Two Weeks Into Step 3 the Obsession to Drink Didn’t Leave — Higher Power Replaced It With an Obsession to Stay Sober – Willie B.

About This Speaker Tape

Willie B. shares his journey from an alcoholic home in the west of Scotland to long-term sobriety in Orlando. The only boy among six sisters with two alcoholic parents, he vowed never to drink but fell in love with whiskey and Coca-Cola at 21. His drinking career was short but devastating — within five or six years he was managing 40 betting shops in London while his marriage crumbled. In 1971 a drunk-driving accident left him with over 200 stitches, a broken pelvis, shattered legs, broken arms, and doctors telling him he would never walk again without a steel caliper.

After two years of forced sobriety during recovery, Willie returned to drinking and spent the next 12 years bouncing in and out of AA without ever getting another 90 days. During that period he lost his wife, children, home, jobs, two businesses, and attempted suicide multiple times. He describes meetings in Scotland where nobody mentioned the Big Book, and anyone who brought up Higher Power was asked to leave. His conception of a higher power was limited to a Higher Power of hellfire and damnation from his Catholic upbringing.

Everything changed on March 23, 1985 when Willie hit his final bottom, vomiting blood on the edge of his bed, and prayed the most honest prayer of his life. Andy Davidson came to his house and introduced him to the Big Book, walking him through the steps methodically — two pages a day, believing every word. A Catholic priest named Father McLaren, who had tried to help him years earlier and later became his sponsor, guided his fourth and fifth steps. Two weeks into sobriety, Willie experienced the obsession to drink being lifted and replaced with an obsession to stay sober.

Willie recounts the devastating loss of his daughter Geraldine to suicide in January 1999, emphasizing that through the worst tragedy of his life the thought of a drink never crossed his mind. Now retired due to a lung disorder and living near Orlando, he devotes himself to service work and carrying the Big Book message with the same passion that kept him coming back through 12 years of relapse.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and growing up in an alcoholic home in Scotland with six sisters
• 5:30 Moving to London at 19 to manage betting shops, first drink at 21 — whiskey and Coca-Cola
• 10:00 Meeting Father McLaren who asks if he might be alcoholic — Willie feels insulted
• 15:00 The 1971 car accident — 200 stitches, shattered bones, told he would never walk again
• 22:00 First AA meeting and the start of 12 years bouncing in and out without 90 days
• 30:00 Last drink March 23 1985 — vomiting blood, prays the most honest prayer of his life
• 35:00 Andy Davidson introduces the Big Book — two pages a day, studying passages 50 times
• 42:00 Two weeks sober, standing on a street corner, the obsession to drink is lifted
• 50:00 Working through Steps 4-9 with Andy and Father McLaren — the inside shower of Step 5
• 58:00 Daughter Geraldine's suicide in January 1999 and the miracle of not wanting a drink