NARRATOR: This program contains subject
matter and language that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.
KRISTIE: My name's Kristie.
I'm 31 years old, and I live in Macedon.
It's a small town in upstate New York.
KEVIN: Kristie is a super funny, one of the smartest
people I've ever met.
KATE: Kristie likes to have fun.
She's very caring.
And when she's sober, I can't think of one
bad thing to say about her.
But my sister, Kristie, is an alcoholic.
And yes.
[can fizzes open]
MARY: She starts drinking as soon
as she gets up in the morning.
As soon as she rolls out of bed.
KRISTIE: If I don't have alcohol,
I will shake like a leaf, headache, stomachache,
and that's pretty much how I feel every morning
until I get something.
The only thing that makes her feel better is alcohol.
MARY: She drinks 24-ounce high-content cans of beer.
It's 8% alcohol.
KRISTIE: Basically, one of my beers
is actually four regular beers.
And she can drink five to six of those a day,
so about 20 beers every day.
KEVIN: She has no job, no source of income.
If she can't get it one way or another,
she ends up stealing it.
And when Kristie's drunk, she becomes very belligerent.
OFFICER: Would you like to come to the station
and give a statement about the threats?
Get off of me!
OFFICER: Stop doing what you're doing!
Get off of me!
When she drinks, she really is a-- just turns into a monster.
Honestly, she's terrible.
I'm gonna [bleep] destroy you, you dumb [bleep] bitch!
She's getting worse by the day.
She defecated on a car.
WOMAN: Kristie!
Kristie, wake up!
MARY: The last four times she's gone into the hospital,
she's been at a .49.
DAN: Now, she's picked up huffing this Duster.
KRISTIE: I do one to five cans a day,
and afterwards, your brain feels like it's mush.
[mumbling]
HILLARY: Her mouth turns blue.
She shakes like she's having a seizure.
DAN: Now, what the doctor said was going to happen
is happening.
She's scarred her liver, inflammation
of the pancreas-- all these things that can really--
that can lead to her death.
DANNY: I want that old Kristie back,
but I haven't seen her in many years.
MARY: The day, Kristie was born, we fell
in love with her immediately.
DAN: She was a cute little baby, and those days were fun for me.
I'd take her out and walk through the neighborhood
and show off a little bit.
Dan and I married very young.
I was 21, and he was barely 22, and Kristie
was our second child born out of four.
So things were tight, but there definitely
was love in the house.
KRISTIE: As a kid, I loved playing out in the woods
and swimming in the creeks.
DAN: It was all good when she was young, really,
for the most part.
The only part that wasn't good was the bickering
between me and her mother.
MARY: There was arguing every day,
and there was a constant tenseness in the house.
It was chaotic.
Once they started yelling, we all
would be so fed up with it, that we'd just go somewhere
and do something else.
MARY: Little did I know, when we were arguing,
she was upstairs in her bedroom closet hiding.
It was absolutely horrible for me.
I couldn't-- I couldn't manage it.
I'd cover my ears and hide in my closet,
and I would count the dresses over and over and over.
I should have known.
I should have known not to fight in front of the kids at all.
Really left a mark on me.
The light switch--
she had to make sure that was down so many times.
And she had to touch her ceiling and turn around so many times.
KRISTIE: It would take hours and hours out of my day,
especially before bed time.
It got to the point where it controlled her life.
She couldn't get to sleep, because she had so many things
her mind was telling her she had to go
through this whole routine before she could get into bed.
HILLARY: So she started to drink.
That's how she decided to cope with her OCD.
As a ritual before bed, every night,
I'd have to take a shot of liquor, whether I wanted it
or not, and that's when I began drinking.
Things kind of fell from super healthy, sports,
to drinking and drugs.
I thought she was pretty much doing
the normal, like, high school amount of drugs and alcohol,
until later on, I heard she's been partying hard.
MARY: But she was still a good student,
and she had a scholarship to a local college.
KRISTIE: I graduated with my BA in history.
