poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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EXCLUSIVE: Harrowing before and after pictures capture the true face of the ice epidemic ravaging Australian suburbs - as former addicts share shocking details of their descent to hell and back
Three years ago in a small town north of Sydney, a pretty young blonde woman named Jess had reached the lowest point of her raging ice addiction.
She was in the back of an ambulance racing towards hospital where she was about to undergo the fight of her life.
It had started when she started convulsing, then vomiting after a drug hit in a stranger's house, where she had gone to score.
'My weight was 42 kilos, with bones sticking out, ratty bleached blonde hair. My only worry was when I could get on next,' Jess told Daily Mail Australia. 'I was just a shell. My best friend was a bong and a crack pipe.'
Jess had gone to the house and taken methamphetamine and cocaine in large amounts, which threw her body into the convulsions.
'Then it led to blood clots, bigger than the size of grapes. I had foam coming out of my nose and mouth and I could no longer hold my head up.
'This was all at a stranger's house in Newcastle. I remember being told "darling you're too beautiful to do this to yourself" and looking at myself in the mirror and replying "how can you say I'm beautiful".'
But then the overdose took hold and, although she collapsed and the stranger tried to call an ambulance, Jess kept on insisting 'I don't want the f***ing ambulance, because I knew my next of kin was my mother Tammy. I knew if she got that phone call her life would be damaged, seeing me in the state I was, or even yet, dead.
'The ambulance got to me. By that time my sight was blurred. I knew I couldn't hold on much longer.
'I arrived at John Hunter Hospital. My body temperature was 18 degrees and dropping. My brain was swollen and had nowhere to go so it started to bleed. I had a brain haemorrhage.'
Later, when her mother arrived at the hospital and Jess finally saw the stricken look on her face, Jess began the long and 'rough' road to recovery.
Jess's experience is one of many horrific stories ice addicts told Daily Mail Australia about their 'descent into hell' under the influence of the drug, before they managed to get themselves clean.
Another former addict, Sarah, thanks her newfound fitness regime and faith in God for rescuing her from a 16-year addiction. She has posted a photograph of herself at a time she believed she reached her lowest point.
'I believe the night the photo was taken I was dying for the last time. I weighed 41kgs, my skin was yellow & bruised all over. I was frail and my body was failing me.
'I remember falling to the floor and curling my body into the fetal position. I recall screaming and howling from the darkest deepest pit of my soul "If there is a God then why are you doing this to me?"
'Please just let me go! Please let me just die a junkie. I can't continue to suffer like this. I had my arms wrapped around my legs and I rocked my body back and forward as i cried and screamed in utter desperation.'
Sarah has now been free of ice and the drug GHB for 15 months, and says 'if I can fight back from ice addiction - so can you.'
A photograph taken ten months after the 'dying for the last time' picture shows a fit woman with glowing skin. She has decided to share her story with recovery and wellness blog Transform My Lifestyle.
Wes, a 29-year-old lapsed addict, says he first smoked ice eight years ago.
'I was an everyday user for just over two-and-a-half years, then got away from it for about 18 months."
'I admit to people all the time about my addiction and really could not care if they look at me any differently because it's my problem." he said.
'I would not wish this upon anyone," he added.
Ashlee, whose husband’s ice addiction became full-blown at the age of 25, said at one point she ‘had to get him out of our house because of his anger and aggression’ and that he went to live in houses of friends who ‘were all heavy ice users’.
It was in their company he committed two burglaries and was caught and charged. Another time, he woke her while in a drug psychosis claiming a female friend was chasing him up and down the street with a hunting knife.
Ashlee, who is now a public campaigner against ice and has started a Facebook site for addicts and recovering users said at the height of his addiction her husband – normally a kind and sociable person – became a violent, emaciated wreck.
‘He had lost so much weight, his skin was a grey/yellowish colour and his neck and face were covered in sores and scabs,’ she said.
‘He would scream at me, throw things, punch things, smash things like windscreens. and walk around the backyard pacing. Ice rages are extremely scary. They could take someone's life in a minute.’
But now 102 days clean, Ashlee’s husband has returned to the sensitive man she knew, although they had to pay $37,000 for private rehabilitation and he went because she threatened to leave him and take away their children.
