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Sober Talk SA - Den F 2 · Sober Talk SA

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  Welcome to Sober talk. I'm Dennis and I have lived
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  experience at Alco. If you or anyone you know is
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  struggling with Alco, 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.
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  Experience, strengthen up with each other.
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  They must solve their common problems and help with us to
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  recoup from alcoholism. The only requirement for
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  membership is a desire to stop drinking.
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  There are no dues of fees for AIR membership.
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  We are self support through our own contributions.
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  AIR. Is not allied.
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  With any sect, denomination, politics, organization or
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  institution. Does not wish to engage in any
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  controversy, neither endorses or oppose any causes.
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  Our primary person is Stairsville and help other
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  Alcoholics achieve sobriety. Good morning, friends.
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  I'm Dennison. I'm an alcoholic.
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  My drinking career started alcohol affected me a long time
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  before they ever drunk. And my both my parents were
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  heavy drinkers and there was it was a very dysfunctional family.
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  My there was a lot of domestic violence.
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  I was brought up in the northeast of England.
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  And yeah, it was just chaos at weekends, not every weekend, but
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  certainly when it did happen, there was four was four kids and
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  we used to have to go on hide and keep away from all the the
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  drama and brave. And so you know that saying that
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  and you know, I never associated, I didn't seem to be
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  able to associate alcohol with that.
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  But at 14 with the boys, I was drinking in the pubs down the
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  bottom end of town and me drinking career had started.
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  And like Oliver's in the beginning, it was lots of fun.
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  You got into a bit of strife had in there.
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  And you know, maybe as you got a bit older you'd probably get
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  locked for the locked up for the odd night or whatever the case
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  may be. But yeah, by the time I was 18,
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  you know, alcohol was affecting, was a big part of my life.
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  You know, it was always looking forward to the weekends.
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  And quite often we used to get paid on a Thursday night and
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  you'd missed the Friday at work, you know, because you just
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  couldn't make it. But the drinking carried on.
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  And, you know, I got married at about 21, and that didn't last
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  long. And and now I look back on it
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  was alcohol related, but in that time I'd done quite a few
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  geographics. I believe that when you pick,
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  you know, I picked a drinkable 14 and I never matured.
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  I was still that boy of 14 and responsibilities and everything
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  I couldn't handle. So I, you know, I tended to run
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  away from situations. And yeah, so that marriage
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  finished and I ended up meeting another girl and moving to
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  Australia, you know, and it wasn't being an alcoholic and
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  alcoholic thinking I didn't do a lot of planning on coming to
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  Australia, but I ended up here and it wasn't long before I was
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  into the scheme of things here. And I just, I loved it, you
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  know, I loved the drinking sessions and all the rest of it,
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  barbecues and going around people's houses and they'd give
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  you a beer instead of a cup of tea.
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  And yeah, it was magic, you know, just to just one alcoholic
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  needs a bit of encouragement, you know?
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  And but me drinking, you know, the kids come along and
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  mortgages and all that, and I change it occupations.
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  I work for local government and me drinking, I was a daily
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  drinker and a blackout drinker. Towards the end of me drinking,
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  you know, it was a flagging apart or a bottle apart or a
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  cask of wine. You know, I drank for the the
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  voltage, not the vintage. And you know, the more it could
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  get into me, the better it was. And quite often I used to pass
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  out on the on the lounge, you not get to bed and go to work
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  the next morning. And you know, me drinking was
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  just bizarre. Towards the end of me drinking,
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  you know, I tried doctors, counsellors and detox and I
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  didn't really, you know, we've got a third tradition in the
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  fellowship and it's as you know, that the only requirement for
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  membership is the desire to stop bringing.
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  And at that stage I didn't have a desire, but I did it at what
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  we call a rock bottom. Again, you know, I'd had many
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  rock bottoms, I had another one. And just fortunate enough for
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  me, I was working with a number, a member of Alcoholics
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  Anonymous. I didn't know, I knew nothing
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  about Alcoholics Anonymous, but he invited me along to a meeting
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  on a Monday morning. He called me had been had really
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  put a performance on at the weekend at a social function.
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  He invited me along to a you know, he said he'd take me to a
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  mate. And one of the things he said to
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  me that morning was if you're not drinking, you're thinking
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  about drinking, you've got a problem.
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  And I certainly identified. So, you know, Brendan picked me
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  up and took me to a mate. And, you know, that was over 30
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  years ago. And he, it took me long.
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  He used to pick me up on a regular basis, come to my house,
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  pick me up, take me to the maintenance.
