A Cork model and blogger has spoken about how she became an addict after starting to binge drink at the age of just 12.

Lauren Edwards, 27, said she wanted to fit in with other kids her age.

She told Cork's RedFM: "Now looking back we were so young, but drinking was kind of 'the norm' at the time.

"We were going into secondary school and other kids were doing it so we jumped on the bandwagon.

"We would have robbed drink. The first time I drank it was some wine we had taken off our friends' parents."

Lauren downed two and a half bottles of wine that first time and ended up blackout drunk.

"I was so uneducated, I didn't know how much to drink," she said.

"I drank until I blacked out and I thought that was normal.

"I got home and told my mum I wasn't feeling well, I managed to pull the wool over her eyes."

Lauren continued to binge drink every other weekend, and at the age of 16 she started to smoke weed.

"That's when the trouble really started," she explained.

"I was then using substances all day every day, whether it be weed, drink or whatever.

"People say cannabis is natural, it grows from the ground - but I smoked it when my brain was still developing.

"I still have short term memory loss, I'm still paranoid."

When she got into her late teen years, Lauren began using class A drugs such as crystal meth and crack cocaine.

She moved to Australia, where things got worse and worse.

"I was running away from Ireland and my addictions, but I was very naive - I didn't realise I was my own problem," she continued.

"When I was on my own in Australia, my drink and drug use escalated and I developed eating disorders."

Lauren got some bar work and stayed in hostels, but was unable to hold down a job.

Things spiralled as Lauren made multiple suicide attempts.

"I did not want to be in my reality at all," she admitted.

"I nearly came home from Australia in a box.

"I was found on the railway tracks with blunt force trauma to my head and my wrists cut up, I woke up in a hospital bed."

It was at that point, after her stomach was pumped, that Lauren began to realise the severity of her situation.

"It was like a lightbulb went off," she said. "I phoned my parents for help."

Lauren, whose blog Lauren or Lucifer you can follow here, said getting sober was "hell" but she's so glad she got through it.

"I had to work at every bone in my body, every cell in my body to get sober," she said.

"Was it worth it? 1 million per cent."

She is now studying to be a psychotherapist and hopes to help others through addiction in the future.

"I'm a walking miracle!" she said.

"I used to be a shell of a human being, now I can actually study.

"If I can help one person or stop somebody in their tracks, that’s my job done."