Australian radio host, Yumi Stynes, has revealed that she has a problem with drinking – one that has dominated her life since she was a teenager.
The 42-year-old – who is known for presenting the ABC podcast, Ladies, We Need To Talk – confessed she had her first drink at age 12, before she started ‘drinking seriously’ at age 15.
Since then, the mother-of-four has had problems with alcohol throughout her teens, twenties and thirties.
This is in spite of the fact that she has tried to quit several times, such as when she had her first ‘sustained break’ from drinking when she got pregnant for the first time at age 26.
Australian radio host, Yumi Stynes (pictured), has revealed that she has a problem with drinking – one that has dominated her life since she was a teenager
The 42-year-old – who is known for presenting the ABC podcast, Ladies, We Need To Talk (pictured) – confessed she had her first drink at age 12, before ‘drinking seriously’ at age 15
Speaking to Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Stynes said: ‘I loved to drink. Immediately. It was the medicine that got me through life. And that was perfectly normal.’
Ms Stynes revealed that even though at first she ‘wasn’t very good at drinking’, it soon became a hobby and a habit.
She said she would get her hands on some alcohol ‘most weekends’, before she hit age 16 – when she had more spending money and a fake ID to help her to source beer.
‘At 17, I passed out cold at a rock concert and had to be carried to safety by a friend’s boyfriend. At no point afterwards did I think I might have a drinking problem,’ Ms Stynes recalled.
Ms Stynes (pictured) said: ‘I loved to drink. Immediately. It was the medicine that got me through life. And that was perfectly normal’
The radio host admitted she finally got ‘some perspective’ on her drinking when she got pregnant for the first time at 26 years old.
‘It made me realise what it’s like to spend months without a hangover. It sounds crazy but this was a genuine revelation,’ she told SMH.
However, much as she might have liked, pregnancy didn’t cure or curb Ms Stynes’s drinking habit – in fact, she confessed she returned to drinking after giving birth ‘with a vengeance’.
‘If anything, motherhood turned my thirst into a rage,’ she said.
The radio host admitted she finally got ‘some perspective’ on her drinking when she got pregnant for the first time at 26 years old
However, she said that pregnancy didn’t cure Ms Stynes’s drinking habit – in fact, she returned to drinking after giving birth ‘with a vengeance’ (pictured on The Daily Edition)
During the first two years of her daughter, Anouk’s, life, Ms Stynes said she managed to quit drinking ‘completely’.
‘I became effective at achieving things that mattered – like starting a new job, finally getting my driver’s license, meeting deadlines. I was a better friend and better mother,’ she said.
Since that point, the 42-year-old said she’s quit drinking ‘twice more’.
She has also ‘planned’ an ‘alcohol bender’ in April last year, which led to more sustained drinking until the end of last year – when Ms Stynes said if she wasn’t drinking any day it was ‘remarkable’.
During the first two years of her daughter’s life, Ms Stynes confessed she managed to quit drinking ‘completely’ – however, she said she always returned to it
Recently, the 42-year-old has started to talk more openly about her problems (pictured with Bec Judd and Natalie Barr as a radio host)
The turning point has come about since Ms Stynes recently hosted an episode of her Ladies, We Need To Talk podcast, and found herself talking with women who were also scarred from drinking.
Because they were so open, the mum-of-four said she confessed – off the record – to her own struggles with alcohol.
Since then, Ms Stynes has been attending AA meetings – and ‘talking openly’ about her problems.
‘It’s a funny old thing, progress. The Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was great. It was a bit like discovering an awesome new rock band: I wanted to tell everyone about it,’ she concluded.
Yumi Stynes is the presenter of the new ABC podcast Ladies, We Need To Talk.