Comparing Insides to Outsides: Pride Masked as Confidence for Decades – Betty L.

About This Speaker Tape

Betty L. from Brooklyn, NY, a staff member at AA's General Service Office, tells her story of growing up Irish Catholic in the Bronx with a mother terrified of alcohol. She drank from 14 and spent seven years in a single bar, losing jobs and descending into pills and isolation.

She weighed 235 pounds, had two dirty dresses, and lived in terror. A coworker recognized her alcoholism and waited patiently. Betty came to AA and found hope through identifying with another woman's story.

Her Fourth Step revealed two truths: she had no ability to love, and pride was the father of all her defects. Her sponsor said knowing that gave her a chance to learn. She was driven to the Eleventh Step through painful loneliness and found a Higher Power of her understanding.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Betty L. from Brooklyn, NY, a staff member at AA's General Service Office, tells her story of growing up Irish Catholic in the Bronx with a mother terrified of alcohol.
• 11:00 She drank from 14 and spent seven years in a single bar, losing jobs and descending into pills and isolation. She weighed 235 pounds, had two dirty dresses, and lived in terror.
• 22:00 A coworker recognized her alcoholism and waited patiently. Betty came to AA and found hope through identifying with another woman's story.
• 33:00 Her Fourth Step revealed two truths: she had no ability to love, and pride was the father of all her defects. Her sponsor said knowing that gave her a chance to learn.
• 44:00 She was driven to the Eleventh Step through painful loneliness and found a Higher Power of her understanding.