I think my earliest memories of alcohol began in my teenage years, I can specifically remember the first time I ever had a taste of alcohol.  We were 16, a girl called from high school was having a party and she had an older brother who was legal age and was going to buy us all alcohol.  I chose to get a 750ml bottle of rum, and then I proceeded to drink most of the bottle that night. 

I was so insanely blind drunk I cannot remember anything, my friends, obviously not wanting to get in trouble themselves, shared a taxi home with me, they got me out of the taxi and let me get up the stairs to my house on my own.  I was so drunk that my mother slapped me across the face and I literally just went with it.  The next day I was grounded, my EFT card taken off me and I remember feeling the pain of my first real hangover, combined with the shame of no recollection of what had happened the night before.

I wish that this was the first and last major drinking experience of my life, but this was simply the beginning of the end.  After this, my parents, probably thinking they were doing the right thing for me, proceeded to support my drinking by providing me with a supervised amount of alcohol.  Their logic was sound, they would rather be providing me with this given that they knew I was likely to get hold of this on my own.

The reality was that I was always going to get alcohol, I was always going to have a problem with drinking, whilst I didn’t have the immediate family pre-disposition, I have many extended family members who have suffered drinking problems, and from the very beginning, I have never been a good drunk.