I wanted to do collection management or curate.
Her goal was eventually maybe work
at the Met or a big museum.
And I was hopeful that this would make
a difference in Kristie's life.
She was drunk on her wedding day.
KATE: It was so bad, the DJ couldn't
get Kristie in the ballroom for her own wedding dance.
I was unbelievably disappointed.
Sad and disappointed.
KRISTIE: I was ecstatic to marry, but things fell apart.
Her husband knew she was drinking before they married.
But he said he didn't realize how bad it was.
He grew out, or matured out, they say.
That's when Kristie's drinking really
started to get uncontrollable.
MARY: She would get up anywhere between 1:00 and 4:00
in the afternoon, and then drink throughout the night,
until about 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.
She was pretty much out of control.
KRISTIE: I lost six jobs in two years,
all due to drinking on the job.
She became dysfunctional.
Duster was a way to get high and pass the drug test.
There was no way to detect it.
We'd take her to a place to get her better,
and you'd come out with a drug habit.
Kristie had an accident, because she was doing Duster.
DANNY: She smashed my mom's car, high on Duster,
passing out at the wheel.
Two weeks later, I'd sell her car, and she smashes that car.
KRISTIE: I completely messed myself up.
I had concussion, cracked ribs, black and blue face.
The doctor said, do not drink.
And the second I get out of the hospital,
I went and got a drink.
It was getting worse and worse.
You ready, honey? - What?
MARY: You ready?
We're going to go see the doctor for your stomach.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's pretty important that we go now.
I'm fine.
Come on.
Please.
Last night, Kristie had bloody stool.
Today, she got up-- more bloody stool.
She continued to drink, so it's urgent that we get
her to the hospital right now.
Come on, let's go.
- I'm fine. - Honey.
I think we need to go.
You didn't get me what I want.
No, I did not get you a beer.
Then, we're not--
- Come on. - Please get up.
Let's go.
No!
MARY: You're bleeding.
I'm not going with anyone!
My parents don't want to do it, but I do force
them to enable me sometimes.
KRISTIE: Four of those.
Says who?
Says you.
You're bleeding.
Well, I've been drinking daily for 13 years,
so shut the [bleep] up, because you don't know
what you're talking about.
What?
Because you're [bleep] wrong, bitch.
Get away from me!
MARY: Come on down.
Come on.
Those cans are from the last three days.
So she's drinking the equivalent of 20 beers a day.
I don't know if I'm angry.
I'm sad, really sad, when I have to clean that stuff up.
Oh, jeez.
How are you?
What the [bleep]
Come on in.
Sweetie.
How you doing, [inaudible]?
[kristie groans]
HILLARY: I'm here today because I love you.
I'm upset at what this disease has done to you.
I don't recognize you anymore.
Dear Kristie, I am here because I love you very much.
But I'm very afraid we're going to lose you,
due to your addiction.
You're drinking has now gotten to the point where
it's creating health issues.
So I'm asking you to please accept
this treatment that's offered to you,
so we can get you well again.
And so we can all be well again.
MAN: Mom.
Kristie, I miss your vibrant personality,
your hysterical sense of humor, your warm, inviting smile.
And most of all, I miss our engaging conversations.
But those positive moments soon became
overshadowed by the negatives that began consuming your life.
If you don't accept treatment, Kristie,
I cannot, I will not, give you any more money for anything.
No beer, no clothes, no food, nothing.
Well, that just pisses me off.
MARY: I realize that.
I know that.
I don't know what the point of saying that was.
MARY: You need to accept treatment, because we love you.
And you got to know, I'm dead serious.
There's no more money.
There's nothing.
You're just gonna let me suffer today?
No, you will not suffer today.
[inaudible]
MARY: It's a facility who will look at your mental illness.
Kristie, will you go?
Yep.
Yes.
Thank you.
KRISTIE: I have been sober for 60 days today.
I feel healthy.
I have energy.
Mentally, I feel like I have way more clarity.
I'm learning some techniques to work on my OCD as well.