The Hidden Reality of Mums in Addiction | with Karen from Luma

<p><strong>If you&#39;re a mum who&#39;s ever reached for a drink just to get through the witching hour... this one&#39;s for you.</strong></p><p><strong>And if you&#39;ve ever judged a mother in addiction, this one&#39;s for you too.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Paris sits down with <strong>Karen</strong>, senior counsellor and AOD programs officer at Luma; one of the largest and longest-running women&#39;s health services in Australia. </p><p>Karen brings her own lived experience as the daughter of an alcoholic, the sister of drug addicts, and a mother who suffered severe postnatal depression in silence for years. She&#39;s also one of the most refreshingly straight-talking people in the sector.</p><p>Together they get into the reality of motherhood and addiction; the shame that keeps women from asking for help, the mum wine culture nobody wants to call out, what actually happens when a pregnant woman is still using, and why the question is never &quot;don&#39;t you love your children enough to stop?&quot;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>What you&#39;ll hear in this episode:</strong></p><ul><li>Why mothers are held to a standard that&#39;s genuinely inhumane, and how that drives addiction underground</li><li>The truth about mum wine culture and when &quot;it&#39;s not a problem until it&#39;s a problem&quot; becomes a problem</li><li>What really happens when a pregnant woman is still using, and why fear of Department of Children Protection stops women getting help</li><li>The Wanda&#39;s Clinic at King Edward Hospital; a program Karen describes as unlike anything she&#39;s ever seen</li><li>Why shame thrives in secrecy and why shaming people never creates lasting change</li><li>Karen&#39;s own postnatal depression experience, and what it cost her to stay silent</li><li>Why it&#39;s never a choice between the substance and the child</li><li>The one thing Karen wishes the public understood about mothers in addiction</li></ul><p>If you&#39;ve ever felt like you&#39;re holding the weight of the world together while falling apart silently... this one&#39;s for you.</p><p><strong>About Karen</strong></p><p>Karen is a senior counsellor and alcohol and other drugs programs officer at <a href="https://luma.org.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Luma</a> in Perth, Western Australia. She brings her own lived experience as the daughter of an alcoholic and sister of drug addicts alongside a master&#39;s degree in counselling and six years of frontli