AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L.

Some alcoholics drink hard from the start. Chris S. didn’t. He rarely drank until his early 40s, despite a lifetime of loneliness, low self-esteem, and quiet emotional pain. But when alcohol and cocaine finally entered his life, they seemed to offer everything he had been missing—until they nearly destroyed him. After multiple relapses, six desire chips, and a life-changing sponsor, Chris finally...

Jeff’s drinking took hold in his late teens, fueled by isolation, low self-esteem, and a lack of purpose. As alcoholism and work addiction consumed his life, his marriage began to collapse. Faced with an ultimatum and urged by a therapist, he turned to Alcoholics Anonymous. Though the marriage ended, Jeff embraced AA’s program, built a rewarding life in recovery, married a woman he met in the Fell...

In this episode, guest Maryrose M. shares her journey to sobriety, detailing how alcoholism developed later in life despite earlier signs of its growing impact on her life. After facing escalating binges, blackouts, and deep self-reproach, she embraced a well-worked AA program to achieve over five years of continuous sobriety. Listeners will hear an inspiring story illustrating how finding similar...

Corby’s story is one of pain, relapse, survival, and redemption—an honest reminder that alcoholism can reemerge even after meaningful time in recovery. After entering AA in 2017, Corby later faced a devastating relapse when prescribed pain medication for severe back problems gradually led him back to alcohol. What followed was a difficult journey through addiction, treatment, and ultimately a retu...

C.T.’s story begins with loss and instability— Like many recovering alcoholics, C.T. grew up in a fractured family. His mother died when he was five and he’d never met his biological father, early family contention centered on where C.T. should stay. He never knew why his grandparents didn’t take him in, C.T. ended up being raised by his “Auntie” Irene, from whom C.T. learned values, virtues, and...

April T., experienced the kind of nightmare that recovering alcoholics refer to when we say, “There, but for the grace of God, go I”. April’s road trip of terror began while drunk during a 4-hour drive on a major interstate. Halfway into the trip, while drinking vodka from a plastic bottle, she crossed the median at over ninety miles an hour, and crashed head-on into a car of three people, ejectin...

This episode is another deeply personal story—one that reflects the courage it takes to face alcoholism head-on and the transformation that becomes possible through recovery. My guest, Rudy T., has been sober for 27 years. What he shares is not just a timeline of events, but a lived experience of what it means to surrender, to grow, and to stay the course over time. It’s also a brilliant  example...

Like many I’ve had the privilege to interview, today’s guest, Julie R., took her first drink at 14 and felt immediate relief from fear, sadness, and anxiety at home. Her early binge drinking didn’t stand out much in high school or college, but it quietly laid the groundwork for deeper struggles with alcohol and cocaine. Though she began to suspect alcohol was part of the problem, quitting wasn’t y...

Craig came to AA later in life, getting sober at 63. For years he appeared to manage his drinking while building a highly successful business and providing a rich lifestyle for his family. But alcoholism is patient—and progressive. As control slipped and cocaine entered the picture, the consequences grew harder to ignore. Anxiety mounted. Relationships suffered. The very abilities that built his s...

Amy’s fascinating story is one of early exposure to her father’s alcoholism and her mother’s active involvement in Al-Anon. But her parents also divorced when she was very young and she and her sister were shuttled back-and-forth to fulfill the terms of joint custody. Like many adolescents of divorced parents, Amy sought relief and release through the alcohol and marijuana she started using in 8th...

Kirkland’s family of origin was a difficult place to grow up. Alcoholism was rife and the cause of constant stress and chaos. Wracked with fear and isolation, he inevitably turned to alcohol and marijuana for solace. It didn’t take long for the disease of alcoholism to take hold and thrive. Kirkland’s subsequent use and abuse of alcohol and grass throughout high school and college affected every a...

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Gerry’s road to utter ruin began with pot, pills, and intravenous drug use at 15. Living as a heroin addict for the next ten years, his sordid lifestyle supported his addiction until he was able to stop heroin through methadone treatment for the next ten years. With his life spiraling out of control after two decades as a dope addict, Gerry was finally able to get...

