A Melbourne woman has shared her 16-year-battle with an ice addiction in order to inspire others to change.
The now 30-year-old known as Sarah told the Daily Mail that she had been addicted to drugs since she was 13.
Sarah described her teenage years as a whirlwind of living in needle-strewn squats and daily hits of ice and GHB.
GHB is Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, known as liquid ecstasy and the side effects can include drowsiness, amnesia and impaired movement and speech, as well as more serious symptoms of agitation, unconsciousness and respiratory collapse.
The former addict said that at her worst, she couldn't go "more than four to five hours without GHB".
Sarah said her tumultuous youth had seen her make several suicide attempts, and also included violent encounters and a stay in a psychiatric ward.
“By the age of 13 I was drinking vodka regularly and chroming fly spray daily to try to numb my emotional pain. I just wanted to escape,” she said.
"By 14, I was addicted to speed and ice. But I used anything and everything to escape reality."
Sarah said that at age 17 she was able to "get clean" for years 11 and 12 of high school.
One of the central realisations about her addiction came at the end of 2013 when Sarah, weighing a measly 41 kilos hit rock bottom.
"My body was yellow and I had bruises all over my arms and legs. I was so weak, I could barely stand and hold my own body weight," she said.
"Of all the moments in my 16 years of being hooked to ice, I knew this was it. I knew I was about to die a junkie."
