Ok, so just as things are looking great for me – I get a job, and an iPhone – the shit hits the fan, as it always does.

Firstly, this weekend just been was the Queen’s birthday long weekend, so we had three days off. I thought, “Awesome, fab, groovy – three days off to recoup from the busy week prior”. But you can guarantee that the moment I have more than a couple of days off, I get sick. And get sick I did, and still am. Stuffy nose and head, achey muscles, shaky legs, nausea. Yucko.

But that’s not the worst of it.
Early on Saturday morning, my brother got caught drink-driving. Keep in mind he’s only 19 and only on his P’s (provisional licence), meaning he can’t have ANY alcohol in his system when he drives. On a full licence, you can have up to .05, but he had to have .00. He blew .102, so he was twice the full license limit.
So naturally, I was pissed off, and as was he. Since he’s the only one around at the moment to drive us around, while my parents are in Western Australia, this was a bummer. But, he was able to continue driving until his court date, 14th July, so I wasn’t too worried.

What I did worry about was when I found out he’d broken up with his girlfriend, and Mum called me to say he’d been done for drink-driving and such, and if our family friends Jan and Brian could come and pick us up, then go to see Sam (my brother) and take the car keys off him so he didn’t drive again after drinking. I said I can do that, and we went down there.
Well it was about 5pm Sunday night, and he wasn’t there – the car was gone and everything was locked up. He had taken off. So naturally, again, I was pissed off. I tried calling his mobile phone a thousand times, then called Mum and told him he had gone.
We then resolved that by sitting there at my parents’ house, it was solving as much of the problem as sitting at home would, so we went back home and continued trying to call him until late that night. He refused to answer, and eventually had his phone off.

Barely getting any sleep that night, I continued to try calling him on Monday, to no avail. He wasn’t answering and if he did, he would just hang up again. By this point I was seriously worried for his (and others’) safety, but I didn’t know what else to do other than continue trying to call him.
We went down to my parents’ and let the dog out, and made sure he had food and stuff. I grabbed a couple of groceries and went back home. I refrained from calling him after talking to my mum, thinking that might put him off coming home the more we called.
Later that night, Jan came and picked me up and we drove up the street to my parents’ house, and we were relieved to see the car there and the lights in the house on. I called my mum and asked her what she wanted me to do; she said to just leave him be, to get over whatever he was thinking/doing, and go home. So I did.

At about 8 or 9pm, we got a random call on the phone, which was just background noise, so we figured it was Sam. I called him back and asked him if it was him who called. He was quite obviously drunk, and had music up loud and another girl there. I told him we’d been worried sick about him, to which he said “Oh, get over it” and hung up on me. He refused to answer any more.

Come to today, where I find out that at about 1am this morning (Tuesday), he was caught drink-driving AGAIN, and his license was taken off of him. I presume he was taken home by the cops and his keys removed from him. I had to come home from work at about 3pm, simply because I couldn’t focus on what I was doing.

I couldn’t be more disappointed in him. The son of two police officers (one current, one ex-), more than anyone, should know better than this. Michael, my parents and I have all come to the conclusion that he’s self-medicating with alcohol, and needs psychiatric help. Maybe not to necessarily make him never drink again, but to help him deal with his emotions in different ways than drinking. So my parents have had to cut their holiday short, and they’re returning home to Tasmania in the next few days.

This totally sucks for everyone because we know he should be more responsible, and we know he has the ability to be. It’s not fair to put us all under so much stress. On one hand I feel I should just let him go, since he’s 19 and therefore a legal adult, and thus responsible for his own actions. But on the other, he’s my little brother, and I feel very protective of him and want the best for him, especially since I can see the potential in him to be an amazing person. It breaks my heart to know he’s hurting so bad he feels he has to drink to get over it.

I never thought I would be one to say that someone in my family has a drinking problem, but I do. And it’s my little brother. I love you, Sam – if only you knew how much.

Me, Sam & our sister Alisha – approx. 1993-1994ish