They are brave women, who realised they needed help and made a change. I admire them for getting their lives back in order and for sharing their stories now, as a warning to others.
One woman told how her addiction had ended her marriage. Another recounted being so confused she tried to feed her children frozen pies, tried to put them to bed in the afternoon or forgot to pick them up. Theirs are scary stories but they are not alone.
Hanmer Clinic director David Benton said the Tauranga clinic at present had 185 patients.
A lot of the people they saw coming for treatment started drinking between 14 and 20, he told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.
"Addiction is a young person's disorder. You catch it when you are young and the typical progression for alcohol is 20-25 years before they present through our door."
As a nation, we need to change our attitude to drinking.
It's considered normal for most Kiwi teenagers to spend weekends drinking, just to get drunk. It should not be normal. For many, that can be the start of addiction and we should not be encouraging it.
There's nothing wrong with having a drink every now and then, but drinking to get drunk is a slippery slope.
Not a lot seems to change, even as you get older.
The alcohol might be better quality and it might be at a dinner party or a nice restaurant, but there seems to be little shame in ending a night sozzled.
We need to get our act together. We need to treat alcohol in a manner which discourages addiction in the first place.
