Showed Up Ten Minutes Late to Skip How It Works, Left Ten Minutes Early to Dodge Burning Desire — About Forty Minutes of AA 😅 – Tom P.

About This Speaker Tape

Tom P. shares his remarkable journey through two distinct periods of sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. He first got sober in 1987 at age 23 after years of failed treatment as a teenager, where he spent 36 months in various institutions between ages 14 and 18 without anyone identifying alcoholism as his core problem. His first round of sobriety lasted 17 years, during which he attended meetings religiously but never truly worked the steps from the Big Book. By year 15, he stood up in a meeting and admitted he felt like he was on a path back to drinking — and two years later, despite trying to think through the drink, he picked up anyway.

After his relapse, Tom ended up at La Hacienda treatment center in Hunt, Texas, where for the first time someone explained the Big Book to him. He describes sitting in a chair barely able to keep his eyes open while a counselor named Chris read from the Big Book and suddenly answered the question that had haunted him — why thinking through the drink hadn't worked. He realized he was powerless over the choice itself, not just the consequences, and that no amount of intellectual understanding from meetings could substitute for a spiritual solution.

Upon leaving La Hacienda, Tom got a sponsor at the Primary Purpose Group in Dallas and completed Steps One through Nine within days, not months. His fourth step took an hour and a half using the Big Book template. He began working with newcomers at three weeks sober, taking men through the steps at the Salvation Army and discovering a fellowship he never knew existed — one built on carrying a common solution rather than going to Denny's after meetings. He describes the Tenth Step as transformative, learning to call his sponsor immediately when selfishness, fear, or resentment cropped up, and watching those episodes become fewer over time.

Tom closes with a passionate call for AA members to stop waiting years before sponsoring others. He points to page 89 of the Big Book — that nothing ensures immunity from drinking like intensive work with other alcoholics — and argues that someone who just had a spiritual awakening is more credible to a newcomer than an old-timer telling people to put the plug in the jug. He credits La Hacienda with saving his life and says he would not have made it anywhere else.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction — identifies as recovered alcoholic, thanks La Hacienda for having him back five years after treatment
• 2:30 First sobriety in 1987 at age 23 — describes getting instructions from treatment but never truly working the steps
• 7:00 Fifteen years sober and dying in the rooms — stands up in a meeting and admits he feels like he is on a path back to drinking
• 10:30 At 17 years sober tries to think through the drink, fails, and picks up within an hour of making the decision not to drink
• 14:00 Teenage years in psychiatric boarding schools — 36 months institutionalized, misdiagnosed, restless irritable and discontent without knowing why
• 18:00 Arrives at La Hacienda broken — eight days in ICU, then hears Chris explain the Big Book for the first time and questions start getting answered
• 23:00 Leaves La Hacienda, joins Primary Purpose Group in Dallas, takes Steps 1-9 within days including a 90-minute fourth step
• 28:00 Working with newcomers at the Salvation Army at three weeks sober — discovers real fellowship through carrying a common solution
• 34:00 Tenth Step in action — the Central Expressway incident and learning to call his sponsor immediately when selfishness or resentment crops up
• 40:00 Passionate call to action — page 89, intensive work with others is the only thing ensuring immunity, new people should sponsor immediately after a spiritual awakening