Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
I heard podcasts, hear more Mix one or two point
three podcasts, playlists, and listen live on the free iHeart
app all Right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Family Meeting, Family Meeting. I just wanted to acknowledge something
that happened on the weekend and say thank you to
all the people that reach out to me. On the weekend.
I shared a story. It was Well Addiction Day last week,
and I shared a story of my brother Ryan, who
passed away thirteen years ago from alcohol addiction. And the
(00:41):
article came out on the weekend and it hit me
like a ton of bricks. I think it's funny. I
spoke about it with you on Friday and I was
actually really strong.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, you were great.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sometimes I can talk about it like it's not my life,
and then other times it knocks all the wind out
of your sales and like you almost lose a breath
because you're like, oh, this is real. And I think
seeing his photo and things like that is hard. But
I know this sounds stupid and weird and woo woo,
(01:11):
but I feel like things happen for a reason. And
my brother when he was little said to my mum
and dad randomly, he was like six years old, said,
I'm on this earth to teach you all the lessons
that you need to know. A weird thing from a
six year old he passes away from addiction.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I end up having this.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Job which has a platform to help people, and I'm
sharing his story and in that we are teaching you
the lessons that you need to know, and hopefully some
people lives are being saved because of Ryan's story and Max.
I can't tell you the amount of messageses I got
on the weekend from people that just opened up to
(01:49):
me about their struggles. One lady wrote to me saying,
I saw your Instagram story. I don't really buy the paper.
I went and bought the paper. I am an alcoholic
and she goes, You've just your story has just inspired
me and I'm going to go to the doctor that
I take screenshots of that and I send it to
my mum and dad and I go, this, this is
(02:11):
Ryan's work. He is saving people because of this, and
this is the only reason I talk about it. And
trust me, I feel really weird talking about I feel
yuck inside all the fields. I've got cold sweats right
now because it's a real thing that I'm talking about.
But I know how important it is, and can I
just share one thing as well please. Someone wrote to
me this morning and this is why, this is why
(02:34):
I do what I do. A couple of years ago,
this guy wrote to me. I had spoken about it.
I think it was on my Instagram page. And he
wrote to me saying, I am an alcoholic and I
didn't know about Crosus the liver, and I didn't know
that young people can die because Ryan was thirty four. Yeah,
this is in twenty eighteen. He then went to the doctor.
(02:56):
He's been on I guess a journey to become sober.
He wrote to me a couple of years ago, on
twenty twenty three, saying, I have now eleven months sober.
Yesterday he wrote to me, your article, Hayley is the
reason I'm alive and I'm now two and a half
years sober. Yeah, and he just sent me this really
powerful photo of his beautiful girls and said, these three
(03:19):
beautiful girls still have their dad because of you. It's
not because of me, it's because of Ryan. Unfortunately he
lost his battle with this, but his story is helping
other people. And that's why it's so important for me
to talk about this and to normalize this disease because
it's disgusting disease. So I'm really glad that I spoke
about it, and I'm really honored that all these people
(03:41):
reached out with their personal stories. And I just thought,
because it is only two times a year that I
speak about this, generally his birthday and anniversary, and now
because it's World Addiction Month, to use this opportunity if
you do have something to say about addiction or something
that you could your story could inspire somebody else. We'd
(04:03):
love to open the phone lines and use this platform
to potentially help someone that you don't I don't even
know that's listening, that you might actually change their life.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Do you have a ring? Third? Ain't one? O two three?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
If any of that has stirred anything up for you,
I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, we're talking about addiction, and you can remain anonymous
if you like, but if you do have something to say,
give us a call thirteen one or two three.
