Patti O. – Spiritual – The Blackout Drinker’s Guide to Recovery – 2008

About This Speaker Tape

Patti maps out a life defined by blackouts and a stubborn belief that her 3.8 GPA made her too smart to be an alcoholic. She traces the wreckage from her first drink at thirteen—which left her paralyzed on a beach outhouse toilet—to a career in the newspaper business where she'd wake up behind podiums holding awards, not knowing if she was giving them or receiving them. After a series of drunk driving assault charges and a desperate attempt to fake her own death via a forged mortuary certificate, she faced a ten-year prison sentence.

A judge's alternative offered her a path to the rooms. Patti dismantles the brick wall of isolation she built as a child, working through the steps to move from mere abstinence to actual recovery, eventually sharing a podium with her son, who found his own sobriety through the fellowship.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Patti opens with a joke about bringing her son as a 'spare' speaker.
• 4:15 Laughter: Patti describes her first drink at 13 and the 'paralysis' in the beach outhouse.
• 10:20 Patti describes the 'insanity' of repeating the same drunk driving assault pattern twelve times.
• 14:10 The forged death certificate story and the judge's reaction.
• 21:30 Patti discusses the 'alcoholic death' versus living by spiritual principles.
• 26:40 Mention of Step 1: Admitting powerlessness over alcohol.
• 31:15 Patti describes the pain of her son's struggle and the 'ring' of his disease.
• 38:20 The moment her son celebrates six years of sobriety and they share a podium.
• 42:10 Discussion of Step 2 and the 'GPS' metaphor for the Third Step.
• 46:50 Patti's experience with the Seventh Step prayer: 'Take all of me, good and bad.'
• 52:10 The 'long spoon' metaphor for service and recovery.