Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

A pregnant mother-of-four has laid bare her battle against alcoholism, which began when she was just 15, to UTV's Insight team.

Linda Young's 20-year addiction has come at a hefty price - her children, the oldest 13, the youngest just three, have been taken away from her.

Linda's five-year-old daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome.

"I could have prevented that from happening to my child but I caused that to happen to my baby," she admits during a harrowing interview.

"I might as well have just gone out and threw her in front of a bus. That's ruined the child's life.

"I knew that the drink was damaging my child but the drink had control of me. I had no control.

"I knew I was going to lose her. It was like something slipping through your fingers. I know it was the wrong thing to do for me to go back to the drink."

Pregnant again, Linda is determined to keep the child she is carrying but admits she has had a drink.

"I did on a couple of occasions have a drink but not to the extent that I did with the child with foetal alcohol syndrome."

Linda's drinking escalated when her 15-year-old brother died in 1999 after aerosol sniffing.

"When you've a loss, some people run to the chapel. I turned to alcoholism," she says.

"I'd have woken up at 3 o'clock in the morning and had two tins of beer, gone back to sleep again, woke up at 8 o'clock and got the kids ready for school."

Insight also speaks to young people who pack our parks and cemeteries when darkness falls. Most admit they started drinking when they had barely left primary school.

I spoke to one young man, a father-of-one, who was shot in the legs by republicans over his antisocial behaviour.

I asked the 22-year-old, who was sniffing glue and drinking beer, if he believed he was a responsible father.

He replied: "Aye, I do alright.

"If I have £40 I have £40 worth of drink. That's it." Asked if he thought he had wasted his life, the young man replied: "Oh it's gone. It's wasted alright"

"Nothing I can do about it."

"That's just it. That's life. Drinking."

Northern Ireland's drinking problem has worsened dramatically in the past decade, with hospital admissions for alcohol abuse soaring by 40%.

Latest figures show that in the 12 months to April 2007, 7,244 people were admitted to our hospitals for alcohol-related illnesses - an average of 20 a day.

During the same period, 157 children - three a week - were treated in our A& E units.

Geraldine Wilson, an alcohol liaison nurse at Belfast's Mater Hospital recalls one recent admission of an 18-year-old: "This fellow in question had drunk 36 tins of beer," she says.

"Thirty six tins - and he wouldn't see it as a problem and had indicated that he'd done this on several occasions without suffering any health side-effects from it, and would continue to do so in the future."

The programme-makers also spent the night at Antrim Area Hospital where a 15-year-old girl was rushed into resus.

Paramedics found her unconscious on a nearby housing estate. A&E nurse, Trevor Fleming, says: "We see that quite frequently so the shock factor has gone."

His colleague, A&E consultant, Sinead Fitzpatrick, says: "I think we just seem to have lost all control in some ways. "It's always been part of the culture but I think that the acceptance of it among younger age groups seems to be becoming far too permissive."

Craigavon Area hospital has the largest number of underage drinking admissions.

Tonight's documentary reveals that just weeks ago, six out of the seven patients in intensive care were treated for alcohol-related illnesses.

Consultant Charlie McAllister says: "I don't think that people realise that with the change in drinking habits, where you have people drinking in their early teens, that 10 or 15 years of that kind of lifestyle can end very quickly, with severe diseases by the time they're in their 20s.

"I still don't think it's appreciated what a big problem it is out there, and how quickly it can sneak up on you."

Insight also talks to a mother and her 17-year-old son, who started drinking when he was 15.

She recalls her panic after one bender during which it was thought his drink was spiked, causing him to have seizures.

"To hear your child squealing out and grasping mid-air - it was the fitting. You're trying to get him into the recovery position and you're trying to hold it together, you're trying to be strong," she says. " You have all this paranoia. You want to keep your problems inside your front door."

In a bid to curb his drinking, his mother accompanied him to the off-licence.

"You knew what he was getting and we found initially where he was asking for large quantities then it was scaling back," she says. " Yes, it was irresponsible but it was our way of knowing what he was drinking. "

Another young man tells Insight of his frequent black-outs.

"I got found lying in the park one morning with a bottle of vodka" , he says.

"The hangover scared me the next day."

Another teenage drinker, when asked whether he realises the damage he is doing to himself, replies: "Sure look at my ma. My ma's drinking what, nearly 25 years. She's just the same."

Linda Young is speaking out in a bid to warn teenagers before it's too late.

"I was that age at one time. I was drinking. I thought I was in control and look at me now. I'm sitting in a home, a three bedroom house with nothing," she says.

Linda knew she was self-destructing and contacted social services. She realised her children deserved a better life.

"I can give them toys. I can feed them. I can do this or whatever but I can't give them what my children need because I am a shell. There is nothing there. I was there on the outside but there was nothing on the inside because the drink was making me numb."

Linda is now determined to turn her life around for her unborn child. " It's a wee boy - the first grandson born since my wee brother died.

"I'm starting to be more myself and finding myself and finding who I am, what I'm capable of, what I deserve in life and what I can give to my children, instead of what the drink can give me."

Belfast Telegraph