Emotional Sobriety – Karen C. – Franciscan Renewal Center – 2012

About This Speaker Tape

Karen, a woman in long-term recovery from New J., shares her journey through the lens of emotional sobriety. She describes a life of fleeing—literally driving 80 West until she couldn't drive anymore—and a marriage that left her in a battered women's shelter. Despite 12 years of sobriety, she hit an emotional bottom, realizing she was still blocked from true freedom by a need to be right and a series of false dependencies.

She anchors her recovery in the literature, specifically Bill W.'s writings on emotional sobriety, and shares the visceral experience of her son's kidney failure and the 'healing quilt' she sewed during his dialysis. Her narrative centers on the shift from demanding outcomes to offering love without expectation, moving from a state of defiance to a quiet place in the sunshine.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and the story of the nickel on the agenda.
• 4:45 Set-aside prayer for a new experience.
• 5:30 Discussion of abusive relationship and the battered women's shelter.
• 8:40 The '80 West' story: fleeing as a coping mechanism.
• 12:15 Discussion of Bill Wilson's article on Emotional Sobriety.
• 15:40 Story of her son's kidney failure and receiving the 'As Bill Sees It' book from Sylvia.
• 21:10 Analysis of 'false dependencies' and the 'emotional merry-go-round'.
• 25:30 The conflict with her daughter over the wedding and the lesson of loving without demand.
• 31:10 Mention of the 12 Steps as the only way to uncover unhealthy dependencies.
• 33:40 Story of making a financial amends in long-term sobriety.
• 36:10 The 'healing quilt' and the birth of her grandson.
• 39:00 Closing reading from the Dalai Lama.