Can’t Overdose on Meetings So I’m Testing That Theory Every Single Day 😂 – Craig G.

About This Speaker Tape

Craig is an alcoholic from the Alpharetta Group who also spends time in Gainesville meetings, speaking at the Monday Blue Chip Speakers meeting at the NAVA Club with a sobriety date of September 20, 2021. He traces his drinking to ninth grade, when a neighbor pulled out some Panamanian and Craig discovered the ease and comfort alcohol gave him — a sense of finally fitting in after a childhood spent feeling different and obsessing over winning. He got through the University of Georgia, passed the CPA exam on his first try, and landed a paper mill accounting job in Atlanta. A 1995 DUI in Georgia was shrugged off; the company moved him to Indiana at 25, where back-to-back DUIs plus one in Illinois landed him in intensive outpatient and his first introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous.

He came home to Georgia in 2001, got a sponsor, worked the program, married, bought a house, and built fourteen years of sobriety — until life got so good he stopped going to meetings and began treating his alcoholism with nothing at all. A divorce came first, then the self-talk that maybe at forty-five he could drink like a normal person. One evening a date ordered wine, he thought it looked good, and within a month the progressive disease had him back in full swing for five years. The relapse ended the night he blacked out driving to meet a date, hit a curb, and fought with a Good Samaritan who was trying to help him. He woke up in jail, tried to lie his way out to his employer, then got a text the next morning from his ex-wife saying she thought he had a drinking problem — and told the truth for the first time.

He called his friend Alan, who pointed him to a Saturday meeting at the Halt Club in Gainesville, where a sign over the door read welcome home. His new sponsor Troy told him his job was to put Craig's hand into the hand of a Higher Power and walk him through the steps. Troy had him read pages 567–568 on the spiritual experience, memorize the set-aside prayer, and kneel together for the third step prayer with a hand on his shoulder. Craig worked a quick fourth step, shared it with Troy, did steps six and seven, and began the amends — the hardest of them to his two young daughters, one of whom had been praying for him through the drinking years, the other asking "Daddy, do you remember last night?" after he got drunk at her birthday party.

Today Craig is still just as powerless over alcohol as he was three years ago or twenty years ago. He gets up at 3:30 or 4:30 in the morning to pray and meditate in the dark while his mind is clear, talks to his Higher Power, works with others, and goes to meetings — including online ones — because he cannot overdose on them. His takeaway is blunt: fourteen years did not inoculate him. If he forgets he is selfish and self-centered, if he stops renewing his reprieve daily, the first drink is coming, and he might not make it back.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Chairperson opens the Monday 8 p.m. Blue Chip Speakers meeting at the NAVA Club and introduces Craig from the Alpharetta Group
• 2:30 Craig gives his sobriety date of September 20, 2021 and remembers his first AA meeting 24 years ago in Terre Haute, Indiana
• 6:00 Ninth grade — a neighbor pulls out some Panamanian and Craig feels the ease and comfort of alcohol for the first time
• 12:00 University of Georgia, CPA exam passed first try, paper mill job in Atlanta at 25, then the company moves him to Indiana where his drinking takes off
• 16:00 DUI in Georgia in 1995, back-to-back DUIs in Indiana, one in Illinois — intensive outpatient introduces him to Alcoholics Anonymous
• 22:00 Fourteen years sober, divorced, convinces himself he can drink again — one glass of wine on a date and within a month the progressive disease is back
• 30:00 Blackout, hits a curb, fight with a Good Samaritan, arrest — a night he believes his Higher Power struck him sober
• 38:00 Ex-wife's text the next morning — 'Craig, I think you've got a drinking problem' — and his first honest answer
• 44:00 Saturday meeting at the Halt Club in Gainesville, 'welcome home' sign above the door, Troy becomes his sponsor
• 52:00 Set-aside prayer, step three prayer on their knees, working steps four through nine — amends to his two daughters