Jack C. on Al-Anon, Family Secrets, and the Shame of Not Drinking
About This Speaker Tape
1992 was the year the drinking stopped, not because Jack C. is an alcoholic, but because the bottle never filled the hole in his gut. He grew up in a house of "madness" and family secrets, where conflict resolution meant a father jumping onto the hood of a moving car or a stepmother firing a .45 into a neighbor's wall. Jack became the "go-to guy," the one who could fix any wreckage, though he admits he was just a terrified man acting out of fear. He lived as an absent father and husband, hiding his conquests in the movie business, believing silence gave him the moral high ground.
His life shifted when he met Leslie. He describes a chaotic series of events: a head-on car wreck, a hospital room where she begged to die, and a surreal period where his first wife and girlfriend lived under one roof. Through the wreckage of a lost child and failed marriages, Jack found a Higher Power and a partner who forced him to stop controlling the checkbook and the TV clicker.
Discussion
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