Living with Alcohol Newsround


Living with Alcohol

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Lots of adults like a drink,

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and it's absolutely fine for most of them.

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But too much alcohol too often can cause big problems.

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Alcohol.

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You'll have probably watched adults drinking it at parties.

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You'll have seen it on the shelves in supermarkets,

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and it's probably in your home.

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From the pages of celebrity magazines, to our streets,

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and even your gardens.

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It's hard not to notice the adults around you drinking alcohol.

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All right, girls?

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When people talk about alcohol, it's usually

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from an adult's point of view. But it can affect you too.

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Every day, millions of children in the UK have to deal

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with adults around them drinking alcohol.

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Adults drink the same way like we eat cake, just to calm down and relax.

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One minute they're fine, the next you see them falling everywhere

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and talking funny

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and saying silly things.

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My next door neighbour drinks

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and she drinks every night because her son's always causing her stress.

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Sometimes they get aggressive and do things that they should not do.

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People drink alcohol, get drunk, and sometimes get injured.

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People drink and drive and get caught or arrested.

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I think adults drink

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because they want to get stress off their mind or they want to have fun.

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Alcohol's more affordable than it used to be and adults are spending

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more of their cash on drink.

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Most of it's bought in the shops and drunk at home.

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My parents always have a bottle of wine in the fridge.

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Guys! Please, be careful.

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Drinking alcohol isn't a problem for most adults,

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but some can get addicted to it and find it really hard to stop,

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and that can have lifelong consequences

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for the children around them.

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It can affect how you do at school, it can rip families apart,

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and sometimes drinking too much can even lead to someone dying,

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as Liam knows.

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My dad was a really nice guy,

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you couldn't go wrong with him.

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Everyone loved him, people at work, everybody did.

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I just can't stress enough how much of a nice guy he was.

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I think he started drinking when my mum and him split up,

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when I was about five. I started noticing the alcohol around

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and him changing, his personality changing.

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He was short-tempered, got angry quickly.

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The one incident I can vividly remember is I was pouring a drink

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and I spilt it over a plug accidentally.

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He got really angry. I think he swung for me, tried to hit me, and I ducked

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and ran upstairs and hid in my room.

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I was crying. I was really scared that it wasn't my dad any more.

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My dad decided to kill himself.

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It was the weekend of Father's Day.

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My feelings towards it was...

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..shock. And like how, why, questions going mental.

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I had nightmares for about a month,

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really severe nightmares.

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When he realised he was an alcoholic,

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I think he started to try and get help.

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He was at the doctor's and therapist's,

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and I don't think it worked out.

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I think he was just too severely depressed. I don't know.

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I think he was drunk at the time when he killed himself. So...

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My understanding of alcoholism and alcohol addiction

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is that it's obviously a drug.

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It's a legal drug, but it's still a stupid legal drug.

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It kills people, destroys families, destroys lives.

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When I see my friends drinking I'm cool, you're having a drink.

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I'm not bothered. It doesn't affect me, it affects them.

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If I hadn't been through what I've been through,

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I'd be different. I wouldn't be as strong.

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Stuff would hit me harder than it does.

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I think it's always going to stay with me. Your dad's so close to you.

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It's always going to be there. It's not going to go away.

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I don't think it can.

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We have a tradition

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that we remember my dad by. It's just a bit of fun.

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We pour a bottle of beer over the bench that we've got for him.

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It's a bit of a laugh.

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It shows we're OK with it, I suppose.

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Alcohol changes the way you and your body behave.

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From the first sip it affects your brain, which can make you feel nice.

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Drink a bit more and it can make you slur your words and go wobbly.

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That's your brain and body reaction slowing down.

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Drink it for a long time, and it can increase your chances of suffering

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brain damage and heart attacks,

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liver damage, stomach problems, and cancers.

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Alcohol can be fine, as long as people don't overdo it.

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The government says it's OK

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for adults to drink a small amount a day.

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Thank you. But there are stricter rules around alcohol,

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like preventing drink-driving and, of course, limiting who can buy it.

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You can't buy alcohol until you're 18,

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but you can be around adults that are drinking it.

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One popular place to drink alcohol is the pub.

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There are over 50,000 of them in the UK,

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and some of them are family homes, too. Thanks very much.

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Hi, my name's Madison and I live here in this pub.

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It's a lot different from my friend's house

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because there's more people than a real house,

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and it's wider and bigger and noisier.

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I know more about alcohol than my friends

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because I've lived in a pub since I was two.

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This is the bar where Mum and Dad serve beer.

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These are your bottled drinks and your ciders.

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You've got your soft drinks, your alcopops,

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and your spirits.

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This is the function room.

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Me and my brother, Ellis, love playing here because there's loads

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of space.

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This is the bar, that's our pool table.

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I don't think of this room as a bar.

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I think of it as our own little space.

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DING! DING!

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When I see people drinking in the pub,

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if they're watching on the big screen, maybe TV,

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and have one or two beers, it's not bad or major.