Read the whole article -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...share-shocking-details-descent-hell-back.html
Three years ago in a small town north of Sydney, a pretty young blonde woman named Jess had reached the lowest point of her raging ice addiction.
She was in the back of an ambulance racing towards hospital where she was about to undergo the fight of her life.
It had started when she started convulsing, then vomiting after a drug hit in a stranger's house, where she had gone to score.
'My weight was 42 kilos, with bones sticking out, ratty bleached blonde hair. My only worry was when I could get on next,' Jess told Daily Mail Australia. 'I was just a shell. My best friend was a bong and a crack pipe.'
Jess had gone to the house and taken methamphetamine and cocaine in large amounts, which threw her body into the convulsions.
'Then it led to blood clots, bigger than the size of grapes. I had foam coming out of my nose and mouth and I could no longer hold my head up.
'This was all at a stranger's house in Newcastle. I remember being told "darling you're too beautiful to do this to yourself" and looking at myself in the mirror and replying "how can you say I'm beautiful".'
But then the overdose took hold and, although she collapsed and the stranger tried to call an ambulance, Jess kept on insisting 'I don't want the f***ing ambulance, because I knew my next of kin was my mother Tammy. I knew if she got that phone call her life would be damaged, seeing me in the state I was, or even yet, dead.
'The ambulance got to me. By that time my sight was blurred. I knew I couldn't hold on much longer.
'I arrived at John Hunter Hospital. My body temperature was 18 degrees and dropping. My brain was swollen and had nowhere to go so it started to bleed. I had a brain haemorrhage.'
Later, when her mother arrived at the hospital and Jess finally saw the stricken look on her face, Jess began the long and 'rough' road to recovery.
Jess's experience is one of many horrific stories ice addicts told Daily Mail Australia about their 'descent into hell' under the influence of the drug, before they managed to get themselves clean.
Another former addict, Sarah, thanks her newfound fitness regime and faith in God for rescuing her from a 16-year addiction. She has posted a photograph of herself at a time she believed she reached her lowest point.
'I believe the night the photo was taken I was dying for the last time. I weighed 41kgs, my skin was yellow & bruised all over. I was frail and my body was failing me.
'I remember falling to the floor and curling my body into the fetal position. I recall screaming and howling from the darkest deepest pit of my soul "If there is a God then why are you doing this to me?"
'Please just let me go! Please let me just die a junkie. I can't continue to suffer like this. I had my arms wrapped around my legs and I rocked my body back and forward as i cried and screamed in utter desperation.'
Sarah has now been free of ice and the drug GHB for 15 months, and says 'if I can fight back from ice addiction - so can you.'
A photograph taken ten months after the 'dying for the last time' picture shows a fit woman with glowing skin. She has decided to share her story with recovery and wellness blog Transform My Lifestyle.
Wes, a 29-year-old lapsed addict, says he first smoked ice eight years ago.
'I was an everyday user for just over two-and-a-half years, then got away from it for about 18 months."
'I admit to people all the time about my addiction and really could not care if they look at me any differently because it's my problem." he said.
'I would not wish this upon anyone," he added.
Ashlee, whose husband’s ice addiction became full-blown at the age of 25, said at one point she ‘had to get him out of our house because of his anger and aggression’ and that he went to live in houses of friends who ‘were all heavy ice users’.
It was in their company he committed two burglaries and was caught and charged. Another time, he woke her while in a drug psychosis claiming a female friend was chasing him up and down the street with a hunting knife.
Ashlee, who is now a public campaigner against ice and has started a Facebook site for addicts and recovering users said at the height of his addiction her husband – normally a kind and sociable person – became a violent, emaciated wreck.
‘He had lost so much weight, his skin was a grey/yellowish colour and his neck and face were covered in sores and scabs,’ she said.
‘He would scream at me, throw things, punch things, smash things like windscreens. and walk around the backyard pacing. Ice rages are extremely scary. They could take someone's life in a minute.’
But now 102 days clean, Ashlee’s husband has returned to the sensitive man she knew, although they had to pay $37,000 for private rehabilitation and he went because she threatened to leave him and take away their children.
Read the whole article -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...share-shocking-details-descent-hell-back.html
