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Living Free

The Living Free Crew

Talk on substance misuse, alcoholism and other addictions. Information on support groups is given.

news & politics

All Episodes

Al-Anon Family Groups - Gary on 09JAN2025

Living Free ·

2025/01/09

Gary grew up with parents who had been affected by a drinker in their family. He went on to marry three alcoholics and was fortunate when a marriage counsellor suggested that he try Al-Anon Family Groups. Now, over twenty-four years later, he discusses the impact of Al-Anon in transforming his life and relationships.If someone else's drinking is causing you a problem, then you can phone the Al-Anon Family Groups helpline on 1300 252 666 or go online at al-anon.org.au for more information.You can

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Al-Anon Family Groups - Del

Living Free ·

2025/01/02

As the youngest child of a family of 9 children, Del grow up feeling invisible and often bewildered about the actions of others in the family. Del's parents drank and partied, distracted from the emotional needs of their children. As the result of this, Del found herself in early adulthood ill-equipped to recognise healthy from unhealthy relationships, leaving her vulnerable to mistaking any show of kindness as safety. It took several damaging relationships and emotional collapse for Del to realise

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Overeaters Anonymous - Amanda (Repeat)

Living Free ·

2024/12/26

The child of migrant parents who worked long hours, Amanda remembers feeling isolated as a child. She remembers bingeing on food at the age of 8 and has spent many years struggling with compulsive over-eating, using food to calm herself whever she feel restless, irritable, discontented or otherwise uncomfortable. Overeaters Anonymous has shown Amanda that she is not alone and that it is possible to live at ease, without bingeing.This episode is a repeat. It was first aired in March 2024.If you are

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Derek on 19DEC2024

Living Free ·

2024/12/19

Derek grew up in a conservative religious family and didn’t drink alcohol till he was in his early twenties. He liked the effect of alcohol and continued drinking socially during his twenties and then quite heavily during his thirties. Derek was 42 when he decided to control his drinking but it took him 5 years before he had to admit that all he could really manage was a maximum of 2 days sober at any one attempt. Three months after he heard about Alcoholics Anonymous from a friend, it took a

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Drug Addiction Recovery - Tom on 12DEC2024

Living Free ·

2024/12/12

Tom was reasonably academic, enjoyed music and was quite competitive in his youth but always felt a bit different, like a square peg in a round hole. He had depressive episodes early on which were evidence of sub-clinical mental illness that would affect him later in his teenage years.Tom was curious about drugs in his early teens and joined in with a drug culture at his school, using mainly marijuana. He stopped using drugs to improve his studies but experienced a mental breakdown and was placed

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Al-Anon Family Groups - Anne

Living Free ·

2024/12/05

Anne grew up in a family affected by intergenerational alcoholism, in which her father resorted to anger and violence. She had undiagnosed ADHD as a child, inevitably got into trouble at school, and continued to take risks in her early adult life. It was the drinking of her husband that led Anne to seek the support of Al-Anon. When she made the difficult to choice to leave her husband, taking her four children with her, she did it with confidence that despite the risks she faced, things would work

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Overeaters Anonymous - Janine (Repeat)

Living Free ·

2024/11/28

Janine grew up in a family where sharing good food was an expression of bonding and love, but when she began to experience issues with her sense of identity and belonging at school, she became concerned about her weight. She began dieting but found that after each diet she gained more weight. The pattern continued until Janine's weight gain was beyond her control and so was her preoccupation with food. Now a member of Overeaters Anonymous, Janine has accepted that she is powerless over food and that

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Michael on 21NOV2024

Living Free ·

2024/11/21

Michael has come back on the show, now with another 6 years of sobriety, and talks about the impact of his drinking on himself and his family, and what eventually brought him into Alcoholics Anonymous.Michael discusses the profound transformation that he went through because of understanding that his problem was his thinking and not his drinking, which was merely a symptom. AA fundamentally changed the way he considered himself and others, and he realized that his future depended on not trying to

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Narcotics Anonymous - John on 14NOV2024

Living Free ·

2024/11/14

John grew up in a normal family but got into alcohol and dope in his early teens, hating the taste of alcohol but loving the effect it had in helping to fit in. He was in youth detention early, but it wasn’t till he was in and out of the adult justice system that he got a taste for heroin, then speed and amphetamines. John went through rehab many times and found out about Narcotics Anonymous but didn’t really take recovery seriously until after he had been clean for a couple of years and was a

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Al-Anon Family Groups - Erin

Living Free ·

2024/11/07

Erin grew up with her three siblings in a family where alcoholism had affected several generations. She describes her family as 'fractured' as each member coped as best they could with the discomfort they felt. Erin herself sought solace in alcohol, sugar and unhealthy relationships, until she found, through Al-Anon and other 12 Step Fellowships, better ways to manage her life and overcome the trauma that had kept her bound in unhealthy habits.If someone else's drinking is causing you a

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Drugs and Alcohol Culture in Nigeria - Young

Living Free ·

2024/10/31

Trigger Warning - mention of sexual assault and course language. Young walks us through his introduction to Drug and Alcohol culture in Nigeria, and how it differs from Australia.

