On thin ice: Creating a life beyond addiction
Paul, 38, is a tall, good-looking bloke with a deep voice and sandy hair. He tells a good yarn and laughs easily. He is also a recovering ice-addict who hasn’t touched the stuff for fifteen months. Talking to me on the phone during a lunch break from his full-time sales job, he said: “A lot of addicts use [methamphetamine to escape] pain and shame and guilt … if you’re feeling like you’re not treated like a human being, there’s a lot of shame around it … You want to mask that feeling with using again [because] that takes away that pain. Your mind just wants to give up and … go back to what you know.”