PETER LYNDON-JAMES
We face an epidemic, a unique drug on our streets that’s destroying families at a rate like no drug has ever done before. It not only binds a person up in addiction, but changes them – the way they speak, the way they act and the way they treat those around them. This drug changes the most fun-loving family man into the most dishonest, deceitful, disrespectful, untrustworthy, manipulative person you will ever meet.
I was caught up in that worlds for 26 years, not wanting to be who I was but having no ability to change. From the age of nine, I was locked away and considered to be a problem, a nuisance and a criminal. I became institutionalized and ran with the crowd that surrounded me, other people looked away, doing the things I didn’t want to be doing. I was trapped, caught in a revolving door that had me selling nearly $40000 of meth a day as well as handguns, explosives and everything else that comes with that lifestyle. I desperately wanted to stop doing these things but when I tried to hang around normal people I felt like a weed; that I simply didn’t belong. I felt unworthy and judged. so, I went back to where I felt comfortable, back to the life that I hated but the only life I knew.
There were a few times that I remember clearly being so desperate to change that if someone had helped me, I wouldn’t have had to endure 26 years of darkness, I could have been helped but no one was there and help never came. I was considered too far gone.
My life’s work is to help others caught in the same trap, to offer them a place to break free, to help them change and transform their lives. I want to see their families restored, their children returned and their lives to have meaning and purpose.
Unfortunately, most families have no idea how to help the addict. they think that they are doing the right thing when in fact they are doing the wrong thing. they support the addict as they use and enable them to continue using. they pay bills, feed them, clothe them and some even allow the addict back into their homes. How misguided, how wrong. They say to themselves “but he’s my son, I can’t just leave him” and so you become a part of the problem. I hope that this resonates with you and that the Anyman production opens your eyes.
There is a system currently in place that does not work. We take people who aren’t yet lost and plunge them into a prison environment where they learn to be a criminal. Prison is a breeding ground for crime. They learn how to associate with criminals and end up considering themselves one. We take someone who is only starting out, attempting to find their identity and we seal their fate and make it nearly impossible to get them back.
My hope is that this play will have an impact, that people will see it and begin to question the way that we have been handling the problem so far. That we can begin to see the addiction for what it is and take steps together to bring help and restoration to the addict.
Have Peter speak at your organisation, business or event.
Peter Lyndon-James, former meth addict and dealer, speaks of his own harrowing experiences living in the dark world of addiction for more than 20 years – and how he eventually broke free. Now CEO of Australia’s strictest, largest and most successful rehabilitation centre – Peter offers an insight not only into the dark world of addiction, but reveals to us how to open up the heart and realize our true potential and purpose.