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Sober Talk SA - Kieley · Sober Talk SA

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  Welcome to sober talk. I'm Dennis and I have lived
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  experience of alcohol. If you or anyone you know is
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  struggling with alcohol, please call Alcoholics Anonymous on
• 0:10
  1300 double 22222 or check out their website on aa.org dot AU.
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  I'll just run through the preamble of Alcoholics
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  Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is a
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  fellowship of men and women who share their experience,
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  strengthen up with each other. They must solve their come
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  problems and help with us to recoup from alcoholism.
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  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop
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  drinking. There are no Jews at fees for a
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  membership. We are self support through our
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  own contributions. A is not allied with any SEC
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  denomination, politics, organization or institution.
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  Does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses or
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  oppose any causes. Our primary pairs is stay soap
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  and help other Alcoholics achieve sobriety.
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  Thanks, Dennis. My name's Keely.
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  I'm an alcoholic. Burly heads early birds is my
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  Home group. But these days, these last
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  couple of years of my sobriety, I'm rarely there.
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  I, Yeah, it's the life of my, my choosing now is on the road and
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  I, I, I've made lots of friends in a, a who also spend lots of
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  time travelling between rallies and conventions.
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  And it's just dumb wonders for my sobriety and I can't get
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  enough of it. So I feel very fortunate for
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  that today, for that situation to be able to do that.
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  But it's certainly not how it started for me.
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  In fact, it's, yeah, polar opposite to the to the life I
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  lived before I got sober. And certainly toward the last
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  few years of my drinking, I I really avoided people towards
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  the end. I had a series of experiences
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  where I was assaulted a couple of times and and I just
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  gradually more and more just avoided situations where I might
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  that might be difficult. And eventually, of course, every
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  situation was difficult. And it, it's a yeah, yeah, it's
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  it's it's probably a miracle. I I got any help it had to get.
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  It had to be like that for me. It had to get bad enough that I
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  became almost unrecognizable before I was desperate enough to
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  admit what things were really like for me.
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  And even with all of that of my world shrinking right down to
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  very little except work and drinking, that it still took me
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  a fair while of attending AI meetings and starting to let
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  people get to know me in the rooms before I really became
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  convinced I was an alcoholic. I was still very sensitive to
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  the differences that I might have heard or seen in the other
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  members and yeah, I did tend to get get stuck on that.
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  But even with all that too, you know, what kept me in the rooms
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  was I heard in other people talking about their story and I,
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  I eventually recognised that if they could, if they could be
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  that honest, then maybe I could too.
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  And maybe, maybe this would work for me.
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  Because I know I was just as terrified that AA wouldn't work
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  for me. I was terrified of what was in
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  front of me if I kept drinking as I was that facing life
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  without it, you know, I couldn't, I couldn't see anymore
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  how I was going to continue living.
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  In fact, and I've heard this in the rooms and I'm grateful for
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  it that people share it that, that I I was terrified of dying,
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  but I didn't want to live anymore.
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  You know, I was still looking for what seemed to be an easier
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  way out than what a a was offering to me, but that that
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  was the beginning really. And I, it was suggested to me
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  within my first couple of meetings that I find somebody
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  that who had what I wanted, who appeared to be living her life
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  like something like I would I would want to use as an example.
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  And certainly someone who participated in the fellowship
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  in a way that I might want to copy and make my own until I
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  worked out who I really was, if you know.
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  So yeah, yeah, I did. I found I found a a person that
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  was really helpful to me. She she encouraged me, but she
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  and she was loving and gentle, but she was also pretty firm and
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  she didn't give in. She I needed convincing and
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  patient with patience in some areas, but other areas I was
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  pretty keen to get going with and.
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  And yeah, I feel very fortunate that I, that I was put together
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  with her because yeah, yeah. It wasn't very long before I
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  really felt like I had found a miracle, you know, something
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  that I that I didn't believe was possible because not only did I
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  never crave a drink again or ever since.
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  Also, the as we started working through the big book together
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  and working through the steps I did, I did feel step by step,
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  the load that was on me, lightning and, and, and
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  something that wasn't making any sense to me when I first came in
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  suddenly became not obvious, but it, but it made a lot of sense.
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  All of a sudden I could see my part and I could see the benefit
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  of just looking at my part and taking my, my gaze and my, all
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  my energy away from how other people were doing and just
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  focusing on myself for a while and, and using her, her
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  explanations on about how I might go about making amends for
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  the, for the wrongs I had done. Because that wasn't a, a totally
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  new concept to me. I know I've done a whole lot of
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  I'm sorry, I'm sorry and, and poor me and wailing and begging
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  for things to be back the way I I wanted them to be with family
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  and friends and work. But course, I, I always thought
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  I knew what I wanted, which was just to keep doing what I was
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  doing and other people just to tolerate it, you know, and put
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  up with it. But the fellowship of Alcoholics
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  Anonymous not only has offered me up a program that I can keep
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  coming back to as much as I want to or and that also it's given
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  me something that I can share with other people.
