The Futility of Every Available Cure – 1955 – Bill M.

About This Speaker Tape

Bill M. maps out a life of high-functioning wreckage and repeated failures tracing his path from law school scrapes in Toronto to a legal practice in Niagara Falls. He describes a cycle of 39 trips to Homewood Sanitarium desperate attempts at medical cures and the devastation of his wife's death while leaving him with four small children.

The turning point arrives when he stops fighting the bottle with human agency and accepts the guidance of Don B. who forces him to realize that sobriety must come before his law practice and his home. Bill's narrative cuts through the illusion of the 'cure' and settles into the steady day-by-day work of the program transforming a foot-thick medical file of hopelessness into a life of serenity.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction of Bill M. and acknowledgment of Helen B.
• 4:15 Story about phoning Winston C. during a binge in 1928.
• 7:30 The legal crisis in Niagara Falls and the blackmailing woman.
• 10:15 Discussion of the ANS treatment and the first realization of powerlessness (Step 1).
• 14:45 The relapse in New York City and the 'Common Sense of Drinking' method.
• 18:20 The misery caused to his wife and children during his time in the Air Force.
• 22:10 The death of his wife and the subsequent relapse after the funeral.
• 25:40 Meeting with Don B. and the realization that sobriety is the primary priority.
• 28:15 The decision to go AA on January 10, 1952, and refusing the morning whiskey.
• 30:00 The psychiatrist's grim prognosis and the victory of the program.