After Meth: Dealing, desperation and a house fire
Winnipegger Sky Moneyas shares his path to recovery in new short film
One night, Sky Moneyas took 17 sleeping pills.
He wanted to die. He was meth addict and dealer, living in a trap house.
He woke up, choking on dense, black smoke in a fire set by drug dealers.
Moneyas escaped through the front window. That house fire saved him.
"Here I am crying to get out of this house and 15 hours before I was trying to kill myself. It was kind of a wake-up call for me," he said.
Moneyas' harrowing story, and his descent into meth addiction and then into recovery is the subject of Part 2 of After Meth, a new series of three short films.
The four-minute long film was produced by Winnipeg filmmakers Tyler Funk and Carmen Ponto for CBC's Creator Network, which works with emerging storytellers.
Moneyas' story is the second of three films by Funk and Ponto about meth addiction. In the first film, Dane Bourget revealed how meth took over his life within weeks, causing him to temporarily abandon his family.
The films feature personal stories from three Winnipeggers who are now sober. The third and final piece will be released next week by CBC Manitoba.
Now 30 years old, Moneyas spent four years in a fog of addiction. It started with drinking at age 18, and escalated to cocaine, opiods and then meth.
Moneyas was able to dig himself out withe the help of a 28-day treatment program and an 11-month stay in Two Ten Recovery, a sober-living centre in Winnipeg.
He has advice for anyone currently in the vice of addiction.
"There is help, seek help, talk to someone but remember you have to want it in order for it to work," Moneyas said. "There's only two ways out of addiction; death or help. Please choose help because you are worth living."
