Robyn Lewis shares story of sobriety after lifelong drug battles

Robyn has spent most of her life struggling with almost every type of common addiction in regional Australia. When she finally got sober, she faced a crisis of meaning, having never lived a clean life. Read her incredible story of how she kicked her meth addiction and found a new sober purpose.

Robyn Lewis can’t remember exactly when she started taking drugs and alcohol, because she was so young.

She said it may have been about when she was 10 years old.

Drug addictions and disadvantage were her entire life for most of her years and she battled through many struggles and challenges so she could reinvent herself and leave her old life behind, in favour of a new, sober one.

“My younger life was just wrought with violence, and fear, and sexual assaults, which I’ve only just been able to start talking about over the past couple of years,” she said.

At the age of 15, Robyn was introduced to marijuana. It provided an intensely good feeling for the shy teenager who said it made her feel more relaxed, happy and free from life’s worries.

“I absolutely fell in love with that drug.

“That was my escape from reality.

“I thought, this is great, I’m happy …”

But she said when she was 17, she was introduced to speed.

This drug, which is methamphetamine in powdered form, gave her a euphoric rush, which made her feel ‘10 feet tall’.

“I thought I was somebody, I thought I was – a person. It gave me a social outlet as well, like other people that were doing it.

“We started hanging out together so I felt like I was one of the crowd.”

She started injecting amphetamines at the age of 21 as she continued to slide down the vicious spiral of addiction.

Then in the late 90s came for her the notorious drug ice – methamphetamine in crystal form.

“After a while the highs weren’t as high and the lows were very low. It just … became a pattern,” she said.

“It became a vicious cycle.

“My life just carried on that way for the next 37 years.”

Robyn in her younger days. Photo: Contributed

To add fuel to the fire, Robyn also developed disastrous addictions to alcohol, gambling and antidepressants along the way.

“I was just so damaged as a human being; from my toxic childhood and all the things that happened to me,” she said.

“When you get to that point where you have low self-worth and no self-respect, it makes it even harder to beat addiction. You just don’t feel like you’re worthy.

“I didn’t have support around me, I didn’t have a loving family, you know?”

Drug addiction even led to her being unable to provide the support she wanted to her friends. When her best friend was 36, he sent Robyn a message while he was struggling to deal with his life. Later that day, he doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire.

“I was too high to even answer his message.”

Eventually, bad reports were coming in about her health and Robyn knew she had to try to beat her addiction.

She tried for eight years, but still wasn’t able to come out the other end. She slept whenever she was off drugs and her body and mental health were wrecked.

She tried alcohol and drugs anonymous sessions and admitting herself into rehabilitation centres and detox programs, but nothing worked.

Eventually, she spoke to her doctor who recommended a program called SMART Recovery, which she attended while living in Newcastle.

At her sessions, she met with many people battling addictions including people who were at rock bottom, and she had to tell them how many times she drank or used drugs over the past week.

But Robyn had not yet hit rock bottom – that would come one night when she was so high that she was blasting her music extremely loud and was behaving very erratically.

Her neighbours had become fed up at this point. They came along to her front yard and hammered down a picket sign saying ‘Village Idiot’.

Robyn was crushed to see the sign.

“I got on really well with my neighbours and it just really, really broke me down,” she said.

“That was my rock-bottom.”

The next day on July 9, 2016, she quit, cold turkey.

Robyn Lewis shares her story about how she recovered from a deliberating drug addiction. Photo: Contributed

After decades of life surrounded by drugs, she was finally sober. No more meth addiction, no more marijuana, no more gambling, no more alcoholism – but now what?

Robyn had never lived a clean life as a sober person with a sober social circle. She didn’t know how to live without her addictions. Depression hit her hard and she struggled to live with a deep void of meaning in her life.

Now at the age of 51, she didn’t know how to live without drugs and spent most of the next three months laying on her lounge. She struggled with her self-confidence and feelings of low self-worth.

The first thing she did was sell her house and move out of Newcastle into a friend’s house, then relocated to West Wyalong, between Wagga Wagga and Parkes.

Robyn became a SMART Recovery facilitator, running the sessions for addicts that she attended herself back in Newcastle.

She said someone came up to her and told her she should start sharing her story to the public. She joined a Rotary club which she attended often and eventually, got in touch with former Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

This was Robyn’s opportunity to tell the second most powerful person in the state about what needed to be done about drugs and alcohol, from the perspective of an ex-addict.

She also gave her recommendations to a Special Commission of Inquiry into ‘Ice’.

Robyn Lewis with John Barilaro. Photo: Contributed

In 2021, she was diagnosed with the chronic condition fibromyalgia which flared up in the New South Wales cold, so she’s recently decided to move to Gladstone in Central Queensland.

She hasn’t had any flare-ups since and says that, alongside her sobriety, means she’s feeling the best she ever has.

Her ambitions are to continue her motivational speaking in Gladstone and reach out to community organisations to give presentations and give them a grasp of drug issues.

“Now I’m in a really good place. I really like myself and I’m really proud of myself and I respect myself.”

Robyn Lewis shares her story about how she recovered from a deliberating drug addiction. Photo: Contributed

What can be done to tackle addiction?

Robyn said one of the biggest difficulties drug addicts faced in the 80s was the stigma.

She said it would be easier if people weren’t so judgmental.

“In society, even without drugs, it’s hard for people to feel accepted. It’s just a hard life that we live in. People are so critical and judgmental,” she said.

“People aren’t as kind as they used to be.”

She’s hoping communities can have access to more drug forums and support services for families of addicts.

Since speaking to Mr Barilaro and the New South Wales Government, Robyn says she hasn’t seen any new rehabilitation centres or anything else being done for drug addicts.

“When you go to go to a rehab, there’s a big long process that takes months and months, sometimes it may take up to a year to get in.

“I believe the government knows just how bad it is. I just don’t understand why more isn’t being done.”

And one of the most helpful things for people struggling are helplines which are readily available for people to call.

In her experience, most drug helplines take too long for people to access and often require callbacks at a later date. She said hotlines should be manned by people with lived experience.

Robyn really believes that a phone call for support can have a significant impact on a person suffering drug problems.

“If you really want a better life, you can achieve that,” she said.

“I wish I just had another 50 years so that I can do all the things that I missed out on.”

If you would like to contact Robyn Lewis to discuss a community event or seek support, feel free to contact her at [e-mail]