By MELISSA MEEHAN
IT changed a good man, father and husband into a monster.
Normally mellow and laid-back, the husband of Karen (not her real name) turned into someone she no longer recognised when he started using ice.
At first the signs were slight. He became restless and had more energy, but soon she noticed that the bank accounts were empty and he became more frantic.
“I didn’t know he was using at the start, but noticed he wasn’t quite himself,” Karen said.
“Then I found myself standing at the supermarket checkout, more than once, with the card declining and realised we had no money for food, despite thinking we had up to $500 in the account.
“From there it was a downward slope.”
When she finally found out about his addiction, the mother of three said she couldn’t believe it.
“I didn’t think that kind of stuff was done in the Yarra Ranges, you associate it more with city life,” she said.“But he’d made new friends, and obviously this was something they did together.”
She said his behaviour soon became so frantic and aggressive that the kids would hide from him when he came home.
“He never hit me, but he became so violent,” she said.“The kids were scared, I was scared – we just didn’t know what he would do next.”
She said he became someone she no longer knew.
“I would look into his eyes, and see a completely different person,” she said.
“He frightened me, and even more scary, was how quickly it all happened.”
Her husband became so suspicious and paranoid that he started carrying a knife.
While he never used it to threaten her or the kids, Karen said that was a sign that he was no longer the man she married.
“I made the decision to leave him,” she said.
“The kids were my priority, and I was scared that he could hurt them in one of his rages.
“He had the strength of 10 men and if something happened I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”
Now separated, Karen looks back on those hard days with tears in her eyes.
“It was a very dark time for me,” she said.
“To see someone I loved completely change in front of my eyes and become someone so dangerous really affected me.
“Not to mention the kids.”
Now, her husband has stopped using the drug, moved out of the area and has rebuilt his relationship with his children.
“Yes, there is a relationship now,” she said.
“But some things you can’t repair and the kids still remember who he became and how he was.
“It’s a tough thing to go through and they are still affected by it.”
