DeAndre M. on the Psychic Change, Effective Sponsorship, and the Boat Metaphor – Deandre M.

About This Speaker Tape

Watts, California. A man with no pot to piss in and no window to throw it out of, feeling like a dead man talking. Deandre M. doesn't trade in Hallmark platitudes; he speaks with the grit of someone who has eaten out of trash cans and sold his brother's clothes to feed a habit. For Deandre, sobriety isn't a gentle slope but a psychic change—a hard pivot from staying crazy to finding sanity.

He recalls a sponsor in a little red Volvo who didn't care about popularity contests and told him to put on a helmet and move. Deandre warns the newcomers to stop running game and quit the "drunk-a-log" of war stories. He views the program as a boat: when the waves of life knock out the money, the degrees, and the house, you grab the boat first. Relying on a Higher Power to bridge the gap between the talk and the walk, he insists that the only way out is to burn the idea of recovery into the consciousness.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 DeAndre M. discusses his sobriety date (May 29, 1991) and his roots in Watts.
• 2:15 Laughter: DeAndre M. jokes about his initial misunderstanding of 'one day at a time'.
• 4:10 DeAndre M. describes being 'nabbed' by his sponsor, Dennis L., and the necessity of re-working Steps 1, 2, and 3.
• 6:30 Reference to the Big Book, page 98, and the concept of 'trusting a Higher Power and cleaning house'.
• 8:45 Story about his first sponsor, Al R., and the red Volvo rides.
• 11:20 Discussion on the 'psychic change' and the danger of forgetting where one comes from.
• 12:50 Mention of the Tenth Tradition and the distinction between AA and professional treatment.
• 15:10 The 'little boat' metaphor for AA and the priority of sobriety over all other life assets.
• 17:30 DeAndre M. recounts being banned from an Alano club for calling a newcomer a liar.
• 19:10 Closing joke about the old-timer and the difficulty of staying sober.