The Difference Between an Obsession and an Addiction – Steve B.

About This Speaker Tape

Vegas taught him the difference between an obsession and an addiction. Steve B. describes the manic loop of the slot machines, roulette, and the horses—the "one more time" at the ATM—only to realize that once he left the strip, the craving vanished. Alcohol was different. For Steve, the drink was a daily requirement, a necessity that left him as a "stay-at-home drinker" with mild DTs but no felonies to make him attractive in the rooms.

He paints a gritty portrait of the fellowship: a collection of the odd, the weird, and the "does not play well with others anonymous." He speaks of the paradox of a Higher Power who allows ebola and shifting continental shelves, and the wreckage of a man who becomes a human being once the alcohol is gone—subject to all the shocks that flesh is heir to. To Steve, the hardest person in the room to love is the greatest teacher, and sobriety is simply learning how to get along with people who irritate the snot out of him.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:45 Steve B. discusses the difference between obsession and addiction using his experience with Vegas slot machines.
• 4:15 Laughter: Steve jokes about the 'weirdness' of alcoholics and the 72-hour psychiatric hold.
• 7:30 Steve discusses his struggle to 'play well with others' and the ego of the alcoholic.
• 12:10 Steve reflects on his early sobriety in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1979.
• 17:45 Steve shares a story from the lockdown psych ward about a child with a genetic disease.
• 22:10 Discussion of the Big Book (page 63) regarding extreme selfishness and self-centeredness.
• 31:20 Steve describes the 'goth' meetings on Santa Monica Boulevard and the nature of acceptance.
• 38:15 Steve rants about the 'insanity' of people using crosswalk buttons and airplane seating.
• 44:30 Steve discusses the 'physical allergy' to alcohol and the 'strawberry' metaphor.
• 51:10 Step 3: Steve tells a narrative story about the cost of sobriety and the surrender of one's life to a Higher Power.