Vicky Edwards claims that a medication she was taken caused severe burns to half of her body.

‘I felt like I was going to go in a big, deep hole and not be able to get out,’ she told A Current Affair.

 The scars are a painful reminder of what she’s gone through and a source of deep regret.

‘I see disgusting. I don’t like my face. I miss my face,’ Ms Edwards said.

‘I see someone different, someone else’s face. It’s not mine.’

She was originally prescribed the drug in late 2020 to treat three bulging discs in her spine and claims she was psychologically transformed within six weeks.

‘I was just not myself and it cost me everything. Things that were coming out of my mouth weren’t even me,’ she said.

By January 2021, her life had spiralled out of control.

‘I was banging on the hallway and I said to my girls, ‘we’ll all told to kill ourselves, it’s all going to end,’ Ms Edwards recalled.

‘My poor children were hysterical.’

She still vividly remembers setting her self alight early one Sunday morning.

‘I set myself alight and ran outside on fire… screaming,’ Ms Edwards said.

‘I don’t remember the pain and my neighbour came out because I was screaming. Nobody would go to this extent to take their own life the way I did.

‘It’s just horrible to think that someone would do this purposely.’

She spent months in hospital covered in bandages from head to toe, in a lot of pain and unable to move.

Her recovery will continue for the rest of her life but she refuses to believe she tried to take her own life, claiming the drug is to blame.

Despite her horror injuries, she is remaining strong.

‘I might be burnt and broken underneath but I am still from the ‘hood’ and that’s what keeps me going.

‘I smile because I’m alive.’

There are growing calls for doctors to educate patients about the higher risk of addiction, self harm and suicidal thoughts associated with the drug.

‘Anyone with any sort of mental health history anyone with any sort of psychological vulnerabilities, they seem to be a much greater risk [of] self harm thoughts, suicidal ideas, bouts of uncontrollable rage that they’ve never had before,’ psychiatrist Dr Tanveer Ahmed said.