Alcoholics Anonymous

That's part of it.

Get thee to an AA meeting.

Well, I think-

And Josh needs to get thee to an Al-Anon meeting

He was divorced from my mom since I was 12 and I was about 25.

And I wrote him and told him that I had a problem with alcohol and that I had joined AA and I had stopped.

And I wanted to let him know that.

And this is the letter he wrote me.

And I was looking for that reassurance and love from these people who were young men and young boys everywhere I could because I needed my dad's...

I needed my dad's And I sunk into such a deep depression.

And then as time went on, you know, he lived in the city, he wasn't around and I was AF alcohol free for 10 years in AA.

And then I, something happened and I picked up a drink and 20 years went by and I couldn't stop.

thousand oaks ah yes you are listening to the recovery radio podcast on KMP3 I'm a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and I will be your host you can email me at sarcasticbigbook at gmail.com You can follow me on Instagram at sarcastic.a.book to get all my books.

Get them all.

Go to sarcasticrecovery.com. As always, I'm so glad you're here with me.

So my life got really good.

I was talking to a friend yesterday about, you know, not going to meetings.

They're at a stage where they're not going to a lot of meetings, but they're sponsoring people and they love AA and they try and stay spiritually fit all the time.

And it's like, that's, that's amazing.

Gone through seasons where I was not going to a lot of meetings and I'd gone through seasons where I was going to a ton of them and It's just you cannot go to a meeting for really good reasons, and you can go to a meeting for really bad reasons.

We do.

I know the Alcoholics Anonymous program, they don't like you drinking in moderation even, do they? Once you've declared you're an alcoholic, you're supposed to steer clear of it completely, not a single drop.

So that's why this story has generated a lot of debate and we'll keep an eye on it.

Oh, wow.

peer pressure, like you're going to come into this space.

And again, I was using the kind of the model that works in AA or it works in addiction recovery or celebrate recovery, which is have a have a footprint of what you are teaching, some kind of core lessons, but then have action, accountability in small groups where you become intimate.

You share.

Why are you trying to use a ketogenic diet at all? And if you're wise, not good enough, you'll fail.

You should be in the space that these other folks are, similar to addiction.

You don't need to be, you just need to say, I'm in recovery.

This is how I would help out in the AA or the Celebrate Recovery teams.

So I look at that, and what happens is by the end of the first week, and they're all about, they've now pricked their fingers, their dashboards have been synchronized, they know their 10 students, they've had to proclaim out loud why they're here.

Justin B. says, so happy Doug is back.

I listen to Dopey and go to AA in person three times a week.

I'm eight plus months off Kratom.

A lot of celebrations.

You could see me doing all that stuff.

And Doug kind of took it in his stride.

And we biked to AA one day.

And we bike home.

You're listening to Alcoholics Alive, where recovered members of Alcoholics Anonymous share their experience on how they live AA as a way of life.

None of our participants get paid or speak for AA.

Here are your hosts, Shank and Wayne.

Upon Awakening, this is season 16.

We're at episode 6.

So Upon Awakening comes from the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

This page is 77 and 78 from the fourth edition, 2001.

And it says, under no condition do we criticize such a person or argue.

mean, I mean, there's a there's the full surrender.

I mean, and when I say that, I don't necessarily mean that in the AA way.

I mean, you know, When we look at substances, when we look at drugs and alcohol or whether it's sex or anything, this is the symptoms of something else.

It really is.

So there's a core to this.

There's a real core where I remember sitting in AA in the early days.

And I was watching everybody do everything right.

like they would have a sponsor do the steps you know identifying they're doing all this and i'd be like because i did everything wrong i didn't drink and i didn't use but i isolated yeah i just read books because i was too scared to go out you know i thought i was safe being on my own i isolated didn't really do much at all that first year it was horrible but i stayed i didn't drink and i didn't use

And this is a men's group.

It's like, I call it a non-AAA meeting because there's a couple guys that are in recovery, but then, you know, a couple guys that are not in recovery.

But it's all vulnerability and being open and honest.

And there was actually one of the guys, it's a safe space, there was actually one guy that was there And he said, man, I've never like I don't I don't ever share like this.