Edges Magazine Issue 39 - Me and My Mate

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 39

October 2004

‘Me and My Mate’
An addict’s letter

I wish my addiction was like my relationships, they only lasted 6 months if that.

So then let me take you on a journey. ‘Come with me, give me your arm’, said my addiction. So I did and we were linked together for the next 13 years.

We were best mates and the worst of enemies. Everywhere I went, he followed me, and wherever he went, I followed him. We were like a plague of fleas, selling every material thing I’ve ever owned, destroying every relationship we ever had. It was never me and my girlfriend, it was always me, my mate and then my girlfriend. She couldn’t put up with the pair of us. No one could. We were a one-man army on a one-man mission; causing heartache and grief to the ones we loved. I tried to blitz him off a few times but he always came knocking on my door and if he didn’t he was only a phone call away.

No matter where I went or how hard I tried to hide, he always turned up pestering me to the point where I gave in and went with him. He didn’t give a toss about me or the people who got hurt, he was out for himself. This is where the hate comes. My best mate has just turned into an illness. I’m relying on him more than ever now and you know what mates are like for letting you down? I’m getting physically sick of him now. I remember the last time I saw him, he was being flushed in to a river of blood. I can still hear him calling sometime, but the more I talk about him, and the more I write, the further away he gets.

I think someone once said ‘you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your enemies.
Ya blooming can, I’ve done it!