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Our 10-minute speaker is Lauren S. from San Diego.

Well, there's a lot of people here.

My name is Lauren, I'm an alcoholic and let's see, so what it was like.

I started drinking when I was 13 and I had my first drunk in Mexico.

For me, my first drunk was a real preview for what it was going to be like for the rest

of my drinking career.

I felt free.

I felt intoxicated with just like, you know, this kind of feeling like I was doing something

naughty and it was really thrilling and I could kind of get away with doing things that

I couldn't normally get away with because I think that I felt like I was someone else,

you know, like it wasn't really happening or it wasn't really me or something like that

and, you know, and then I woke up the next day and I felt shame and guilt and I was having

to hide what had happened from my mom because I was on a trip with her and some family members

and, you know, and that really did set the tone for what the rest of my drinking career

would be.

I started to hang out with people who drink, well, I wouldn't say they drink like me.

I would say that they made it feel normal for me to drink the way that I drink and yeah,

...