Innes Ward Councillor Jody Mitic has not been seen around City Hall lately, during one of the busiest times of the year.

The City’s 2018 budget will be voted on Wednesday, but Mitic has been noticeably absent during several budget discussions.

In an exclusive interview with CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon, Mitic opened up about the struggles that have kept him from the council chambers.

“It’s been a rough year,” Mitic said. “I am frankly not doing well mentally; I’m not doing well physically. I feel like I failed in my duty as a councillor by not being forward.”

Mitic admitted he’s been dealing with addictions again lately, after he could not wear his prosthetic legs. He was experiencing more infections and says his legs had just “given up” on accepting the prosthetics. He lost his legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan 10 years ago. He struggled with addiction to painkillers during his recovery. On Tuesday, he admitted to a new addiction.

“You lose one addiction and you find another,” Mitic said. “In the past I became addicted to my pain pills, which is why I’m so sympathetic to the supervised injection issues. I get it. I’ve been there. I kicked that monkey off my back, and I guess I found another one. I was drinking too much to deal with the pain I’ve been in.”

Mitic said he noticed his new addiction in the spring. He was missing community events and time with his family, but he says the people close to him noticed something was wrong.

“They knew there was an issue. I don’t act like that and I haven’t acted like that in a long time,” he said.

Mitic says being able to serve as a City Councillor gave him a second chance, but he feels now he’s been letting people down.

“When I retired from the military, I was very lost,” he said, “but I was lucky enough to win the election against some very tough competition, and I got to swear an oath to Queen and Country again and I thought, ‘I was new, I was over it,’ and then my legs completely gave up wanting to be in prosthetics. I was in pain, and I turned to drinking to ignore the problem. The more I drank, the slower I healed.”

Mitic says he’s not in rehab, “as people would expect,” but he has an Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor and he is going to return to the rehabilitative hospital to learn how to use prosthetic legs again.

He assured listeners and his constituents he will be present at City Council Wednesday to debate the budget. He had originally been listed as not attending, but he said he wrote himself as being away, in case he couldn’t make it.

“Better to say I won’t be there than to say I will be and then not be,” Mitic said.

“The one thing I can say to the residents of my ward, and anybody else in the city who's asking, is that I know I have been missing things, but I really have tried my best to stay up to date with emails and my staff are very good at keeping me informed. I was doing the best that I thought I could with the tools I was willing to use. I thought, if I could just get to the holidays, I could have some time to myself and I can deal with it at a time when nobody expects me to be anywhere, but that was my mistake. It was a huge tactical error on my part.”

Mitic said he thinks coming out about this may change the way people approach him, but he is still the same Jody Mitic.

“I’m still the blockhead you all know. I was this way when you met me, I’ll be this way if we ever see each other again,” he said.

At that, Solomon pointedly asked if Mitic was safe, an assurance Mitic gave.

“I am very safe, Evan,” he said. “I have never had those thoughts, despite the lowest I’ve been.”

He ended the interview by urging anyone who may be going through a similar situation to call someone and get help.

You can call the Ottawa and Region Distress Centre at 613-238-3311.

The Ottawa Area Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous can be reached at (613) 237-6000.