Prescribed Tedral at Seven — They Put a Wheezing Kid on Amphetamines and Called It Medicine – Matt J.
About This Speaker Tape
Matt J. shares his story at a young people's meeting during the 1982 NCC Summer Conference in San Jose. He grew up in the South Bay area of Los Angeles with two alcoholic parents, suffered from severe asthma as a child, and was prescribed Tedral — an amphetamine — from age seven, which he says jumpstarted his obsessive thinking and inability to sit still. He started drinking and using drugs at 15, dropped out of school functionally, and spent years surfing, dealing marijuana, and drifting through gas station and janitorial jobs while living in his parents' chaotic household in Hermosa Beach.
His parents found AA through a doctor's suggestion after his mother attempted suicide during a blackout, and their sobriety transformed the household in ways Matt could barely process — the smell of dinner cooking instead of a television smashed in the sink. A trip to Hawaii left him gaunt and hallucinating, and he returned home to his newly sober father's ultimatum: get a job, get a haircut, or get out. A man named Art Cole at the Tuesday night Pacific Group started answering questions Matt had never been able to articulate, like how to change a bad attitude and how to make conversation. Art's suggestion to attend 30 meetings led to 45 days of sobriety, a planned relapse in Arizona, and then a final surrender on May 27, 1973, at age 21.
Matt describes learning to show up for life sober — getting fired from Sears after making amends for theft, nearly getting busted with 18 pounds of marijuana in Reno while six months sober, and eventually landing a VW parts sales job he has held for six years. He switched sponsors to Clancy, who taught him blunt truths about his discomfort with his biracial nephew and his inability to say the word love. At 30 years old with nine years of sobriety, Matt reflects on his mother's cancer diagnosis and the gratitude, faith, and capacity for love that AA has given him — three things he could not tolerate when he arrived.
The tape continues with an audience participation segment featuring short shares from Missy (two years sober), Paul (47, still struggling to get close to people), Carol (one year, learning to live alone), Doug (a grateful newcomer), Russ (finding patience at a new job), Rick (a retread with 52 days after losing seven years), and several others including Woody, who has been sober since 1971 and warns against complacency. Charlotte closes by sharing how sobriety allowed her to care for her dying mother — something she could not do for her father, who died while she was drunk.
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