Living Free

This week, after some technical difficulties with the 3CR phone system, we decided to postpone the Gamblers Anonymous interview after 20 minutes and Ann interviewed Bill instead. Bill grew up with an active alcoholic father and as a young adult sought help through an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and was directed to Al-Anon Family Groups. In those early years he met Ann at the Al-Anon meetings and...

Jan grew up in an East Asian country. Her mother, a devout Buddhist, did not speak outside of her home about the problem of alcoholism in her husband. Jan resented her father's behaviour and her mother's submission to it. At school, Jan achieved highly, both academically and in sport, but became rebellious in her teenage years. Only when she had children of her own did she realise how her behaviou...

Bridget and Patrick experienced eating disorders since their childhood, where food became a treat that they treasured above friendships.  Eating was never an obvious problem to them, but they sought out large quantities of food and treats as part of their everyday lives. Their eating impacted on their work and relationships, and it was not until later in life, after years of food related problems...

Michael grew up with European immigrant parents in a food and drinking culture. Vodka was the drink of choice and some of their family friends had serious drinking problems. Michael was a bit of a loner with only had a few close friends and developed long-term relationship with a workaholic. He. drifted into using alcohol and it started to impact his work and life.  Michael continued drinking alco...

Stephanie talks about the newly introduced poker machines in Victorian pubs and clubs as being an accepted social activity when she was a youth. She started off underage gambling on pokies with her older friends, some of whom were compulsive gamblers, and she remembers their mood swings whilst gambling.  Her gambling became problematic in her mid-twenties when she started using apps to bet on hors...

Ray grew up in the late sixties, experiencing success in school, sport and leadership. But as a young adult he found himself attracted to the freedom of the counter-culture rather than the constraints and repressions of conventional family life. He came into contact with many people whose lives were affected by drugs and alcohol. Eventually he qualified as a psychologist and found himself treating...

Our guests are Dr Michael Maloney, Program Director of the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Unit and Ms Effie Moraitis, Addictive Behaviours Therapy Manager, both at The Melbourne Clinic. We discuss the nature of modern withdrawal and rehabilitation approaches to those with addiction and dependence issues. Addiction is not being able to stop doing something even if you want to, and despite the nega...

Our guest is Daniel Raffell, the Senior National Program Manager and Trainer at SMART Recovery Australia and he shares his recovery story and explains the SMART Recovery approach and how it has helped him. Dan also shared about SMART Recovery’s April Challenge – TAKE ON ADDICTION that aims to remove the social stigma applied to those suffering because of their addiction. Take on Addiction challeng...

Suzie grew up with an alcoholic father and grandparents, felt different from other kids at an early age and started drinking at around 14-16 years old with her school friends.  She sought out other friends who drank, married an alcoholic and continued drinking alcoholically over the next 45 years. Suzie’s drinking continued after her daughter was born and interfered with her parenting. She finally...

Tony talks about recovery in Gamblers Anonymous, from gambling on poker machines.  He also talks about difficulties gambling presents and its impact on personal relationships with partners, parents, siblings, and social and work friends both during active gambling and after gambling stops. Tony talks candidly about gambling to escape from the pressure of close relationships and how embracing the G...

Monica began life in rural South Africa. When her mother died, the children, including Monica, were placed in care while her father pursued his business. Several years later, her father died. As a young adult, Monica found herself in many ways unprepared for independent adult life, but her adventurous spirit saw her arrive in London. Here she met her husband and gave birth to their two children. S...

Victoria shares her story of drifting into alcoholism without much thought for the consequences. After a traumatic childhood experience, she turned to alcohol because that was how her family entertained friends and it seemed to work well. The outcome of Victoria’s excessive drinking often led her to change jobs, but it became a staple in her lifestyle.  It was really when she was pregnant with her...

Content Warning - this program features a personal story that includes alcoholism and suicidal thoughts that may be distressing to some listeners. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea right now you should skip of this podcast. If this raises questions or causes distress, please call Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 224 636).Grace grew up in a normal family but felt anxious and was se...

