The Chemist’s Surrender to a Plumber’s Advice – Stan B.

About This Speaker Tape

IDAA - 1988

A room of physicians and chemists in Baltimore grapple with the mechanics of sponsorship moving past the professional masks of the MD to find someone who can actually see through their bullshit. The conversation shifts from the logistical—how to pick a sponsor and the 'pigeon' terminology—to the visceral reality of the 'ego deflation' required to stay sober. They trade stories of sponsors who acted like drill sergeants the danger of the 'professional' sponsor who is secretly a 13th stepper and the isolation of being a medical director who has forgotten how to be a student. From the terror of a first meeting to the relief of having someone to call when the world feels cross-eyed the group acknowledges that for the high-functioning professional the hardest part of sponsorship is the act of submission—stopping the attempt to be the one in charge.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Stan B. opens the session on sponsorship and discusses the financial side of attending IDAA meetings.
• 5:12 Stan B. discusses the 'pigeon' terminology and the boundaries of being a sponsor.
• 10:45 Kurt W. shares a story about a sponsor who acted like a military drill sergeant in rehab.
• 15:20 Kurt W. admits to having a 'big blind spot' regarding his own life and relationships.
• 22:10 John shares his experience with a 'gifted' sponsor who used napkins to teach Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
• 30:15 Jack shares his struggle with isolation as a medical director and his need to recommit to a sponsor.
• 38:40 Jay discusses his first sponsor, Doc F., and the discipline of 365 meetings in the first year.
• 46:10 Pat describes the intense support of her first sponsor, Mary, who called her every few hours on day one.
• 54:30 Dave M. recounts how his sponsor, a Navy aviator, could tell something was wrong just by looking at him in a parking lot.
• 62:15 Mark shares the experience of caring for his own sponsor while the man was hospitalized with pneumonia.
• 71:00 Ray discusses the danger of 'being Higher Power' and the submissive act of asking for a sponsor after a near-fatal relapse.
• 78:20 Leah W. talks about the difficulty of firing a sponsor and the importance of service work in prisons.