We initially got to know Kate DeAraugo in 2005 when she won the crown of Australian Idol! She was just 18 years old. But her post Idol journey was anything but a fairytale; it spiralled into addiction and legal troubles. In 2017, Kate was convicted of drug possession, drug driving and weapons possession.

This conversation with Kate is a deeply honest recount of what it can be like when you live with addiction. Kate has what a lot of us would describe as an addictive personality, someone who took everything to the extreme. She says that when she drank, she drank too much. When she ate, she ate too much. When she loved, she loved too much. These behaviours took Kate to some fairly dark places.

Kate shares:

• After winning Idol, the only thing anyone spoke about was her body

• Record labels saying she needed to lose weight and having full body liposuction at age 19

• The narrative of addicts being from ‘broken homes’ isn’t realistic

• What led her to seeking out drugs in the first place and how that spiralled into more heavy substance abuse

• The toll it took on her family

• How families can help support an addict & what her family learnt that ‘worked’

• How addicts think and what happens inside their minds

• Addiction is a lifelong condition, but sobriety is a responsibility

You can find more from Kate at her website

You can listen to Kate’s podcast Why Do I Feel This Way

Laura mentioned a famous study about addiction that you can watch in Johann Hari’s Ted talk here

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