07/11/2025
''When it was me, dying slowly in plain sight of various rural communities who insisted that one wouldn't hurt - to just count my drinks .... to just moderate or be mindful ... (which I tried and failed at, over and over) - I was constantly baffled, humiliated, and felt even more like an outsider every time I heard those words.
Why couldn't I have just one or two? Why couldn't I stop? What was WRONG with me?
Why did I keep humiliating myself and hurting those who loved me?
Why? Because, quite simply, that is how addiction works. Especially when left unaddressed, untreated, and left to gather such momentum that there is literally no possibility of going back to mindfulness or any of the trendy buzzwords designed to sell you booze.
This is why, for some of us, we can't ''just have one.''
We need to have none, ever again, or we will die.
It's literally life and death.
I cannot be plainer about it than that.
Alcohol is the deadliest and most addictive drug on the globe. It is also legal, endorsed, promoted, and utilised as a significant source of donations to political parties. Those who sell it have been untouchable for a very long time and have used these throwaway lines for a long time, too.
We have never preached a message of prohibition, and we never will - but we are also never going to stop speaking up about early, preventable deaths in our communities and asking others to help us save lives.
So - if you can have 'just one' - good for you. Genuinely. We know plenty of you can.
But please never EVER be the person who insists that someone else needs to 'just moderate' or have one, or be mindful. It's genuinely a terrible and harmful thing to say.
This is why we have spent ten years asking our rural mates to simply make it - and to keep an option for non-drinking mates in the esky, and to make it as simple as a 'no'.
THAT is how we save lives.
To those helping us ensure there is choice, social inclusion for *all* and not allowing bullying or hazing in their workplaces: thank you.
You are literally the lifelines needed for those who need it and don't know how to ask.''