Lola Miers – Australia

I am not hidden
My story is REAL – LOLA MEIRS

We discovered I had FAS when I was 18 years old and I am now 39.

As a child I was very impulsive, Mum would say dinner is ready and I would run off to the neighbor. 

The hardest things for me to deal with are friendships and partners because they look at me and say you are so bright and so intelligent. And then I do something dumb and they think I am playing on them and they get mad and abusive. Even people who are professionals think I do things to play on them, but guess what, it is my intellectual disability and I am not even aware of what I did. I do not think before my actions, and then I think, “Oh, my gosh, I should not have done that.”

I made friends with people who treated me poorly and would lead me down the wrong path. “Come on Lo, one drink won’t hurt you.”  Yes, one drink will hurt me. I was born with already too much alcohol in my life. I have struggled with alcohol since I was 18.  I get pressured by people who manipulate and mentally abuse me and then I can drink so much, then I get depressed, I hurt myself and my life gets really messy. I live by myself and I get really lonely.

I have been in rehab two times and some of the work was difficult to understand. The first time I did not get it, the second time was a success, and then COVID happened. I could not see my mom and dad, I could not see my daughter, I must stay home, and my whole life changed.

When it comes to Fetal Alcohol I want the whole world to know there are many people like me and we struggle. We struggle when no one notices we are struggling and then we have to cope with the not knowing and the people thinking we know.

My favorite thing in my life is spending time with my mom,  dad, and my daughter, and going camping. We go camp in the bush, we look at the stars. We camp and enjoy the bush.

Wish – that there was funding for recreational programs to keep us busy, growing stronger, sober living with safe friends.

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