for being drunk at daytime. His father secured him after 3 days in prison. He resolved not to drink again so his father supported his schooling.
The vow was broken when he went with his friends to a liquor joint to continue drinking after a party in school. His father stopped giving him finances. Oscar did not care anymore what will happen to him until Bro. Tadewo visited his parents and asked them to resume support for Oscar. He promised to stop drinking.
The promise was broken with a drink to celebrate finishing the final exams. He went back to drinking.
His mother sent him to the parish priest and he was referred to Alcoholic Anonymous. He vowed never to drink again.
Joining Alcoholic Anonymous started a significant change in Oscar’s life. He read books on alcoholism and was on the way not to drink again. Not when he met an old glass mate who wanted to know how he succeeded in quitting alcohol. Oscar shared about AA. His friend offered Oscar a soda and the soda later became beer. The beer meant quitting AA for a year.
“You are going to die if you don’t stop drinking”, advised his doctor.
Some folks said, “You are bewitched”. So he attended Pentecostal churches to heal his alcoholism. But his drinking persisted. He went in and out of AA. He stayed sober for five months.
Not until he met a ‘glass mate’ whom he shared about quitting alcohol. The sharing turned to a bottle of beer offered by his friend, till Oscar succumbed and he was back on a binge. That was the last time.
Oscar realized how self- degrading it is not to conduct one’s self decently. Having grown close to his colleagues at AA, Oscar cannot anymore stomach the humiliation he did to himself. He vowed to surrender himself to AA.
His AA sponsor, an African-American lawyer, told him to keep away from his glass mates and drinking places.
His parents also told him, “to remember the terrible things that happened the last time you drank. When nothing else seems to be working, pray”. Pray he did.
He surrendered himself to God. Oscar says, “I made a fearless moral inventory of myself, the exact nature of my wrongs and asked God to remove these character defects from me. I sought through daily prayer and meditation to improve my contact with God, praying for the knowledge of his will and the power to carry it out. Since then, I have never desired a drink.”
In his book, “The Healing Power of Self Love”, he says, “In the field of alcoholism and drug addiction treatment, there have always been questions for which there were no satisfactory answers: Is substance abuse a problem of discipline or a disease? Why is it that most alcoholics and drug addi
cts do not seek for, or receive treatment? Why is it that only 5- 10% of alcoholics and drug addicts respond to treatment? Why do untreated addicts have a better chance at breaking the bond of addiction than addicts who get treated? Why has the incidence of recovery without the help of formal treatment continued to rise? Are the successes of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A) nothing more than spontaneous remission?"
In making his revolutionary contribution to the scientific world, Oscar explains how "addicts can enhance their chances of recovery from addiction through the treatment programs of their choice, by utilizing the ancient tools of discipline, lateral thinking, and insight from the life experiences of the world’s greatest leaders.
And above all, to love one's self and to have a spiritual relationship with God."
Link here at Oscar Bamuhigire's blog.
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