Living Free

Zach was an anxious kid and grew up in a big rough family where expressing feelings was not encouraged by his parents. He had an alcoholic grandfather, but no one close had any isms. His gambling started innocuously with sweeps on the Melbourne Cup, and this developed into a gambling habit while in secondary school. Initially it was using another kid’s online betting account and this led into a ga...

Andy grew up in a village in the north of England in a family affected by alcoholism. Although his home life was relatively peaceful, his father was unpredictable. Andy also experienced the trauma of being sent to boarding school at a young age. An immediate result of this was Andy and his siblings becoming disconnected from the other children in the village. Later it led to emotional shut-down, a...

This conversation was originally aired on 2 September 2021Victor grew up in a family where alcohol was abused. His father was frequently violent, and to survive, Victor became hyper-vigilant and sensitive to the moods of his parents. As a child, Victor found refuge outside of the family, playing with friends in the wild areas near his home. As he grew, he recognised in himself an impulse to heal h...

Chris joined Michael in the 3CR studios to share his experience of what life was like when he started drinking in his early teens, to how it progressed and took over his life in his 20's and what life looks like now as he comes up to 35 years in recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sue grew up in an unhappy, dysfunctional home and didn’t have many close friends. She left school early, in Year 9 and went to work.  Her career led to shift work, which meant that she had more money and worked odd hours. Sue would often drop into a Poker Machine venue on the way home, to unwind. These sessions became progressively longer and eventually involved greater losses, meaning that someti...

Brenda entered her marriage in the early 1970's with her mother's advice to 'never argue with a drunk'. After several years of trying to keep the peace in her marriage, Brenda took her young children and left in desperation. Even without Al-Anon, she acted in faith, knowing that she did not have the answers about how she would manage on her own. It was fifteen years later that she found Al-Anon wh...

Poppy was born into a family struggling to cope with the trauma of migration from Greece to Australia. Her father drank to ease his sorrow and her mother had to cope with a growing number of small children, working, along with her husband, to provide for them all. Poppy has happy memories of celebrations with friends and family where there was plenty of drinking, but also carried a burden of shame...

John joined Michael in the studio to chat about his life. Starting in the South East suburbs of Melbourne in a family he described as a "battleground", John's life which included, scouts, cricket, a part-time job pumping petrol and a girlfriend changed dramatically around the age of 16 as his number one priority became drinking and chasing the effect it created for him. Left with very few choices...

Dan was on the show back in March 2024 and came in at short notice to help us out with a live interview. Dan’s earlier interview is available on https://www.3cr.org.au/livingfree/episode/alcoholics-anonymous-dan-21mar2024.Today we are talking about how recovery works and what it is like after stopping drinking and participating in a fellowship of equals in Alcoholics Anonymous. It was great to cha...

This is a repeat of an interview that aired in December 2022.Carmen grew up in Germany in a family where there was alcohol abuse and violence. In her adult life, she developed a compulsion to control her eating and fell into a pattern of food restriction followed by bingeing. Carmen found herself preoccupied with food and when she realised it had become a problem began to look for help. A therapis...

Glenda grew up in a stable family but prolonged periods of hospitalisation in childhood along with a shy disposition led to low self-esteem. Glenda used alcohol, cannabis and other drugs to fit in socially and eventually sought treatment at the age of 27 for the difficulties this caused, including cannabis-induced psychosis. For more than 40 years Glenda has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous a...

Lin joined Michael in the studio and shared her story. From life as part of a large family in country Victoria, starting to drink as a 13 year old and leaving school young, Lin describes how alcohol became her solution to life until it stopped working. She also describes a 3 year period of abstinence followed by a lapse which brought her to her knees and then a moment of clarity. She then describe...

Jonathan is in his mid-50’s and has been in Gamblers Anonymous for over nine years now. His dad was a gambler and drug addict, and he was brought up by his single mother who worked multiple jobs. Jonathan started gambling in college then started working in finance and ended up in the entertainment industry.  He focussed on sports gambling and regularly used recreational drugs.  Johnathan started g...

This episode is a repeat. It was originally aired on 7 December 2023.Dan, a member of Al-Anon, grew up in a household in which another person's drinking was out of control. One of his parents was safe and nurturing during the day but in the evenings became a more dangerous presence. This inconsistency resulted in Dan feeling confused about how to trust people and eventually angry and distant from...

Feebee-Lou grew up in Sydney. In her childhood, her father had a serious accident that left him wheel-chair bound and this had an effect on the dynamics of the family. Feebee-Lou took care of him. Although he did not identify as an alcoholic, alcohol was a factor in the family situation. After a close relationship with a sober alcoholic Feebee-Lou found her way to Al-Anon and has since embraced th...

Lisa joined Michael & Bill in the studio to describe her journey to recovery from alcoholism. Introduced to the 12 Step Fellowship of Alateen when young due to alcoholism in her family, she decribes the decline in her life as the unmanageability took hold. The progressive nature of the illness had her in its grip until she landed in rehab and was introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Noah is in his early 20’s and has been in Gamblers Anonymous for just over a year. Noah was brought up by his grandmother and he rebelled in his mid-teens and left home and eventually left school early. He discusses how his gambling progressed from playing Poker with friends in high school, to becoming a serious gambler after visiting a casino when he turned 18.He found that gambling offered him a...

Tamara's German grandmother was an alcoholic whose children, including Tamara's mother, were affected by the difficulties that this caused. Tamara found herself in conflict with her mother in her adolescent years. When through a relationship with a recovering alcoholic who recognised the dysfunction in Tamara's family, Tamara found herself in Al-Anon, she identified with the stories she heard ther...

Alcohol brought Keely out of her shell and into functioning alcoholism for years. After finding AA and a higher power of her own understanding, things began to change.   

Samantha grew up in a family where alcoholism is an intergenerational illness, affecting her grandmother, mother, cousins, and now her child. The direct effect on Samantha was that she developed ways of being in the world that helped her survive in environments she couldn't trust, becoming isolated and inflexible in her thinking. This took an emotional toll. When a co-worker, a recovering alcoholi...

Chris joined Michael in the studio to share his experience of how addiction to gambling brought him to his knees and the freedom he has experienced since finding a solution in Gamblers Anonymous.

Ann and Zakia chat about the difficulties of being authentic when you come from a dysfunctional family or from a place where the language is different. And we play some clips from the Living Free archives. The Living Free show is a place to hear authentic story-telling from people who have struggled with the effects of addiction, their own or others'.If you would like to hear the whole conversatio...

Grounded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), SMART Recovery is a self-empowering approach to addiction and other problematic behaviours.  SMART Recovery groups support people with substance dependencies or problem behaviours to lead a balanced life. Nigel is a facilitator of such a group and has lived experience of alcohol dependency. In this episode he discusses the use of CBT, mindfulness an...

Zac joined Michael and Bill in the studio to share his experience of life as a practising alcoholic, reaching a rock bottom in his early 30's and now having had one year of recovery in Alcoholics Anonymmous. 

Well, it’s been another big year since our last Radiothon, and this time Zakia and Michael could also join us to amp up the volume another notch for this year’s show. Thanks to your generous support, by the end of the show, we had managed to raise $3,400, $900 over our target of $2,500. If you would also like to support 3CR then go to https://www.3cr.org.au/donate to see your options. Thanks also...