Kelvin's life was defined and dominated by booze and drugs. Though there are similarities to other sobriety tales, many parts of his story contain things that most alcoholics must be referring to when they say, “There but for the grace of God go I” or “That could have been me”. Drinking, smoking crack, gang membership, desperate crimes, jail, broken probation, prison, and parole violations all occ...

Sarah’s remarkable story begins with a relatively happy childhood in a family with little connection to alcohol. While other addictive behaviors may have been present, Sarah experienced issues with anorexia and bulimia years before her first drink. It manifested into feelings of low self-esteem and negative body-image, causing further shame and fear. By the time she found alcohol at age 16, she wa...

Dan C.'s story challenges conventional wisdom about alcoholism and recovery. We often think of alcoholism/addiction as a young person's struggle, a disease that wrecks lives early and publicly. But what happens when a cunning, baffling, and powerful disease lies dormant for decades, only to combust when a seemingly successful life hits an unexpected turn? This is Dan C.'s powerful and eye-opening...

Kyle’s hard-fought battle with addiction and alcoholism was one he thought he could win on his own. He even managed to stay dry without AA for five years. But they were miserable years packed with trouble in every aspect of his life. So, back to drinking he went for ten more years, during which his disease rode him hard to the bottom. As his life swelled with problems and his options were dwindlin...

Patrice T. has known alcoholism from both sides—first as the child of an alcoholic, and later as an alcoholic herself. For a time, her drinking overlapped her father’s struggle, until both of their lives were transformed by sobriety. Patrice grew up amid the turmoil of her father’s disease, yet like so many of us, she began drinking as a teenager anyway. Alcohol offered relief and escape as her li...

Robert got sober when he was just 13, after a brief, but vicious, struggle with alcoholism and hard-drug addiction. Twenty-two years later, he’s a living testament to what long-term recovery in AA can mean for those who get sober young. Robert’s family tree was infested with alcoholism, so his life seemed pre-destined to the ravages of the disease. Fortunately, both his parents and grandfather wer...

Victoria started drinking early to deal with the strife of abuse she suffered as a child and the trauma she experienced at 15 witnessing the aftermath of a bloody massacre in the Philippines. Living with the shock and horror were more than enough propel her alcohol-dominated life for the next 20 years. Then she found AA. Victoria is the first guest on AA Recovery Interviews whose spouse, Wes H., s...

Jackie's story illustrates one of the most cunning aspects of alcoholism--the erroneous belief that going to AA meetings without necessarily doing the work is enough to stay sober. In Jackie’s case, she had survived her dysfunctional family and alcohol-infused failures at higher education, only to emerge as a full-blown binge drinker. As escalating alcoholism continued to addle her decisions, she...

William’s story speaks to the devastating effects of alcohol on a life already afflicted with mental health issues. Raised in a drug-infested part of London, William describes his childhood as horrible amidst family members who were sex workers. Rather than be shielded as a child from this dysfunctional environment, he was exposed to it to learn the harsh realities of life. Seeking relief from the...

A Viet Nam veteran from a family fraught with alcoholism, Bob’s post-war progression into the disease of alcoholism accompanied a long and hard-driven business career in the banking industry. But, by the time he had raised three children and accumulated a great deal of material success, Bob’s alcoholism and other addictive behaviors severely bit into his home life. His marriage unraveled and his r...

Incredibly, Tom hadn't had a drink in over nine years when he joined AA. He was "dry", but his behavior during those years was every bit as alcoholic as if he’d been drinking the whole time. Growing up in a very dysfunctional home, Tom’s early life was fraught with daily fear, shame, and lack of direction. His years in the army during the Viet Nam war and his early business career were soaked in a...

Rosemary started drinking at age 6 with a sip of beer. But unlike other children, whose experience with beer was an occasional sip, Rosemary's beer drinking became an everyday occurrence. Her parents, distracted by their own severe alcoholism, allowed her to continue drinking daily from age 6 until she got sober in her 20’s. As the oldest of five children in a very dysfunctional family, Rosemary a...

My guest on today’s episode of AA Recovery Interviews is David D., a man whose story of descent into alcoholism—and steady climb back through the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous—reminds us that no one is immune to the reach of this disease. Born into a relatively normal family and raised in a stable environment, David’s early life was free of the turmoil that marks so many stories of addiction. Hi...