Wilbur M. at the 11th Bluff City Roundup – 2020

About This Speaker Tape

11th Bluff City Roundup -

A former congressman's life was a series of high-stakes facades from the halls of power in D.C. to a blackout that landed him in the Bethesda Naval Hospital. He spent years convinced he was too ambitious and too 'important' to be an alcoholic diagnosing himself with a malignant brain tumor to explain his memory loss and weight drop. The turning point came not from a book but from a failed 'test' where he bought two quarts of 100-proof vodka to prove he could take one drink and stop. He describes the visceral bone-aching misery of his last drunk and the slow grinding process of accepting the disease—not as a stigma but as a reality. He reflects on the irony of his ego his marriage's collapse and the eventual peace found in the honesty of the fellowship moving from a man who hated his doctor for the diagnosis to a man who values the 'recovered alcoholic' label.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction of Wilbur M. by Jim.
• 4:30 Wilbur M. describes his blackout and waking up in Bethesda Naval Hospital.
• 8:15 Story about the 'malignant tumor' self-diagnosis and the doctor's diagnosis of chronic alcoholism.
• 13:40 Childhood memory of the moonshine still and being the 'sampler' at age 12.
• 18:20 College stories involving the 'cognac drinking champion' and homemade 180-proof liquor.
• 24:10 Discussion of his career as a county judge and his 38 years in Congress.
• 31:50 The 'test' with two quarts of vodka and the subsequent crushing compulsion.
• 36:10 Account of being found passed out in a New York hotel and flown back to D.C.
• 41:00 The physical misery of his last drunk and his first admission of being an alcoholic.
• 46:30 Reflections on his time at the Palm Beach Institute and his wife's sobriety.
• 52:10 The shift from viewing alcoholism as a stigma to accepting it as a disease.
• 58:00 Closing thoughts on the importance of recovering alcoholics being open about their status to help youth.