Nollywood actress, Chacha Eke-Faani has shared testimony in church about how she recovered from a battle with mental illness.
A video making the rounds online shows the mother-of-four thanked her estranged husband, Austin Fanni, for sticking with her despite her mental health challenges.
During the testimony, Chacha revealed that she was staying in a hotel with her husband and two children when she went insane.
According to ChaCha, she and her estranged hubby were unaware that it was a mental illness as they felt it was either a demonic attack, voodoo or marine spirit. They even blamed some family members for being against their marriage.
Her words below:
I would vandalized the hotel properties, the suite in the parlor had three cushions I ripped it off with a tiny knife, it was nothing but madness; all I needed was a trip to the hospital but I didn’t go because my husband and I, (who is seated here supporting me) attributed it to demonic attack, voodoo, Marine Spirit.
“Oh it could be from Nollywood, Because of envy. Oh it’s from my parents because they never supported this marriage, It’s my husband, since I married you my life started going.. off point
I couldn’t stop those mean actions. They had to band my hands and legs to the hospital. It was in the psychiatrist at Asaba that a doctor diagnosed me of bipolar Disorder. I had heard that name in movies, Because I’m an actor that name seems fictitious. I didn’t take that news pleasantly because what do you mean? I am way too beautiful, talented and intelligent to have what they call in my area “skur-skur”. It came with another pleasant news that I was pregnant of course I love babies. I was given drugs but when I went home I was flushing them down in the toilet.
I had another episode in 2020 in Asaba. My husband was on his way to Lagos to sign a contract. I was on the laptop writing script, before I realized I went mad again. I destroyed everything, I burnt my clothes, the kids clothes… Chandelier just like I did in Enugu. I reduced everything we had to trash.
It was in three to four days. On the fourth day I didn’t eat I was just drinking water I felt like I had super powers. I felt I had two entities in me.
I would run when nobody was chasing me, hallucinations, delusions. I loved my husband, I left four kids at home including a year old. The reason I left home was because I felt in my head that this man (husband) wants to use me for rituals.
The nature of my work doesn’t support my illness. I pretend for a living. People pay me to pretend to be who I’m not, I have done it for over a decade so i am a guru at it. But all that pretense begun to back fire at me, I began to loose myself in the midst of it all. I will come on social media and write nonsense.
I resumed work, and the stress started to drown my brain. I had another episode in 2021, every year I had different episodes. This particular one in 2021 I burnt down all our wedding photos, vital work documents, our clothes..
The expensive treasures that I still have is my husband and children. When I realized that bipolar made me unstable in my mood and dealings with people, I began to make conscious efforts to become a better person.
