She Said Snort This and You Can Feel My Boobs — That Decision Cost Me 25 Years 🤣 – Robert B.

About This Speaker Tape

Robert B. tells his story at the Blue Chip Speaker Meeting in Atlanta with 24 years of sobriety (April 10, 2001). He grew up in a stable, loving home in Atlanta with parents who gave him solid values and religious training, but at 15 he climbed into a Volkswagen van with the McClellan brothers and discovered that alcohol erased every anxiety he carried. That first night of drinking eight beers turned a rattling four-cylinder van into a limousine with quadraphonic sound, and an alcoholic was born. Through high school and a five-year stint in college, the drinking escalated alongside marijuana and cocaine, racking up multiple DUIs that a connected attorney helped him dodge.

He married a woman of faith he met at church and adopted a son, Stuart, in 1987 — a laundry-basket baby driven home from Thomasville, Georgia. Neither the marriage, the child, nor the mounting legal consequences could stop him. After abdominal surgery introduced him to narcotic pain pills, Robert began forging prescriptions for opioids, anxiety medication, and stimulants across multiple pharmacies until he was caught and charged with four felonies. Even facing prison, he kept drinking. In April 2001, he collapsed at work after mixing pills and alcohol, and his wife's exhausted question — "Is there any hope?" — became his turning point. She drove him to treatment the next day.

At Metro Atlanta Recovery Residence, Robert found his way to Peace Street Corners, his first home group, where he met his sponsor Pat. Pat walked him briskly through all twelve steps and pushed him to start sponsoring others at just four months sober. Sobriety was immediately tested: his father died in his first year, and in 2002 his fifteen-year-old son Stuart died by suicide. Robert found Stuart and called Pat, who arrived and had him open the Big Book to page 63 for the Third Step Prayer. Members of his home group showed up within hours and surrounded the family with care for weeks. Robert credits the fellowship — not just the program of recovery — with carrying him through the worst moment of his life.

Robert later divorced, remarried Carrie, and in 2009 received a full pardon from the state of Georgia, arriving the day before his sobriety anniversary. His sponsor Pat found the key sentence in the document: the state had determined Robert was "fully rehabilitated." He closes by reading from the foreword of the Twelve and Twelve about a set of spiritual principles that can expel the obsession to drink, and affirms that he lives a life that is genuinely happy, joyous, and free — even as he still misses Stuart every day.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Tinsley introduces Robert as his sponsor; Robert opens with what makes a member in good standing
• 4:00 Step One breakdown — the physical craving and the mental obsession that brings you back to the first drink
• 8:00 First drink at 15 in the McClellan brothers' VW van — eight beers turn a rattling van into a limousine
• 13:00 Cocaine introduction — Cheryl's mirror and the bargain that launched 25 years of drinking and drug use
• 17:00 Arrested in Camden County heading to Jekyll Island; calls dad from Glynn County Jail for bond money
• 23:00 Marriage, the bar-to-2-AM cycle, and the selfishness he could not see as an active alcoholic
• 28:00 Abdominal surgery leads to pill addiction; forging prescriptions for opioids, benzos, and stimulants
• 34:00 April 2001 collapse at work, wife's question 'Is there any hope?', driven to treatment the next day
• 39:00 Meets sponsor Pat at Peace Street Corners, works all 12 steps quickly, begins sponsoring at four months
• 45:00 Father's death, then Stuart's suicide at 15 — finds his son, calls Pat, home group surrounds the family
• 52:00 Pardon arrives April 9, 2009; Pat finds the sentence declaring Robert fully rehabilitated