Andrew Gillum, the once-rising Democratic star who narrowly lost the 2018 Florida governor’s career, opened for the first time since leaving public life and entered rehab.
Speaking in an 11-minute Instagram post on Monday, the 40-year-old politician was candid about his struggles against alcoholism and depression, which he said worsened significantly after his loss to the now-governor. Ron DeSantis.
“I went to rehab to focus on my problems with alcoholism, having grown up in a home where my father battled alcohol addiction, and then died of that addiction. I knew very well the cost it had on my father’s dreams and ambitions, ”said the former mayor of Tallahassee.
In March, Gillum was found drunk inside a Miami Beach hotel room with another man who allegedly took a methamphetamine overdose.
The political star, once on the rise, was found vomiting in the Mondrian South Beach restroom while the other man was treated for a possible drug overdose. Officers found three crystal methamphetamine bags on the bed and on the floor of the hotel room at the time.
In a matter of days, the former aspiring governor announced that he would withdraw from politics to enter rehabilitation.
“After talking to my family and reflecting deeply, I made the decision to seek help, guidance, and enter a rehab center at this time,” Gillum said in a statement.
He admitted at the time that after his loss in the governor’s career, “he fell into a depression that has led to alcohol abuse.”
In his Monday video, he further addressed the impact of that loss.
“I totally underestimated the impact the loss of the governor’s race had on my life, and the way those impacts began to appear in all aspects of my life,” he admitted, adding that he did not want to talk about the loss. because it was a “constant reminder” of his own failure.
After the hotel incident in March, Gillum said, public shame weighed on him, describing it as something that “cuts you off.”
“My things had to be public and cause great shame and rumors, some false, some true, the shame I felt for all that … it was tearing me apart. I needed real help trying to unpack that, “she added.
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