Ram returns to the show after about 12 months to talk about the impact of Covid-19 on gamblers and recovery in Gamblers Anonymous. We discuss mainly gambling electronically and on poker machines. Ram shares his struggle to get free of online gambling companies when he was trying to stop gambling and details some of their follow-up contacts and inducement offers, even when they knew he was self-exc...

This is a show that was originally broadcast on 24th November 2016, and we are podcasting as a companion to our 22 September 2022 interview. We have uploaded it into a spare space in our podcasting framework as we cannot backdate it to 2016.Lena shares her lived experience of using community support to help people support family members recover from drug addiction in Bunbury Western Australia.   L...

This show was originally presented by Jude on 16th February 2017 and has not been podcast before. Rishi and Annie talk about alcoholism, ICE addiction and ICE drug replacement therapy, Jude discusses from the aspect of alcoholism and Bill provides a family of the alcoholic perspective. All note the benefits of a 12th Step program to help them get their lives back into balance. If you would like to...

Mike grew up suffering from ADHD and was pretty isolated and felt like he didn’t fit in at home or at school.  His parents had come from alcoholic homes and were unstable and unpredictable. Mike started drinking at about 14 years old and found that it allowed him to feel good, equal, relaxed and easy-going. In his early 20’s Mike used amphetamines and alcohol regularly, but it was his access to qu...

Content Warning - this program features a personal story that includes gambling and suicidal thoughts that may be distressing to some listeners. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea right now you should skip of this podcast. If this does raise questions or causes distress, please call Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 224 636).SJ grew up in the seventies in New Zealand, in a time when...

Kate grew up in NSW as part of a large extended family but her home life was affected, in ways she did not understand at the time, by the intergenerational effects of alcoholism. Even though her family appeared to be functioning well on the ouside, Kate came to understand that the facade hid the reality that members of the family were to a large extent isolated from each other, just surviving. As...

Craig had a usual childhood and like his dad he enjoyed a drink like most other people. It wasn’t until he was in his fifties that his regular drinking quickly spiralled out of control when he lost his job unexpectedly. His anxiety turned to anger, and resentment and he used alcohol and anti-depressants to try and cope with his new situation. At his family’s suggestion, Craig went into a rehab fac...

Tony had a very disrupted childhood and although he hadn’t done anything criminal spent time in youth detention and then because of his subsequent drug lifestyle spent frequent stints in prison. It wasn’t until a “do-gooder” helped him find some stable accommodation on exiting prison and indirectly introduced him to recovery in Narcotics Anonymous that Tony was able to get his life into perspectiv...

Nick Kenny shares his story of alcohol drug over use and how it affected his life. He considered going to Narcotics Anonymous before settling with SMART Recovery and through their structured program has managed to address his addictive behaviour. Nick discusses how SMART Recovery meetings and using the SMART recovery tools have helped him. To find out more about SMART Recovery Australia visit www....

Ryan shares his journey of a normal family life where gambling and drinking were commonplace. He felt fairly alienated as a child at school and had authority issues from a very young age. Ryan started gambling seriously when he was 21 after a split-up with ahis partner. He initially won a large sum of money but quickly gambling consumed that and then his weekly income. Ryan initially sought help t...

Cheryl grew up in Massachusetts, USA, in the 1950s in a family affected by alcoholism. It was only when she was sent away to school that she was given the structure that she needed. Later, as she built her career, Cheryl discovered that several of the survival skills that she had learnt in her childhood home had become personal attributes that were highly valued in the workplace, but she also lear...

Olivia shares his story of drug over use and how it affected her life. She tried Narcotics Anonymous before settling with SMART Recovery and through their structured program has managed to address her addictive behaviour. Olivia discusses how SMART Recovery meetings and using the SMART recovery tools have helped her. To find out more about SMART Recovery Australia visit www.smartrecoveryaustralia....