Rachel Forde

Looking back now, isolation was detrimental for me.

Yeah.

Absolutely detrimental for me.

Oh, I was about 12 or 13.

I'm going to say 12 was when I first picked up a drink.

Do you remember where it was?

I do.

The IDA in Dublin Hill.

I do.

A two litre of cider.

Me and my friend, we went stop for stop on the two litre of Linden Village.

And I absolutely hated the taste of it.

Right.

And I'd say from my first drink to my very, very last drink up until today, it made me vomit.

drink always because I drank alcoholically from the get go you know I didn't know that then but like in hindsight I know that now I hated the taste of alcohol I never ever liked it really but I absolutely loved what it did for me Can you remember when you were 12 that night drinking the Linden Village with your friend a bit of a release or kind of a huge release like I remember you know when you get that little bit of a feeling going this is it

This is it.

This is what I've been missing.

I could talk to people.

I could laugh at people.

I thought I was funny.