Speaker 5 (04:25):
Hailey's now at a point where she's struggling a little bit,
and I just want to let you know that you
are Hailey Frickin' Pierson, and you are strong and you're
powerful and you're brave, and you are changing lives through
your story, and you get.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
To know that.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Thank you. Ah, Okay, I am going to be strong
because I am talking about this because I hope that
if you're a family member of an addict, that my
story will make you feel normal. And if you are
an addict, that you that you know that you're the
only one that can help yourself. And I hope that
(05:00):
I inspire you to go and see your doctor and
start a journey of health. Anyway, so I have been
talking about this because there was an article in the
in the paper on the weekend. I shared my family
story about my brother who was thirty four and died
from alcohol addiction. And yeah, it's so funny. I'm all
over the shop and I don't want to cry and
(05:20):
try it really hard to be Yeah, so we're going
to go to some calls. I know this is important
to me and it's important to get through this. I
want to talk about this because potentially it could save life.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
One of the great things is and you've showed us
and read out a couple of messages.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's resonated with so many people.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, which is brilliant because any little bit that helps,
is exactly. What's something like that? With your platform? You
can do so thirty one two three, if it's resonated
with you at all, Vanessa and Christie's beach is called in.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Hey Vanessa, what's your story?
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Hey guys, Hailey, I've just crying to that song. I
just I just want to tell you that I'm with
you one hundred percent. I'm just parked at my son's school.
So my dad literally just died from alcohol dementia on
(06:11):
the age of May and he was only seventy, but
I was his care for ten years. He we realized
there was memory loss. It's when it was about fifty five.
So it's called corsic cough dementia and it so it's
alcohol related dementia and it affects the frontal lobe of
(06:32):
their brain. So he had all the prices to deliver
as well and everything. But I looked after him for
ten years until eventually he to go into care.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And yes, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So I just yeah, thank you so much for using
this platform to talk about it. Just quickly with you
about your brother, I'm not my dad's name is Ziggy.
When I say that great name because Ziggy. I just
wanted to say my dad when he was in a
lot of denial with the dementia part of it, but
(07:05):
he said to me, I want people to use my story.
I want to be an example of in schools and
to tell people like what not to do because this
is in between when he was in denial and angry
about it and stuff. He tried to go to reharb
a number of times and I took him to detoc
centers and in Adelaide and everything, but it was just
(07:28):
too hard. So yeah, I'm a professional artist in faith
painter in Adelaide and I've been wanting to be an
advocate for alcohol addiction. So Hayley, if you ever want
to do anything, I've already got ideas. There's something i
want to do.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
I do.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know what, there's probably a lot of people. I
am with you. There's so many people that are in
our position that we want to do something because there's
not enough in South Australia to help families going through addiction.
Thank you. And can I just say, Vanessa, you just
talking about that with a dementia, That's something that I
didn't even know. So you're teaching people here listening to
(08:07):
the radio that that is also another thing that can
happen to you with alcohol addictions. So thank you for
sharing your beautiful dad ziggy story.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Thank you, Vanessa, slide into the DMS and do a
collab with Haley.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I'm sure she'd be more than happy to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Sarah's called in from the city, Sarah, can you tell
us your story?
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Hi?
Speaker 7 (08:25):
Hi, Hailey, thank you for sharing. That was really special
and wanting to pull over because I was just crying.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Sorry, I don't want to make people cry.
Speaker 7 (08:33):
No, it's good crying. I think it's a healing crying
and that's yeah, it's okay to cry. I think it's
a good thing for people to know it's okay to cry.
But yeah, when I was a kid, I've faced quite
a lot of the abusive bullying and whatnot, and I
tried to stay strong drough my younger years. But when
I was about like fourteen to fifteen, I fell into
(08:56):
like a really deep depression and really bad sort of
self esteem and everything. And because of that, it was
sort of not feeling like I could reach out to
anyone for support. I just kind of feel with the
wrong crowd of people and who were all addicted to ice,
and then I becatly diged to ice during that time.
