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I gave up booze at 39. Only then did I realise what it had done to me

14:49, 28 Jan 2025, updated

09:28, 29 Jan 2025



By

LISA HOLLINSHEAD

With a glass of champagne in hand and my favourite cocktail dress, I felt like the perfect hostess as I greeted guests arriving for the glitzy PR event I had organised.

The air buzzed with conversation, punctuated by the chime of glasses and bursts of laughter. It was everything I thrived on - until it wasn't.

Beneath the polished façade, I was quietly unravelling.

The sa...
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

I was in denial about my drinking until waking up on Christmas morning with that awful symptom we all dread. I had gone too far. I texted my son, 'I'm so scared...'

Belinda Stark had one hand on a full glass of sauvignon blanc and the other holding her head as she sobbed at the dining table alone. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and her nose was blocked as she tried to remain quiet while her sons slept in their bedrooms. It wasn't an especially sad occasion. Nothing catastrophic had happened. It was just another weekday night for the mother of two from Melbourne. 'I'm not good enough. I hate myself,' the voice in her head would say on repeat.
Mail Online •

My daughter committed suicide at 21

11:47, 16 Dec 2024, updated

22:25, 16 Dec 2024



By

JOHN LEE

The last conversation I had with my 21-year-old daughter Freyja before she took her own life was an argument. That awful fact will haunt me until my last day.

She had been distant and rude with me and I didn't know why, so one morning I went to the café where she worked. At first, she was bubbly and excited to see me - like my old Freyja was back. Then she turned cold and disgruntl...
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

I noticed something odd on a spreadsheet at work. It was the first sign of an unfathomably cruel disease that has turned my family's life upside down

Jonathan Brown was sitting at his desk working on a project when suddenly he stopped typing mid-sentence.

For the 55-year-old senior mechanical engineer from Sydney, the report in front of him should have been a simple enough task to complete.

But he had completely frozen and was unable to continue.
Mail Online •

My life looked perfect - but I was using cocaine six days a week

By LEZLY KAYE Published: 05:40, 17 November 2024 | Updated: 03:58, 20 November 2024 Monday was my sober night.During my wild days of partying with bikies, dancing for money and recklessly taking drugs, there would be one night a week when I wouldn't punish my body with cocaine. Looking back, how I managed to do that was a miracle.My story may sound confronting at first, but I'm sharing it because I want the world to know it is possible to break the cycle of addiction and come out the oth...
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

I discovered my father's secret life after his suicide. It destroyed my mother and left me with scars so deep I struggled for decades

One of the worst days of Peter Hunt's life remains 'crystal clear' and 'imprinted on his brain', even though it happened 56 years ago. It was a sunny Monday afternoon and he'd just returned home from school to a hug from his mother in the front yard when two cars pulled up in the driveway. His father's friend Ian and the family doctor got out. His mother initially looked confused when she saw them then started to scream.
Mail Online •

I was cuckolded twice by men I considered friends - now I'm broken

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling groggy and disorientated - something wasn't right. As I gently turned over in the darkness I noticed the other side of the bed was empty. My fiancée Emily* never stayed up this late.I didn't want to leave the bed at 1am but I wondered where she was. My first thought was she had fallen asleep on the couch downstairs. We were on a weekend getaway with four friends so...
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

Hell is too good for my grandmother who betrayed me in the worst possible way at age five. Now, 60 years later, GLORIA MASTERS exposes the evil that hid in plain sight

Arriving at her grandmother's home, five-year-old Gloria Masters breathed a sigh of relief and her tense muscles relaxed knowing she'd have a warm meal waiting inside.

For a vanishingly brief moment during her childhood, grandma's house was a safe haven for the hungry child who was neglected of love, attention and food by her father.
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

I look like a normal mum but I'm a psychopath. No, I'm not a killer, but I've ruined countless lives. Here's how I do it - and how to spot people like me

It's the sort of threat you see all the time from idiots on Facebook, but in my case, it's true: If you get on my bad side, I will become your worst nightmare. If you were to see me on the street you'd see a regular - even friendly - mother of five in her mid-forties. I'm also a subclinical psychopath. What does 'subclinical' mean, you ask? Rather than being 'crazy' or 'violent', like the stereotypical psycho of Hollywood movies, I instead carefully plan how I can make your life miserable through manipulation, and then I do it.
Daily Mail Australia - Mail+ •

My father, the murderer: I watched dad kill mum in front of me when I was seven. After he was released from prison, I was faced with an unthinkable choice

I woke to the sound of shouting. It was early Saturday morning, but the walls of our house were already shaking with my parents' voices. Curiosity tugged at me. My older sister stayed in bed while I climbed down from mine, rubbing the sleep from my seven-year-old eyes. Balancing on my tiptoes, I reached for the bedroom door handle, opened it - and froze. Mum raced past me, her face etched with fear. She bolted from their bedroom toward the spiral staircase. Dad was right behind her, a knife glinting in his hand. 'How could you betray me?' he howled.