Finished My Big Dramatic Fifth Step, Looked Over, and My Sponsor Was Asleep on the Couch 🫠 – Julie A.

About This Speaker Tape

Julie shares her story at a meeting at NAVA, tracing a decades-long battle with alcoholism that began with her first taste of beer at age 10 in Florida and escalated through college at Clemson University, where she abandoned her dream of playing basketball in favor of partying. A physician assistant by training, she moved to California at 25 in the first of several geographic cures, and her drinking and drug use accelerated sharply after her girlfriend left her. Her first AA meeting came in 1991 at the Terrace Club, but she saw only old men smoking cigarettes and ran from the rooms for years.

The consequences mounted through four DUIs, countless lost jobs and relationships, and a devastating 2012 motorcycle accident in which she nearly lost her right leg — saved only because a traumatic plastic surgeon happened to be on call that night. A six-day stint at St. Simon's by the Sea rehab in 2013 barely made a dent. In 2015, while Julie was passed out drunk upstairs, her mother fell down the stairs and suffered a subdural hematoma, ending their four years of living together. Julie got sober in February 2016 for 22 months, only to relapse on a solo trip to Rome when a waiter brought her a complimentary limoncello — and she picked up what she calls a dirty chip, lying about it for two months.

After her mother's death in June 2019, Julie intentionally went to the liquor store, but her AA friends literally put clothes on her and drove her to the funeral. Two more relapses followed before her current sobriety date of March 31, 2020. The turning point came when a sober friend told her that Higher Power would not take the drink out of her hand, but her relationship with Higher Power would keep her from picking one up. Julie made sobriety her absolute first priority, got a sponsor, began sponsoring women, and committed to daily service.

Now five years sober at the time of this talk, Julie got married for the first time — her sponsor performed the ceremony — and is starting her own business. She describes the devastating loneliness at the end of her drinking, the gigantic hole in her soul from spiritual bankruptcy, and the overwhelming sense of being okay that she carries today. Her core message is simple: keep coming back, no matter how many times you have failed, because the rooms will always welcome you.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and sobriety date of March 31, 2020 — says her path to sobriety was not a straight line
• 3:00 Childhood in College Park, Atlanta — first taste of beer at age 10 from aunt in Florida, feeling cool drinking with the adults
• 8:00 High school accomplishments including petition to save the Fox Theatre, admits forging 200 signatures — foreshadowing later dishonesty
• 12:00 Clemson University — walked on for basketball but lost interest after freshman year of heavy partying, blackout drive home from gay bar
• 18:00 PA school, first geographic to California at 25, girlfriend dumps her after one month, starts partying all night with her twin brothers
• 24:00 First AA meeting in 1991 at the Terrace Club — saw old men smoking cigarettes and decided it was not for her
• 30:00 2012 motorcycle accident — riding impaired with Jagermeister, jumped a curb, leg hanging by tendons, seven surgeries, nearly an amputee
• 38:00 Mother living with her, drinking together, 2013 rehab at St. Simon's by the Sea — three-day drunk drive, kicked out after six days
• 45:00 2017 relapse in Rome over a limoncello, dirty chip, mother's death in 2019 and intentional relapse — friends literally drove her to the funeral
• 52:00 What changed in 2020 — sobriety came first absolutely, got married last year, sponsor performed the ceremony, starting a business, daily 5:45 meeting at NAVA