(09:18):
And it's such a vicious drug that just like it
doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you
come from, like it will grab hold of you and
just slowly destroy your life. And yeah, until I from
about yeah, age fifteen until twenty one, I was in
the throws of that addiction, and I lost pretty much
(09:41):
everyone that meant anything to me. And then by the
time I was twenty one, on my twenty first birthday,
I sort of woke up a little bit and like
looked around and realized, like, you know, I had made
all of these plans with my friends about you know
how we're all going to celebrate our twenty first birthday together,
(10:03):
all of that stuff, and realized that, like I had
lost all of those people in my life. So yeah,
that was sort of the moment that I really went, no,
I'm going to like, like this is important. I'm going
to change my life. Sarah, Sarah, where are you now
in Adelaide?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
In life?
Speaker 7 (10:23):
Oh? In life? So yeah, so I managed to go.
I went to a psychologist and I worked with them
for a few years, and then I was able to
reach out to my friends again and she supported me
and were amazing and then I ended up going to
UNI and now I'm working in mental health. So actually, yeah,
that is amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Sarah. You've just pointed out something that's so important. People
don't become addicts because they're happy. They become addicts to
mask something, whether it's emotional or physical trauma in their lives.
That's where we need to help people is when they're
younger to stop that from happening. And then I feel
like addiction will will go down if people can be
(11:05):
more supported when they're younger with going things through. I
can't even talk. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Sarah. Is a great example of being able to see
a light. Yes, and things need to.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Be done when you're younger, Sarah, and then you wouldn't
have turned to addiction. But thank you, thank you so
much for sharing that. That is just so raw and honest.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Thank you, Sarah, kat in Redwood Park, your daughter suffers
with alcoholism, Yes, tell us about.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
It, Okay, So unfortunately, Yeah, she started out about nine
or ten years ago, became an ice addict, and we
got her clean from that. So that was great, very
proud of her and we did all the steps, and
then sadly, behind our backs, we didn't realize she was
just whapping one addiction for another. Then she was drinking
(11:53):
behind our backs, and we realized that, yeah, a few
years later, that she was a full grown alcoholic and
it really ruined her life for our lives as a family.
It's not just the person that had affected, it affixed
the whole community as a family unit. So, yeah, she
lost everything. She lost a house, her partner, a job,
(12:14):
her license, her her partner took her daughter from her
as well. You know, we'd go home and there'd be
certain notes left around the house, so we didn't know
if we were going to go home and sort of
see you they're awake or not necessarily awake, if you
know what I mean. And yeah, so it was it's
just terrible. Last year was definitely not just the worst
(12:35):
year of my daughter's life, but also mine. I felt
and I failed as a parent, and I just really
touched home, you know. Unfortunately, alcohol was one of the
hardest things to give up because it's it's so social.
It's everywhere. You can't walk down a street without passing
a bottle shop or a souper market. That sells it,
or a pub, or you can't even go out for
a meal these days.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I know exactly what you're talking about. How is your
daughter now?
Speaker 6 (13:00):
She is almost five months sober. Thanks thank the Lord
and Baby Jesus for that in a very long, hard road,
and I must admit, you know, she is doing all
the steps. We're so proud of her. But of course
you know, but I can't get in contact with her
or she's having a bad day, although feelings come flooding
back to me. Is is she going to start drinking?
(13:22):
Is what can I do?
Speaker 4 (13:24):
Pain?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
And you kind of work out what their voice sounds like.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
The minute, the minute, the first hullo is like, Okay,
we're going to have a good day. Is it a
bad day? Is she's lying? Is she's drinking? Is she
what do we? You know? It's it's fortunately for me
as a parent, and I'm sure there's other parents that
can relate. It's never going to end because, yeah, the
minute she has a bad day, she's crying ornately, I think,
is she going to go st bottle shop? Is she
(13:47):
going to drink?
Speaker 7 (13:47):
Is she?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
You know, it's actual hell, it's living in hell, just
waiting for that because you're always worried, constantly worried, Kat,
that is excellent news. I'm so happy. I hope she
reads the article and hopefully that may inspire her to
keep sober.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Thank you Chat