After 15 years of addiction to the drug crystal methamphetamine — commonly known as ice — Ryan had recently lost his girlfriend and almost died from an overdose.

On the brink of despair, he typed the word "rehab" into a search engine and began a journey that took him to a rehabilitation centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The 28-year-old Brisbane man had joined a growing number of desperate Australians travelling to Thai centres seeking an end to long-term chronic addiction.

Those running the centres that offer cheap, anonymous treatment say they are plugging the gaps in Australia's failing approach to ice addiction.

The country that has long been a rite of passage for young Australians has now also become a destination for Australians trying to overcome an addiction typically associated with youth.

Ryan first tried methamphetamine when he was 13 years old and by the time he was 15 he had begun to inject ice.

"The first time I injected it was definitely unmanageable from that time. I knew that was what I wanted to do," he said.

He spent the next 15 years in the grip of the drug, using three or four times a week.

He dropped out of school to work full-time to fund his habit, spending a few months in a job before being fired for not turning up.

He said he became angry and erratic and would intimidate anyone who questioned him on his drug use.

"My thoughts were: I couldn't live without it," Ryan said.

"I would get very anxious, very focused just on that, I couldn't function until I had what I wanted."

He said he made unsuccessful attempts to quit ice by trying to limit the amounts he injected. He even tried substituting other substances.

"Instead of injecting meth I would inject Epsom Salts, just so I could still inject and not have any of the consequences," he said.

'Methamphetamine is definitely the number one'

Eventually, fearful an addiction he could not beat would soon claim his life, Ryan sought help.

"It just got to the point where my life had no meaning," he said.

"I had no girlfriend, I had no job and I felt worthless, and I knew it was all because of my addiction.

"I basically wanted to go out of my room and not be scared."

Alastair Mordey, the program director at the Cabin Chiang Mai, said Ryan's story was not uncommon.

He said increasing numbers of young Australian ice addicts are seeking the centre's help and more than half the centre's 50 clients are from Australia.

Alastair Mordey is the program director at the Cabin Chiang Mai drug rehabilitation centre. ( ABC News: Ruby Jones )

"More and more over the last few years for sure a lot more younger people, particularly younger Australians and particularly methamphetamine addictions [are seeking help]," Mr Mordey said.

"Alcohol and prescription drugs in particular were what we were seeing maybe five years ago from Australian clients.

"Now that has changed, methamphetamine is definitely the number one."

The Cabin uses a 12-step recovery program where addiction is treated as an illness and addicts are given the help of a sponsor.

The centre also uses the Buddhist principle of mindfulness in its treatment and cognitive behaviour therapy.

Mr Mordey says intensive group counselling, with therapists who are ex-addicts themselves, is integral to the program.

"A psychological approach as is normal in 12-step rehabs focuses much more on recovering addicts running their own treatment together," he said.

"It is peer-led, the addict needs to understand the tools of recovery so they can go out and use them on their own."

Mr Mordey said in his view, Australian treatment clinics tended to be too focused on the clinical side of addiction, and did not offer enough opportunities for addicts to support each other in recovery.

"A lot of Australians who come for treatment overseas, particularly here in Thailand to the Cabin, have done various clinics, city centre clinics, outpatient programs, heavy medical model inpatients rehabs in Australia, and it hasn't hasn't worked for them," he said.

'I don't know how to score drugs in another country'

Ryan said another attraction of rehabilitation overseas was that it took him away from Australia and the temptation of scoring drugs.

"Part of the reason for me coming to this country was to leave Australia because I don't know how to score drugs in another country," he said.

He said he stopped taking ice four days before flying to Thailand, and when he arrived, treatment was challenging.

"My mind was telling me all I wanted to do was go and use again, and I couldn't do that in this country," Ryan said.

"The first four days I kept having panic attacks, I was in and out of the nurse's office quite often."

He stayed at the Cabin for two months.

Seven months after touching down in Thailand, Ryan's life has turned around.

"I never used to think I could be satisfied with normal things without using, and for the first couple of months of recovery, I still thought that," he said.

"But today I can definitely see that there is a lot more to recovery than using.

"There's more to life, it's a very a very small world when you are using drugs. I always thought that was everything, but it's not, there is a lot more out there."

Ryan says he has rebuilt his relationship with his family.

"I speak to my mum two or three times a day. I have a relationship back with my brother, who I ripped off quite badly over the years — we hadn't spoken in three years," he said.

The Cabin Chiang Mai measures success when a client stops abusing drugs and alcohol permanently, without a relapse, and it claims about 40 per cent of its clients achieve that goal.

Australia's ice problem 'on par' with United States

While Ryan counts himself among the recovered, he does not look too far ahead.

He has visited Australia once since getting clean, but now lives in Thailand.

"To be honest my plans are just to get through today clean at the moment," he said.

The entrance of the Cabin drug rehabilitation centre in Chiang Mai. ( ABC News: Ruby Jones )

"I'm trying to not look to the future too much. I'm studying Thai here in Thailand.

"Future plans are undecided, I am just taking it one day at a time."

Prime Minister Tony Abbott recently announced a National Ice Taskforce, warning ice was "far more potent, far more dangerous, and far more addictive than any previous illicit drug".

Mr Mordey said he believed Australia's ice problem was on par with the United States.

"Its probably within the top three or four rising and serious methamphetamine epidemics in the world today," he said.

Mr Mordey said the Cabin Chiang Mai was looking to open a centre in Sydney.

"Methamphetamine use is spreading across demographic groups, it is causing you problems in terms of productivity at work, relationships, legal issues, for all sorts of different people," he said.

"And for that reason we see a market to come in and provide good quality traditional addiction treatment in Australia."

Watch the full story on Lateline at 9.30pm (AEST) on ABC 24 and 10:30pm on ABC