AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L.

Though he started drinking alcoholically from the age of 13, John's constant nemesis was marijuana, amphetamines, LSD, prescription opioids, and ultimately heroin. His parents, who divorced when he was five, desperately tried to help him. Nothing seemed to work. Every treatment failure and non-successful attempt to get John sober, including half-hearted stints in AA, only validated the label “unlu...

Though she drank for only five years during her 30's, Kristy's alcoholism surfaced quickly. By the time she found AA, her descent to the bottom had been both swift and severe. Trying to justify, then hide her alcoholism from her husband, kids, and employer only revealed to them how much worse Kristy’s drinking had actually become. She finally ran out of excuses, suffering physical and emotional de...

Getting sober at age 58, Steve had been drinking for 35 years with many opportunities along the way to acknowledge his overuse and later abuse of alcohol. But like many who got sober later in life, Steve managed his drinking, mostly limiting it to binges on weekends and holidays. Though it interfered at times during his marriage and in his relationship with his children, Steve held his marriage to...

Jon's drinking started in his late teens and continued into his thirties when the disease of alcoholism had him firmly in its clutches. By then, his use of meth-amphetamines had also spiraled out of control. Instead of supplanting Jon’s alcoholism, his drug addiction fueled his drinking until that ruinous combination threatened his job and virtually every other aspect of his life. Though he knew h...

Marty is one of the most colorful people I know in Alcoholics Anonymous. Because Marty and I attend many of the same meetings each week, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well over the past nine years.  Unfortunately, those years included relapses after 10 months, then another relapse after 14 months of sobriety. It was after his last slip, however, which landed him in a New York City hospital...

With nearly 20 years of sobriety, John relapsed after an extended period of good fortune had convinced him that he was cured. The admitted alcoholism that had brought John to the Program at age 24 had been arrested for years through his hard work in AA. And, initially, it helped him survive deployment to Iraq in the early 1990s and a horrible helicopter crash in Somalia that killed four fellow Mar...

Joining us from Nairobi, Kenya, Kassie recently celebrated seven years of sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. Raised amidst the pomp and circumstance of the diplomatic corps, large, formal parties were a weekly occurrence in her family and she learned about alcohol’s importance early in her upbringing. Spending her high school and college years in America further developed Kassie’s abilities to drin...

As a medical doctor who secretly battled his own addiction to alcohol and drugs for many years, Jim's alcoholism literally affected the lives and well-being of others. Jim grew up with an abusive father whose military career relocated the family many times during Jim’s childhood and adolescence. He faced additional suffering during countless hospitalizations for medical conditions related to hemop...

By the time he got sober, the dark cloud of alcoholism had engulfed Guy's life. After years of heavy drinking and drug use, that cloud all but obfuscated Guy’s best efforts to manage the disease. The cleverly-crafted lies and innate charm that had worked so well for so long simply stopped working. In the dozens of jobs he held over the years, Guy’s ability to work harder and longer than others alw...

Jails, institutions, or death. These are the three bleak outcomes from alcoholism and drug addiction that faced my guest on today’s show, Ro Y. Actually, he fulfilled the first two in his late teens and early twenties after being incarcerated multiple times and being court-ordered into treatment facilities. The third option was not far behind. Ro’s increasing use from alcohol and drugs pointed sol...

Mary joined Alcoholics Anonymous 35 years ago, shortly after her father picked up his 20 year chip in the Program. Her father’s longevity and experience in AA was reflected in his willingness to let his daughter find her own way through the alcoholic mire in which she was stuck for years. By the time she came into AA in 1988, she had become emotionally, physically, and spiritually wrecked. A cry f...

At age 13, Charlie suffered hydrocephalous and underwent the first of 5 brain operations over the next 8 years. By 15, he had begun using alcohol and pot both recreationally and to relieve his head pain. With sports out of the question, Charlie learned guitar and started playing in bands. His alcohol and drug use escalated through high school and college, and ultimately through law school. By the...

Chimene's story will resonate with those in their first few years of sobriety. It will also ring familiar with those who drank for many years before alcoholism took control of their lives. In Chimene’s case, drinking was part of her life for over 30 years, from the time she was 18 until she joined AA a few years ago. A social drinker for many of those years, she functioned in her job and homelife...

