I Carried On Conversations With Alcohol Before I Found Out It Can’t Talk – Alabam C.

About This Speaker Tape

Alabam C., speaking at the St. Andrews Speaker Group in Saratoga, California in 1982, shares her story with nearly 30 years of sobriety. Born Evelyn, she chose the name Alabama because it represented the sober woman she became — a way to separate from the shame of her drinking self. Her honesty about the inventory process is striking: her sponsor Walt forced her to see that her frankness was not the same as honesty, and that stealing went far beyond cash registers.

Alabam describes the elaborate lengths she went to in order to protect her drinking — faking symptoms to get hospitalized, tearing up a referral letter rather than face being called an alcoholic, and carrying on long conversations with alcohol before discovering it could not talk, think, or act. She went through doctors, hospitals, and surgeries looking for any diagnosis other than alcoholism.

Her first AA meeting came without any desire to stop drinking. She ordered a custom suit for the occasion and demanded her driver stop for a bottle on the way. But the fellowship reached her, and she found that the new people coming into AA helped her own recovery by being more honest than she had been willing to be.

Topics

Timestamps

• 00:00 Thirty years sober and choosing the name Alabama
• 08:00 Her sponsor Walt on the difference between frankness and honesty
• 16:00 Faking symptoms to get hospitalized and protect her drinking
• 24:00 Tearing up the referral letter rather than face being called alcoholic
• 32:00 Carrying on long conversations with alcohol
• 40:00 Going through doctors, hospitals, and surgeries
• 48:00 Her first AA meeting in a custom suit with a bottle
• 56:00 Newcomers helping her recovery by being more honest