Uthanda Bani: Nosipho’s tough battle with painkillers

What would you do if your partner had an addiction that they just couldn’t get away from? Well, if you’ve tried everything in your power to help them and nothing has changed, you might consider taking them to Uthanda Bani? The reality show, hosted by Basani Chauke, a social worker, is aimed at helping people struggling with addiction.

The first episode kicked off by introducing viewers to Kagiso, a 25-year-old who’s seeking help for his girlfriend who is addicted to painkillers. Kagiso and Nosipho have been together for three years, but things took a turn for the worse after she had a miscarriage.

A broken relationship

“She has an addiction… She’s addicted to painkillers. It started as a coping mechanism, but now it’s a habit,” he said.  He added that it’s affecting their relationship and they’re always fighting and arguing. Sometimes they go days without speaking to each other. Kagiso described his girlfriend as someone who’s understanding, cool and outgoing. However, things are not the same anymore.

Kagiso explained that after having a miscarriage a year ago, Nosipho went to one therapy session and never went again. “This is someone that I love. I can’t leave her just like that.”

Trying to ease the pain

When asked how the miscarriage affected him, he told the host: “It did break me at some point, I had my own ways of dealing with it. I went for therapy…” While they both had individual therapy sessions, they never went to a session together. Sharing her side of the story, Nosipho confirmed that she does take painkillers because of what they went through as a couple. She said while she tried therapy, it didn’t help her. “I’ve lost a child. I was pregnant in June 2022. We lost the child. The reason why I take these painkillers is because I’m trying to ease the pain,” she explained.

Things are so bad that Nosipho even struggles to sleep at night and relies heavily on pain medication. She shared that she mixes different pills and it’s sometimes more than one packet. Nosipho didn’t realise that this was a problem until Kagiso brought her to the show.

She promised to try to stop taking them and was asked to get rid of the ones she had in her bag.

Basani then shared some important words with Nosipho. “So, instead of dealing with the real issues, you ran away to something that would hinder the pain or disturb and distract you. But the real pain is still there. So, meaning that once you stop this it means that everything that you were running away from is going to come back,” she said.

After their conversation, Nosipho went to the bathroom and flushed all her pills away. She then promised to go back to therapy to deal with the problem. Hopefully, this is a new start for the couple.

All the episodes of Uthanda Bani are available to binge-watch on Showmax.