AA Recovery Interviews with Howard L.

Patrice T. has experienced the disease of alcoholism and the gifts of sobriety, both as a child of an alcoholic and later as the alcoholic herself. At one point, her own alcoholism overlapped her father’s struggle with the disease until she, too, found sobriety. Her story is fraught with the strife of her father’s alcoholism through her childhood and adolescence. And, like many of us, she started...

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...

Imagine trying to get sober in a country without AA meetings or the Big Book. That's what faced Ksenija when she got sober in 1992. That, plus Croatia's viscious War of Independence. Though she had grown up in a Soviet country that paid little heed to the disease of alcoholism, the rest of Kesenija’s back-story is similar to those told by AA members around the world. She was raised in a culture in...

At 94 years old and 44 years sober, Bud's remarkable longevity and long-term sobriety are the perfect backdrop for the story of a life well-lived through the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Though he started drinking later than most, his disease quickly branched off an alcoholic family tree that claimed the lives of his father and both sisters. Like many alcoholics, Bud built a successful career...

Ever meet someone in an AA meeting for the first time whom you can just tell is working a good Program? My guest on today’s show, Susan D., is that kind of person. When she first attended a Tuesday meeting that I’ve been going to for the past 15 years, she showed up early with the countenance and confidence of someone who has attended many meetings. She comfortably introduced herself and was soon...

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...

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...

Jim's life as an alcoholic began with an addiction to morphine when he was 14.  Administered four times a day while he was hospitalized for a month after a serious surgery, Jim found that morphine did more than kill the pain. It helped him escape the mental tribulations he felt from childhood on. But morphine was difficult to get and he soon found that increasing amounts of alcohol was would have...

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...

Larry got sober at age 65, finally claiming his chair in AA after drinking his entire adult life. As a life-long bachelor, he was also a loner. For decades, his daily routine consisted of working long hours, then putting in a shift at the bar, literally drinking until closing time several days a week. Whatever little social life Larry had was confined to occasional barroom acquaintances. Drinking...

Max grew up in a horribly alcoholic home with a mother who later died of cirrhosis and organ failure from drinking. To deal with the madness, Max began drinking at 13 to escape the feelings wrought by the dysfunction of her alcoholic family. Her own alcohol use escalated through high school and college well into her twenties. She admits that, at the time, she knew intellectually that drinking was...

It was 1996 when Brent first attempted to get sober. But like so many others, it took him several attempts to fully embrace AA and do the work necessary to achieve solid and contented sobriety. Those earlier attempts at sobriety included significant stints in AA over the years, during which time he went to meetings and actually got to know members of the fellowship. But his half-hearted efforts, a...

Marijuana was Vicki’s primary addiction along with alcoholism. Like a lot of us, she smoked pot much more frequently than she drank, but ended up in AA just the same. The hauntings of a painful childhood in a dysfunctional family, fractured by her parents’ divorce when she was young, created self-loathing, shame, and a sense of not belonging. Fortunately, she found marijuana at 13. That, plus what...

Raised in a middle-class family, with its share of alcoholism among its descendants, Jeff’s drinking took off in his late teens and early 20’s, in a self-made world of isolation from others. His sense of purposelessness and lack of direction fed feelings of low self-esteem. He found himself drinking alone and more than ever. His alcoholism soon teamed up with work addiction in a field that has lit...

Paula squeezed an amazing amount of alcoholic destruction into the years between her first drink at 14 and the day she ultimately got sober at 17. Some 42 years later, she recounts the story of her dysfunctional family with a violent father, alcoholic mother, and siblings, all of whom struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. Her own nasty behavior surfaced early as she became the class bully...

John started using alcohol and drugs when he was just 13. He drank alcoholically from the start, but his 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...

Wes’ love of writing songs as a kid grew into a hectic, alcohol-infused career in the music business. Whether it was writing, performing, or producing, daily drinking was just part of the gig. For a while, alcohol was unobtrusive and often served his creative endeavors. However, by the time alcohol turned on him, its debilitating effects on his body, psyche, and spirit had pushed him to the brink....

Ever wonder what staying "dry" for years without AA would feel like? My guest on today’s show is Julie H., a woman whom I’ve known for many years through a variety of meetings we’ve attended. As is often the case in many AA friendships, my knowledge of Julie’s story was limited to her brief shares and a little chit-chat after the meetings. For better or worse, I assumed that her 38+ years of sobri...

Ray’s difficult road to sobriety was paved with many failed attempts to get sober over the years. Each attempt was thwarted by the belief that his situation was somehow different than the people he met in 6 different treatment centers and sporadic AA meetings. The similarities of his loneliness and wanting to fit in were eclipsed by the differences he saw in his social standing and material advant...

Marty's rapid journey to the bottom included multiple relapses and a suicide attempt. The illusion that self-will could keep him sober dogged his every step as he suffered the ravages of worsening alcoholism. That he even got sober at all was an amazement to those of us who got to know him along the way. As one of the more colorful people I know in Alcoholics Anonymous, Marty and I attend many of...

Kristy's exceptional story is one of early addiction evolving into a 5-year struggle with alcoholism in her 30’s. Though she spent only  a couple of years in that quagmire before she found AA, her descent to the bottom was 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 becom...

Dow's revolving-door story of getting sober, slipping, and struggling to get sober again and again should be heard by AAs everywhere. It’s a cautionary tale that shines a bright light on the cunning, baffling, and powerful nature of alcoholism. It's the disease that’s always lurking just outside the perimeter of AA ready to claim those who let up on this Program of action. In Dow’s case, his famil...

It's our 50th episode of AA Recovery Interviews! The podcast where AA members share their extraordinary personal stories of experience, strength, and hope! To celebrate the success of this podcast in touching so many peoples’ lives around the world, I’m turning the microphone for this landmark episode over to my good friend, Adam M. As my very first interviewee for the AA Recovery Interviews podca...

Nicknamed “Happy Jackie” by her meeting mates, Jackie first came to Alcoholics Anonymous to grudgingly fulfill the once-a-week AA meeting requirement set by her 31st psychiatrist. It was the culmination of a life that began as a two-pound baby who’d spent the first six months of her life in an incubator. Raised with the instilled belief that, even as a teenager, she was still too weak to accomplis...

Patty’s erratic, wild, and reckless behavior began when she first started black-out drinking at age 11. By the time she was 16, that behavior brought her into Alcoholics Anonymous, where she has stayed sober for more than 40 years. Back in 1981, there were few treatment options available for teenage alcoholics and drug addicts. Though neither of her parents were alcoholic, they struggled to help P...