Kayla Kerr’s chilling last words to her family in grips of ice addition
In the wake of her eldest daughter’s death, a Queensland mum has revealed the heartbreaking reality of watching your loved one waste away from meth addiction.
Ipswich
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A heartbroken Queensland mum who lost her “popular, outgoing” and loving daughter to ice has urged other parents with children in the grips of addiction not to give up until they find the help they need for the whole family.
Donna Kerr’s daughter Kayla was just 20 years old when she took her own life while coming down from the drug in 2016.
The Ipswich mum, 47, said Kayla was a “free spirit” who loved people and loved life but “on the inside, she was broken”.
“(She was) absolutely beautiful,” Ms Kerr said. “She was very popular, outgoing. But underneath … she had her demons that I never knew she had.”
While Ms Kerr was “very anti-drug”, she said Kayla got caught up in “the wrong crowd” and began experimenting with marijuana when she was 14. It was not long before she had moved on to harder drugs including methamphetamine.
“It went downhill from there,” Ms Kerr said.
In the years that followed, she was admitted to a rehabilitation centre on two occasions and the mental health ward of a hospital on another.
Sadly, she remained “very, very sick”. Her entire personality changed and her childhood ambitions fell away.
“Her words were, ‘I have no soul left. It’s taken my soul’,” Ms Kerr said.
At a loss for how to parent a child who was struggling with addiction, Ms Kerr said she focused solely on getting Kayla help.
“But I needed help too, and I never got help for me,” she said.
“So I did everything wrong.
“I’d yell, I’d be angry at her, I’d have no patience with her. At the time, I didn’t think.”
When Kayla died Ms Kerr believed her daughter had been clean from ice but they got into an argument and Kayla walked out of the house.
“Half an hour later, she was gone,” Ms Kerr said. Kayla had taken her own life. Police found her four days later.
Nearly seven years on, Ms Kerr said her advice to others with loved ones still in the grips of ice addiction is to persevere.
“Find help. Don’t give up until you find it. Just don’t stop,” she said.
Counselling, treatment and referral services
If you are concerned about your own or someone else’s drug use, call Alcohol and Drug Information Service on 1800 177 833. Help is free, 24/7, anonymous, and confidential.
Further assistance can be found in Family Drug Support online and by phone on 1300 368 186.
For support services Lifeline Australia 13 11 14
Free and 24/7 counselling for people using drugs, their family members and friends, can be accessed here.
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