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Peter Lyndon-James’ Tough Love Approach to Setting Meth Addicts Free

by | Tue, Mar 12 2019

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Peter Lyndon-James battled drug addiction for 26 years.

You don’t have to look hard to see that in Australia, abuse of drugs and alcohol has reached national epidemic levels.

Just one of these problem drugs, methamphetamine – also known as meth or ice – is destroying families at an alarming rate, like no drug has ever done before.

Meth not only binds a person up in addiction, but it changes them.  It changes the way they speak, the way they act and the way they treat those around them.

Peter Lyndon-James, who has a dramatic story of his own, joined Neil Johnson on Vision Christian Radio’s 20Twenty program on how he is helping families break free with a ‘tough love’ approach.

With his no-nonsense approach, Peter helps people break free from life controlling issues such as meth and other drugs.  A process that brings them to the point where they want to change and make the decision to turn their life around so badly, that they will finally stop taking drugs.

“Methamphetamine is really the worst drug to ever hit our planet," Peter shares.  "We’ve been speaking all over Australia, from major cities to country towns and no one knows how to actually handle it.  Methamphetamine doesn’t just destroy the person, it actually wipes out whole generations of a family.”

Peter then went on to reveal his own battle with drug addiction. “I used to use drugs for twenty-six years, and my drug of choice was actually methamphetamines.  I used to sell on average, two-and-a-half kilos of it a day.  So I understand the drug extremely well.”

Listen to the full interview where Peter shares about his troubled upbringing and multiple times in prison.

I was trapped in a world I didn’t want to be in, but I didn’t know how to get out.

Of what made him finally get clean, Peter revealed, “I used to go to all the Christian groups in prison, not to actually hear what they had to say – but mainly to perve on the sheilas, and get a free feed.”

It was the love Peter received from the Christians in these groups that drew him into a personal relationship with Christ.

“Every time I went to these Christian groups, it was the only place in the prisons that every time I was locked up, that I could let my guard down and be who I was.  And I found that these Christian people never actually judged me, never picked on me, never made fun of me.  It was the only place I could actually relax.”

“It was Pastor Allan Shepparton from Broken Chains Ministries, who faithfully over 15 years kept coming to Longwalk [Prison].  One day they brought in a video called The Cross and The Switchblade.  I remember watching the video and I went to my cell that night and I yelled out to God, ‘If you can change his life, you can change mine.’”

It wasn’t a smooth ride after Peter’s first encounter with God, revealing that after getting out of prison he stopped reading his Bible and soon fell away from Christ.  Listen to the interview to hear the rest of Peter’s testimony and how God never stopped perusing him.

Peter featured on Australian Story

Peter is now helping families with loved ones that are battling drug addictions.

“A lot of families actually think they are doing the right thing in the way they are helping their loved one, but in fact they’re doing the wrong thing.”

Peter now travels Australia sharing his story and teaching families practical tools to set their loved ones free.

In Peter’s Tough Love book he shares practical things families can do, to break their loved one free from drugs.

1. Learn to never give up on a person, but set boundaries.
2. Guard your heart - bring the truth in love.
3. Put the ball in their court.  Speed up the process to bring them to the point of wanting to change.
4. Help the person when they get to the point of wanting to change.
5. Care for yourself and your family as it all unfolds.
6. Work out where a person is in their stage of addiction.
- Stage A. Just staring out – recreational user – at the fork in the road
- Stage B. Weekly user, generally every weekend, thinks it’s OK, he’s not hurting anyone
- Stage C. Won’t listen, made up their mind, can’t see it is wrong, unteachable
- Stage D. Pathway to destruction, using every day, selling assets, life falling apart, family lost
- Stage E. Flat out user, lost all friends and family, everything around them is falling to pieces

Do's and Don'ts:
- Do learn to let go
- Do set your boundaries
- Don’t blame yourself
- Don’t pay debts of any kind
- Don’t do things on their behalf
- Don’t be angry at the person, understand the drug
- Depending on the stage of addiction they are in, don’t let them back into your home

Find out more about Peter Lyndon-James and when he is speaking near you at peterlyndonjames.com.au.

Peter’s ‘Tough Love’ book is available to purchase from his website toughlovebook.com.au.

Tune into 20Twenty and join the conversation with Neil Johnson, weekdays on Vision Christian Radio. Click here for your local times.

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