Originally from England, Martyn immigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1970’s bringing along his predilections for excessive drinking. Insecurities from his earlier life, fueled by fears of not measuring up, stoked his drive to succeed. And for years, while Martyn’s drinking morphed into alcohol abuse, his rapid ascent in business and lack of consequences from drunken behavior, made functional alcoholi...

Chris G. found AA over 15 years ago, but after the first year and a half, he decided to go back out. Relapse for some is a sad and tragic story. Many alcoholics are claimed by incarceration, institutionalization, or death before they have the chance to make it back. In Chris’ case, by the grace of God, he survived to finally return to AA and today has 4 and a half years of continuous sobriety. I m...

Walt was raised in a military family who moved every couple of years. The transitory nature of Walt’s childhood and adolescence meant making and losing friends on a frequent basis. A sense of impermanence drove his desire to excel in whatever short-term opportunities the relocations created. But, by the time college allowed him to stay four years in one spot, alcohol had already pervaded Walt’s li...

With 51 years sober in AA, today’s guest, John C., shares a story chocked-full with experience that will resonate with newcomers, old-timers, and folks in-between. Growing up in Ontario, Canada, John’s childhood and adolescence were indelibly influenced by his overbearing alcoholic father and pill-addicted mother. Staying out of the house away from his parents for days at a time was one of the few...

Diana’s love of AA is unmistakable. In her words: “AA is at the center of my life. It keeps me sane. It gives me structure, a sense of purpose. It teaches me about myself. It gives me fellowship.” When I first met Diana L. on a London AA Zoom meeting almost a year ago, the humility of that sentiment had me listening carefully every time she shared in that weekly meeting. I intuitively knew that su...

Sober since 2020, Kevin's backstory of drinking belied his ultimate identification as an alcoholic who needed help from AA. Raised in a successful family where neither parent was an alcoholic, various ancestors had suffered from the disease, though a few had gotten sober in AA. As alcoholism appeared to skip a generation, Kevin had managed his drinking to achieve a successful business career and a...

The wisdom MaryCeline conveys is that of one who’s fought hard and suffered much in her battle for sobriety. With multiple stints in AA since 1999, her relapses became increasingly miserable and hopeless. When she finally claimed her current sobriety date in 2013, it was at the desperate end of round-the-clock drinking. From the ashes, her AA program was reignited under the careful guidance of a l...

Steve first got sober in the early 80s. But five difficult and prolonged relapses over the next 25 years delayed his current sobriety date until July 2008. As bad things got after each relapse, Steve somehow managed to make it back to AA with plenty of reasons why he slipped. Unlike some alcoholics who stay out weeks or months before re-entering AA, Steve’s intervals of daily drinking lasted for y...

Alcoholic, drug addict, and crazy are three of the self-proclaimed monikers Preston D. wore as a teenager. I first met him when he got sober seven years ago. Since then, we’ve attended many of the same men’s meetings, both in person and on Zoom. Though he moved from Houston to New York City to expand his career as successful artist two years ago, we’ve stayed connected through on-line meetings and...

When he first came to the U.S. from India at age 21, Sachin was eager to build a lifestyle fueled by alcohol and partying.  Actually, it was a continuation of the life he lived in India where the shame, guilt, and low self-esteem created by his dysfunctional family only made Sachin want to drink more. After years in the U.S., Sachin’s daily drinking, coupled with his desire to dominate business an...

[This is an encore of Episode 46, originally released September 29, 2021].  The original episode is available on this podcast by searching for or scrolling down to Episode 46 on your podcast app or by visiting aarecoveryinterviews.com. At age 13, Amanda was challenged by her parents to drink half a bottle of Crown Royal. It left her sick and passed out on the bathroom floor in a pool of vomit. Yet...

Raised in a politically powerful family in a major eastern city, Patrick's privileged upbringing in the public eye was belied by his alcoholic father’s physically abusive and destructive behavior behind closed doors. That sacrosanct family secret tormented Patrick and his siblings, as they were forced to put on the mask of a perfectly happy family to the outside world. Seeking relief from the terr...