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  And it's suggested in there that if, if I want to keep all those
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  benefits and the Peace of Mind that it that that process has
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  given me, I'd best give it away. I'd best share it at every
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  opportunity I can. And yeah, yeah, I can.
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  I can say from my own experience that that has been the case.
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  Another, another benefit of it has been that I've gotten a lot
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  better at trusting my own decisions and being being more
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  through through being a more trustworthy person with other
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  with other people, particularly those who are important to me.
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  Yeah, it's helped. It's helped me feel better about
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  myself and my own decisions. So I find I I seek others for
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  friendship now where I used to seek them for my own ends, you
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  know? So I have something to give away
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  today, which is probably a bit of a new concept for me.
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  For someone like me, yeah. What about the God side of the
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  program? Yeah, So before, before my
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  drinking really progressed down in, in the last few years of my
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  drinking, while I was still mainly kind of binge drinking, I
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  guess I wasn't daily drinking until the last few years.
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  But before then I was still pretty unhappy, unhappy in, in
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  the, in my marriage. I was an unhappy daughter of, of
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  parents who were causing me a fair bit of grief.
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  And I was a bit of a seeker. And I did, I did seek out more
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  than one religion for answers for, you know, And so I've been
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  baptized twice in two, two separate places and christened
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  in another and over, over my life, you know, and I'm only
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  halfway through. And yeah, I won't say it was all
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  bad because as you know, and I was glad to read that in, in the
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  big book, you know, that we suggested we be quick to see
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  where, where religious people might be, right, You know, But
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  essentially none of that was addressing the true, the true
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  'cause of my UN uneasiness, my disease, which was alcoholism.
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  But this is way before I was, I thought, even dreamed that I was
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  an alcoholic. So now Alcoholics Anonymous has
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  offered me an alternative that I haven't been offered any in any
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  of my other experiences in that I might want to choose a concept
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  of a high power that that is my own, that that comes from
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  myself. So I, that's, that's been a bit
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  of a process, You know, I think it, I think my relationship with
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  my high power and my spiritual practice has been something
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  that's developed and deepened over my time being sober.
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  And it's, it's probably one of the most important relationships
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  that, that I've ever had. And I've seen, I've seen other
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  members with, with lots of sobriety talk or I've heard them
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  talk about how their concept of a, of a higher power might even
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  change that. It might that that might even be
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  a changeable thing. And wow, I don't know where
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  else, what other outfits you can go to where that's where that's
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  an option, you know, So it's a big job.
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  My higher powers job is a big job.
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  So it's, yeah, it's, it's worth that, that attention and careful
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  consideration. And, and I don't think it's
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  something I would have been able to come up with before I got
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  sober because, yeah, yeah, I was still running very much on my
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  own will. And I think I might have been
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  tempted to create a higher power that may not have been using its
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  powers for good. Yeah, yeah.
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  Have you done any service? And I've got the Canon.
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  I have I have the the 1st the the sponsor I'd I worked with
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  the other woman in the rooms. What that was one of the things
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  that that I really admired about her.
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  She shared a lot about her service experience in a A and
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  she'd done some incredible things that just blew my mind.
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  You know, she'd been involved in, in introducing AI to other
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  countries, third world countries where there where there wasn't
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  an established fellowship and particularly for women in, in
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  some countries and in in her time.
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  And oh, that, that just appealed to me.
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  And I wanted what she had, but I wanted at that when I first met
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  her, I wanted to do what she did, you know, and that was
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  before I got introduced to what goes in between that, that, that
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  kind of responsibility. But she showed, she introduced
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  me to an idea of serving as being something that is a is a
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  bit of a privilege, you know, and that's that's I'm glad she
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  introduced it to me that way because my, my career, my, my
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  career way before I got sober was in education and training
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  and management and, you know, and it yeah.
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  So I've had this big skill set of being the expert that
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  everybody comes to and the consultant, right.
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  As a professional consultant. So, so wow.
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  You know, it could have been a dangerous combination, but the
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  the way this beautiful program is is that in order to be of
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  service, I needed to have addressed that within myself.
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  Yeah. So it's not so much about having
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  all the answers and knowing all the stuff.
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  It's more about being open and honest and willing to share your
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  own experience and that that, you know, I watched how she gave
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  that to me. She just shared all her amazing
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  experiences with me and LED the way and, yeah, just didn't just
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  encourage me without pressure, without pressure.
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  And that someone like me needed that, you know?
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  And so, yeah, I think about, I think about her example every
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  day. We have local meetings for the
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  full week in the local area. Monday is Gala meeting at 8:00,
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  Tuesday is Elizabeth E at 8:00, Wednesday is Elizabeth E at
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  8:00, Thursday is 2 Wells at 8:00 and Friday is Salisbury at
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  8:00. There's a meeting at Devron Park
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  at 12:00 and on Sunday there's a meeting in Salisbury at 7:00 and
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  many of the meetings in the area.
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  For details of your local meetings, please phone 1300
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  double 22222. And once again, if anyone you
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  know is struggling with alcohol issues, please call Alcoholics
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  Anonymous on 1300 double 22222. The website isaasa.org dot AU.