Faith Without Forensic Proof – Dave P.

About This Speaker Tape

Florida State Convention - 2004

Dave P. traces his path from a childhood of poverty and street-level trauma to a life of total dereliction. He describes a descent into daily drinking and amphetamine use fueled by a nurse wife who provided cheap pharmaceutical-grade pills leading to a state where he was unemployed unbathed and surviving on frozen Swanson dinners. He maps out his initial resistance to the program viewing the 12 Steps as 'churchy' and 'lame,' and his failed attempts to find a cure through ministers and a doctor who prescribed Librium. The turning point arrives on April 17 1976 when he stands in the dark of his dump of an apartment and admits he cannot do it alone. He dismantles the idea of a punitive Higher Power replacing it with a daily practice of abandonment and a restored relationship with his family and grandchildren.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Dave P. introduces himself and mentions his home group in Bellingham, Washington.
• 4:15 Dave discusses the 'Chapter to the Agnostic' and the three pertinent ideas of alcoholism.
• 6:30 Childhood trauma: Dave speaks about poverty and being sexually molested as a child.
• 11:45 The 'pharmaceutical entourage': How he used amphetamines to drink more and gave them away to friends.
• 15:20 The 'Swanson dinner' bottom: A detailed description of his physical and mental dereliction.
• 20:10 First meeting experience: Meeting Buddy N. and the hug from Helen E.
• 25:40 The failure of human power: Dave's experience with ministers and the Librium prescription.
• 31:10 The turning point: April 17, 1976, and his first prayer for help.
• 36:50 The miracle of employment: How he was rehired by the company that fired him.
• 42:15 The Third Step prayer and the concept of abandoning himself to a Higher Power.
• 48:30 Family restoration: Discussing his relationship with his grandchildren and his wife Polly P.
• 53:10 Laughter: The story of Tom T. and Polly's tough detox.