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It's just them having a good time.

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But, if they have too many, I really don't like that.

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Once, this guy, he came in and he had too many drinks,

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and he started falling over and falling on chairs and tables.

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Then Dad noticed him and he calmed him down and sat him down.

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He called him a cab and when the cab arrived,

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he gave him the money for the cab and the cab took him home.

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If you come this way, these are the barrels of beer.

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These pipes go in to these pumps.

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Carling and Fosters

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and Extra Smooth.

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Mum and Dad say drink sensibly and don't drink wildly,

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like have too many pints, or have too many whiskies,

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or gin and tonics, or wines.

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When I'm older, I think that's the message -

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always drink responsibly and sensibly.

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I don't think drinking wildly like some people do helps them at all.

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Adults can be a bit embarrassing when they've had a few drinks.

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Dad!

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Some children find their parents' heavy drinking so upsetting

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they keep it a big secret.

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Now, because alcohol affects the brain, adults don't always realise

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if they're drinking too much or too often. They might pretend it's OK.

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It's not affecting them or their families and it can be difficult

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for them to admit that their drinking is out of control.

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That's what happened to Ben's mum. She's now in control of her drinking

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but we've hidden the family's identity

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because it's still a delicate issue.

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When my mum first started drinking, she wasn't that bad,

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she just had a couple on a night.

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But when she started getting worse, it used to be during the day.

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When I lost my father I was drinking up to four bottles of whisky a day.

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I knew my mum was drunk because she used to be like that

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all the time, and sway.

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I was doing it because I thought it was helping me cope.

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But, obviously, it was making everything worse.

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I was under the influence that bad, I never realised how much drink

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I had got. My every thought was taxicabs to fetch more.

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We did a lot of taxi journeys to go to

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the newsagents, drink shops, basically.

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It would be, like, every day.

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-I would just stand outside waiting.

-I could see...

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..that it was hurting him that I was actually fetching alcohol.

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But because of being under the influence of alcohol,

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I didn't really care, unfortunately.

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Sometimes when I used to walk to school, my mum would be sitting

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on the park bench, drinking.

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I would look at her and I'd look away, like I don't know her,

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because it used to embarrass me.

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It's a terrible feeling.

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You can imagine yourself as a child,

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seeing your own mother or father do it, how you'd feel.

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But when you're under the influence of alcohol,

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nothing else matters, only alcohol.

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The house was all fell apart, really.

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It was dirty and messy.

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My mum was on the sofa and there would be cans all over the place.

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There was cans, clothes, bottles, that's it,

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-all over the place.

-You don't care, you don't care about anything at all

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as long as you've got that drink.

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I kept it a big secret.

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I didn't tell my friends about my mum's drinking, because

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I felt that they might take the mick out of me and call me names and that.

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Nobody understood what it was like for me. The teachers always used

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to tell me to tell me to sit down when I got angry, and everything.

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They didn't know what I was going through.

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For me to sit here and realise it now, what that child of mine

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must have gone through...

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I wanted help with my family, because...

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I love my mum and I wanted her to get back to the way it was before.

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It was really making me angry and upset.

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It took my mum 28 days to stop drinking.

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The hospital helped my mum with drinking,

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and it gradually got better.

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Eventually she was just... fit to come out.

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Luckily, I have been spared my life, because I could have been dead,

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but luckily I'm alive

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and I'm going to make his life absolutely fantastic.

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Now mum's not drinking, she's happy

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and does more things for me and I love her.

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We did sit on the park bench where I used to sit consuming alcohol,

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but both of us sat there with pride.

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Yeah, I feel really relieved to have her back.

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Alcohol can affect many people's lives in so many different ways.

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Sometimes it can be a real problem which can take families years

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to deal with, or sometimes it's just a part of everyday life.

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My dad doesn't drink, but my mum sometimes drinks.

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She only drinks at special occasions or at parties.

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I don't mind adults drinking, but there has to be a limit

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of two to three glasses.

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I see them drinking outside, near bars and restaurants.

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Sometimes it frightens me when I see people shouting and all that.

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But if they're just drinking and talking, it doesn't frighten me.

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My mum and dad only drink on special occasions,

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and I don't really mind it.

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My dad normally just has a beer, and my mum just has one glass of wine.

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I think two bottles of champagne and wine are too much to drink.

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I see adults drinking most of the time in pubs.

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I really want to tell them

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that they should stop drinking, but it's up to them to decide.

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So you've heard a lot about the experiences

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of people living with alcohol.

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It had a really big impact on the lives of Liam and Ben,

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and they found it difficult to talk about.

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But their families got help,

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and since then things have been looking much better.

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There are grown-ups who understand,

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and they'll be able to give you the right support.

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For most of you, being around alcohol will be fine,

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just like it is for Madison.

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But it is important to remember, if you are worried,

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you don't have to keep things to yourself.

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Tell a friend, a grown-up, or someone you trust.

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There's more information on the Newsround website.

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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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E-mail [email protected]

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