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Narcotics Anonymous - El and Summer on 24OCT2024...

Living Free ·

2024/10/24

This is a replay of an interview with El and Summer about recovery from compulsive addiction through Narcotics Anonymous recorded on 29 November 2019El didn’t have an idyllic childhood as her parents separated when she was 12 years old, and her mum was unwell. She suffered physical and emotional abuse and turned to drinking and smoking marijuana in her early teens to cope with the anxiety, fear and shame. El’s drug taking escalated quickly and she moved to amphetamines and heroin and contracted Hep

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Laura on 17OCT2024

Living Free ·

2024/10/17

Laura has come back on the show, now with 9 years of sobriety, and talks about the impact of her drinking on herself and her family, and what brought her into Alcoholics Anonymous.Laura discusses the transformation that she went through and how it fundamentally changed the way she thinks about herself and others. She also discusses the spiritual concept of AA and her podcast “That’s Not in the Book”.If you would like to find out a bit more about alcoholism for yourself or a friend, then you can give

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Gamblers Anonymous - Drew 10OCT2024 (repeat)

Living Free ·

2024/10/10

This is a replay of an early interview recorded remotely in the Covid-19 era in April 2020, as we struggled with new technology to keep the show on-air.Drew started gambling in his mid-teens, starting out with a small bet on a horse, graduated to other sporting events and eventually it snowballed into gambling on virtually anything. He started gambling to fill a void in his life and it seeped into every aspect of his life and he was unable to separate gambling from his work, family and social

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Gambler's Anonymous - Jerry

Living Free ·

2024/10/03

Join Mitch as he finds out what ten years of sobriety from compulsive gambling looks like. For help with compulsive gambling - https://gaaustralia.org.au/meetings/?tsml-day=any&tsml-region=vic

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Narcotics Anonymous - Emma on 26SEP2024

Living Free ·

2024/09/26

Emma grew up in a dysfunctional home and progressed from alcohol to pot at 13 years old and drugs at 15. A friend gave her heroin at 17 to lose weight and she was hooked from the start and eventually she moved on to methamphetamine. She loved the way drugs made her feel, fitting in for the first time in her life.Emma had three young children that were taken away from her in her depths of drug addiction and this gave her the spark that she needed to change her life. She tried suicide a few times and

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Alcoholics Anonymous - Sanjay on 15AUG2024

Living Free ·

2024/09/19

Sanjay has come back on the show after another 7 years of sobriety and talks about his original journey out of uncontrolled drinking, how he found Alcoholics Anonymous and how AA has changed his life.Sanjay discusses the transformation that he went through and how it fundamentally changed the way he thinks about himself and others. Gone is his low self-esteem, ego and fear that drove his existence during the drinking, replaced with hope and confidence of a future without the craving for alcohol

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Gamblers Anonymous - Karl

Living Free ·

2024/09/12

Karl spent his childhood looking forward to growing up so that he could enjoy the social life his parents enjoyed with lots of drinking and gambling. Neither Karl nor his parents considered drinking and gambling to be dangerous, but for Karl, who won a substantial amount of money at his first poker game as a young teenager, gambling, drinking and drug use soon became problematic. He entered re-hab, mainly for his substance abuse, and found it helpful, but it was only after his gambling robbed him of

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Al-Anon Family Groups - Sheridan

Living Free ·

2024/09/05

Sheridan and her husband were friends as children, went out together as teenagers and got married when Sheridan was 20 and her husband 21. Her husband had taken a pledge not to drink until he was 21 and kept it. But when he did begin to drink socially, it was problematic almost immediately and Sheridan soon became anxious, covering for him by taking on too much responsibility for the children and family business. Her anxiety progressed to despair as her husband's mental health deteriorated, and she

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International Overdose Awareness Day + Sober...

Living Free ·

2024/08/29

This is a repeat of a conversation with sober bartender, musician and producer Ben. It also includes details of an upcoming Harm Reduction Victoria event - To commemorate International Overdose Awareness Day this year, we are having a big Community Feed, a Screening of the movie "Love, in a time of Fentanyl" and Naloxone training session with A naloxone kit for everyone at the end of it- ALL FOR FREE!!!! FRIDAY 30 August STARTING AT 12 Noon at 299- 305 Victoria Street Brunswick ( Train line- Upfield

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