Warrnambool woman says drug addicts need help, not judgement

Warrnambool's Rickie Lee Nesbitt, who turned to ice to deal with trauma, said people needed to be able to seek help without fear of being judged or shunned by society.

"Trauma and addiction go hand in hand," Ms Nesbitt said.

"Society needs to understand that there is so much trauma that needs healing and to do that there needs to be a united effort to help those in need of help to have somewhere that they can turn to.

"Finding the root cause is always better than blame and judgement for the outcome of a traumatic event."

Ms Nesbitt was sexually abused for the first time at age six.

When she was in the grips of drug addiction, Ms Nesbitt felt like she had nowhere to turn.

She has backed calls for The Lookout residential rehabilitation facility to be built in Warrnambool.

"Back in 2015, when I was in desperate need of help and was begging to be admitted somewhere, there was nothing and nowhere available in Warrnambool," she said.

"It was a very frightening and I was very close to suicide, it was a very lonely feeling knowing that I was going to have to pull myself out of this darkness that had gripped me for so, so long."

Ms Nesbitt said she lost most of her teeth due to her drug addiction and also had a heart attack this year, which she believed may have also been a result of her previous drug use.

"I only wish that I had someone to help me heal many moons ago, but then I would not be the person I am today," she said.

"It took some really special people to come into my life and help me to see that I could do better and I was worth more."

Ms Nesbitt said people in pain needed access to centres where they could get treatment and realise there was life beyond addiction.

"We need a centre that will give our people a reason for hope, a reason to believe they are capable of so much more than what they feel they are and have medical and spiritual-emotional support to become whole maybe for the first time," she said.

Ms Nesbitt said it had taken her many years to realise she was not to blame for the poor decisions she made early in life.

"I am beautiful and my heart is strong, the pain I feel is OK and it does not have to rule me," she said.

"I am not alone - there are many who share the same hidden pain, we must not let that pain turn to shame.

"We have a voice and we can tell our story knowing that the more voices that are heard can bring some understanding.

"Once we see how many lives are in pain and how people want to numb themselves from reality the quicker we can talk about changing things so we are vibrating on a much higher frequency and can actually manifest the future we all want."

Ms Nesbitt's comments come in the wake of PTSD Awareness Day last month.

One-in-three adults who experience trauma develop a drug or alcohol problem later in life, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

However, there is an average delay in people seeking help of almost two decades because of shame associated with addiction.

Turning Point clinical director and Monash University professor Dan Lubman said one-in-five Australians would experience an alcohol, drug, or gambling problem at some point in their life.

However, it was a "dirty, dark secret that nobody wants to talk about".

"We don't see people holistically - we don't see them as a whole person, we end up focusing on separate issues, even though they're incredibly interconnected."

Professor Lubman points to the success of organisations like Beyond Blue in reducing the stigma around mental health, and how people's knowledge of HIV treatments changed their attitudes towards that crisis.

"Most of the community often sees addiction as a lifelong condition; it's often seen as something that a person has to blame for," Professor Lubman said.

"People don't have a sense of hope.

"They don't believe that treatment works, because nobody tells them that treatments work."

But there's calls for a national campaign aimed at dispelling myths and reducing stigma around addiction.

Professor Lubman said a national campaign, showing how mental health issues and addiction are interconnected and emphasising the success of treatment, would help ensure Australians dealing with addiction are not left behind.

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