NTV presenter and news anchor Faridah Nakazibwe shared a recent challenging spell in which she suffered a severe mental breakdown that nearly cost her her job and even triggered suicidal thoughts.
Nakazibwe yesterday, Thursday recounted the heart-wrenching story to her family and friends (some of whom broke down in tears) during her graduation dinner, as she celebrated her Masters’s Degree in Business Administration.
The struggle, she said, started just after she embarked on the course at Victoria University. Up to now, she’s unable to pinpoint what really triggered this breakdown. Yet she was crying all the time, failing at her job and studies; she even cut off communication with her friends and family.
Around this time, Nakazibwe says, a lot of people were coming to her seeking help, but not knowing the amount of mental stress she was under.
“There were so many people coming my way, some were calling me ‘mother of the nation.’ They bombarded me from all corners with problems, and I took on the burden of solving everyone’s problems, but I wasn’t sharing with any of them about my problems,” he said.
Nakazibwe says she started dodging classes, and her work rate dropped. After reading the evening news, she would go in her car and take a long sleep before driving back home.
She stopped taking calls from her lecturers and some of her friends, and even communication with her mother slowed down.
“I could wake up and cry, but I wasn’t sure what was making me cry,” she narrated. “It got to a point where I hated everything… I did not want to kill myself, but I didn’t mind dying,” she said.
“The only thing that kept me moving was my children; those are the only people I was worried about because I wondered who was going to take care of them and give them the future that I wanted.”
