My Doctor’s Cure Was Self-Hypnosis with a Biscuit Pan and a Blank TV 😂 – Dupree W.

About This Speaker Tape

Dupree W. from St. George, South Carolina shares his story at the 1972 Tennessee State Convention with eight years of sobriety. A self-described alcoholic and Class A narcotics addict, Dupree traces his descent from a $3,000-a-week income in 1960 to drinking Vitalis hair tonic at his mother's house after losing everything. He describes how a doctor's attempt to treat his nervousness with sodium amytal introduced him to narcotics, compounding his alcoholism into a dual addiction that took him through 42 institutions, two stays in an insane asylum, and federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, where staff told him he would never get sober.

Dupree's path to AA began not through AA itself but through an Al-Anon member who invited him to his first meeting on April 22, 1964. There he learned three things that changed his life: that there was hope, that people were concerned about him, and that they loved him. He describes the simple but classical advice he received — don't take a drink and you won't get drunk — and how surrounding himself with people who practiced tough love kept him on course.

The emotional center of the talk is Dupree's account of sponsoring his childhood friend John, a former military officer reduced to the chain gang. Dupree persisted when others said John wasn't worth the effort, helped him get sober, watched him find Higher Power in a hospital bed after a heart attack, and celebrated his one-year birthday. Seventeen months into sobriety, John died suddenly in his car. When John's family offered to return his blue sobriety chip, Dupree tucked it back in John's pocket and they buried him with it. Dupree closes by urging the audience to go home and find their own John — someone to carry the message to.

Throughout the talk, Dupree displays a natural Southern storytelling gift, weaving humor and heartbreak together seamlessly. His jokes about fellowship, self-hypnosis with a biscuit pan, and his daughter's commentary on his war medals keep the audience laughing, while the raw details of narcotics addiction and John's death deliver the program's message with unmistakable power.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction by host; Dupree greeted as speaker from St. George, South Carolina
• 3:00 Dupree defines AA as a fellowship of sharing, caring, and love — orientation for newcomers
• 7:00 First drink at 16; describes progression from social drinking to alcoholism
• 12:00 Doctor introduces him to sodium amytal — first shot of narcotics and the beginning of dual addiction
• 18:00 Self-hypnosis with TV set and biscuit pan; wife and children living with the insanity of addiction
• 24:00 42 institutions, federal prison in Lexington; describes dogs and rats used in morphine research experiments
• 30:00 Drinking Vitalis hair tonic at his mother's house; Al-Anon member invites him to his first AA meeting April 22, 1964
• 36:00 Lessons from early sobriety: tough love from sponsors, unity in the group, attitude changes
• 42:00 Begins the story of sponsoring his childhood friend John — from the chain gang to AA
• 52:00 John's heart attack, finding Higher Power in the hospital, and his death at 17 months sober with the blue chip in his pocket