Path to addiction is hell but rehab helps
MITCH was a drug and alcohol addict for more than four years when at 22, a mental health episode led him to a marijuana addiction.
But things soon spiralled out of control.
“Continued substance abuse takes away standards you have at the start,” he said.
“So anyone that’s not using could quite easily say ‘I’ll never smoke meth,’ or most people have the hard rule that they’ll never inject.
“But it’s an incremental thing. You might smoke, but then you smoke daily and then all the time.
“You will move on to something else.
“You might mix pot with something, then you’re taking speed, taking meth. That’s what happened with me.”
Mitch said support and eradicating the stigma around being an addict is crucial to recovering, or even making the first steps.
“The pathway to a rock bottom is different for everyone,” Mitch said.
“But addicts don’t want to do it anymore. They want a way out.
Mitch knows the benefits of long-term rehab facilities and that’s where he met Benjamin Connelly, who died of an overdose on the weekend.”.
“Benny relapsed because he was in significant mental distress that he was working so hard on,” Mitch said.
“He’d done six months in rehab, he’d been well over 12 months in total abstinence.
“He was one of the sweetest men I ever met, especially for young people in recovery.
“He would bake cakes for people when they graduated from rehab.”
What Mitch hopes members of the public and addicts alike take from his story is that stigmatising addiction helps nobody.
“Pushing people aside is
just going to force them into that dark corner even more and that’s where the bad behaviours fester,” he said.
“If you’re struggling, get help. Go to the public groups, because you will realise that there are other people there going through what you are going through, as well as so many supportive, beautiful people who are predominantly ex addicts.
“For a period you need to stop what you’re doing and do what people tell you to do.
“And it gets better, you stop living in pain. I’m happier, I’m grateful for what most people think is mundane.
“I’m so ecstatic to work a 9-5, I’m happy I have clean clothes, I’m grateful I have a healthy relationship with my girlfriend, I’m grateful I can pay my rent.
“Normal people things, I’m grateful.” Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636