Meth: a Ticking Timebomb Gone Viral

One Good Deed Begins a Journey

It's amazing how different things can appear once a good night's sleep and some perspective can be had...thank you for this opportunity to share my story of recovery. I know it won't change the world, that's not the point...more, to change myself, and if I can touch someone, even just one person on this journey I have undertaken, then that makes it worthwhile.

Yesterday...and since I began riding my bike again, I have noticed a change in my neighbourhood. Covid 19 hasn't ravaged us here in Australia, at least, not like it has many other places, and as a community, we should be thankful for this. But, in my mind, I perceived that people would be angry, resentful or withdrawn because of the restrictions and lockdowns we have had month after month.

But instead, a really nice thing has happened. While I am pedalling along and seeing people out walking, in their front yards and anywhere I am passing, they are smiling, waving and saying hello. I've lived here almost my entire life and it has never been like this before, and it has come as such a surprise. A community under siege, united, and instead of what I thought, the opposite.

Now, when I get on my bike, I am smiling and saying gidday to people who don't expect that. I've come to realise that just a nod of the head can make such a difference to someone's life because that is what other's have given me over the last month or two. We can all make a difference, and to me, this is a very real and positive thing that has come from such a terrible epidemic.

I'm a pretty withdrawn person when I am using. I don't smile at my neighbours and I am, by and large, an introvert. I can be selfish and at times, couldn't care less about anyone but my mom and me. Yet, now I have taken meth out of the equation, it's like I have become sociable again.

We have a young couple with a baby living next door. Because of my shame and the effects meth has on me I haven't spoken to them for a long time. Just over a week ago, the fellow was out in his front yard as I was preparing to go for my ride. Our eyes met and there was a slightly uncomfortable nod of our heads and a mumbled hello.

Yesterday, when I arrived back from my bike ride, he was in his front yard with their baby. He was covered in bandages. Both his hands and up both arms, shoulders and both his lower legs. I saw him and asked what had happened. He told me he was at a party, everyone had been drinking and someone thought it would be fun to throw a can of deodorant into the open pit of the fire he was sitting beside. He didn't notice this, and when it exploded he received first and second-degree burns.

My lawn needs to be mowed, and so does his, paying it forward becomes a reality today...and who knows where that may end up.

Today, I'm too busy to use, and even if I wasn't, I have no want or need for it.