Popular Ghanaian Hiplife artiste Okyeame Kwame has stated some possible reasons why many artistes and creatives resort to drug abuse.

Speaking in a Joy Prime interview following the release of a JoyNews documentary by Kwame Dadzie, Okyeame Kwame remarked that most creatives turn to drugs due to their reluctance to reflect deeply on their thoughts and deeds, which would have allowed them to learn valuable lessons.

According to him, to drown such thoughts, many creatives engage in alcohol, sex, and drugs.

“If you close your eyes and sit down for 10 seconds, immediately, all the problems you have in life will come into your brain. Because your brain is so smart that it's always trying to solve your problem. So immediately you keep quiet, all your problems come up.

“That is why people are always trying to watch a movie, always trying to read a book, trying to talk to somebody, trying to have sex, trying to drink alcohol, and trying to smoke something to divert their brains from dealing with their problems.

“And that is the time when artistes are not willing to sit down quietly for their thoughts to punish them. But immediately they feel the problems come up, they take it, and then all the problems will go away because they have numbed their pain receptors...” he said.

Okyeame Kwame narrated his personal battle with depression and how he dealt with it by going into a meditative state for a year.

According to him, this allowed him to reflect on his thoughts and eventually come up with his hit “Made in Ghana” album.

“Somebody else could have resorted to becoming a sex addict to fulfill the emptiness or becoming a drug addict to fulfill the emptiness. But I let it beat me up. I sat down quietly for one year. I didn't make any music, I didn't go anywhere, I didn't pick up my phone calls. I took my phone away for one year.

“I stopped everything and I sat down quietly, and went into meditation. So it was immediately after that [period] that I made the ‘Made in Ghana’ album,” he said.

Okyeame Kwame advised other creatives not to shun away such thoughts and embrace the solutions that come as a result.

“You have to sit down quietly for it to do that to you. Immediately you allow the thoughts to punish you for what you have not been able to do, it will immediately give you a solution,” he said.

ID/BB

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