LISTEN – BREAKING THE ICE –

Dec. 17, 2021 – For me, and I’m not sure if this is the same for everyone. I didn’t know it at the time, but I really noticed in my personality a couple of things. If I do something, I tend to do it all the way. And I think for me in hindsight. So I played sport very competitively, growing up as a junior. So I was playing pretty much six days a week and training, you know, the other days as well. So I really feel like I missed out on maybe some of that normal teenage experience that maybe others would have. But I really wanted to, you know, go out and be that sort of normal teenager. So when I had that opportunity, you know, instead of maybe experimenting with a little bit of alcohol and a little bit of drugs as my other friends were doing.  That’s right. All or nothing. I would really take my opportunity and dive head first, know I was always nervous to try new drugs. But as soon as I took them off and found that I really loved it to start with, and then that would obviously snowball into me. Yeah, going all or nothing.   Yeah. Well, I think for most people it is and definitely was for me. And the mental health aspect initially was the biggest thing for me. So with methamphetamine use, I always say “what goes up must come down”. So when I would use, I would go up incredibly high and, and that’s when I felt good. But it was actually when I was coming down and didn’t have the drug where I experienced the most problems become incredibly depressed. That’s often where I would have some of the psychosis episodes.

more@ABC