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  I thought it was great. And, you know, one of the blokes
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  that used to go to one of the maintenance, he, he often used
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  to say to me, keep coming back soon, it'll get better.
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  And I said, oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
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  And it did. You know, within a short period
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  of time, life got better. The boss was happy, the missus
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  was happy. I wasn't drinking.
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  I was happy. And.
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  And I thought, I'm curious. So I left and, you know, within
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  a short period of time, I picked a drink up again.
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  And there's a bit like the mafia, when you leave, bad
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  things happen. And that drink was to, in the
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  end, cost me everything. You know, I there's a little
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  word in Alcoholics Anonymous. Yet you were eligible too.
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  And I never thought it would happen to me.
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  But did the missus left and the kids?
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  She took the kids overseas back to the UK.
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  Not that my kids are English or British at AMI drinking just
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  went bizarre. We sold the house and the cars
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  and everything and, and a pocket full of money and I, I decided
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  myself to go back to the UKI got a one way ticket and ended up
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  back there and cost chaos over there.
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  Just alcoholic, alcoholic in full flight with a pocket full
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  of money. And you know, I don't know how
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  long I was there and there's lots of things I can't remember,
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  but I know it was devastating. The ripple effect of one
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  alcoholic, alcoholic drinking isn't, you know, is incredible.
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  I affected people. The ripple effect is
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  unbelievable. And I affected everybody that I
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  come in contact with. And eventually, you know, I was
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  eventually me mother was saying to me, I thought you were
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  leaving. I thought you were going back to
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  the UK. Everybody wanted within me, you
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  know. And you know, the thing I found,
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  I found in that period of time that I was drinking was that
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  once you've been along to Alcoholics Anonymous, you're
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  drinking with a conscience because you know, the fact that
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  there is a solution, there's a solution to the problem of
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  alcoholism if you attend Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  And you know, I ended up booking a flight back to Australia and
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  can't remember getting on the plane.
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  I can't remember getting off it and I woke up in the Royal
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  Adelaide Hospital shackled through a bed weighing about 54K
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  and very, very sick, very, very yellow, red eyes shaking,
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  shivering. Me liver was stuffed, me whole
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  body was actually stuffed. And but the miracle of it all is
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  that a member of Alcoholics, Brendan, he found out I was in
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  hospital through a series of people.
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  We call it a God job. I call it a God job, you know,
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  and he not that it's a religious programme, it's a spiritual
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  programme. But, you know, he come to see me
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  in hospital. And when I got out of hospital,
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  I got back to Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  And in the early days it wasn't easy, you know, I'd lost
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  everything and I was sleeping on my mate shed floor on the
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  mattress. But once again, people said to
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  me keep coming back son, it'll get better.
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  And I used to think I know it will.
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  But when And you know, and some of the things that some of the
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  things that were going, you know, I couldn't sleep.
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  I used to get up and walk for miles and miles and miles.
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  You know, there was just so much garbage in my head.
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  I couldn't live with it, you know, And the fact that what had
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  happened to me, family and everything else, and, you know,
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  I'd got, when I landed in England, I wasn't there long.
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  And my wife at the time wanted a divorce.
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  I got divorced there, so. But, you know, people, you know,
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  as I say, people say keep coming back.
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  And I'd done as many meetings as I could.
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  I used to get buses and I couldn't drive.
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  I had cataracts in both eyes and couldn't see properly.
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  I had to have operations on my eyes.
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  And, you know, I eventually, you know, I was at a meeting one day
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  and a fellow, Peter T said he didn't like praying, but he
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  liked the results. And I thought, you know what, I
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  might start praying. So longed to see me kids again
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  and just be part of, you know. And by this time I'd got a trust
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  place in Dublin Park and, you know, I life was getting better
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  and, you know, certain things happened.
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  And yeah, I, I was in touch. I got in touch with me, me ex in
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  the UK. And just a phone call one day.
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  I just happened to, for what some reason, I phoned her and
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  she answered the phone once again.
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  It was a bit of a good job. And she said to me, what do you
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  want? And I said, well, I might as
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  well, you know, I just wonder how you're going, how you're
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  doing. She said, well, I might as well
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  tell you we're going to come back to Australia, but we can't
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  come back because we got no money.
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  So I was still employed at the time.
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  I was on sick leave obviously, but I decided to give up, give
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  me give up work and take me superannuation and send the
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  money over for them to fly back to Australia.
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  And that was just one little way of making amends.
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  And they did come back to Australia and come back into my
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  life and, and I've kicked on in Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  I still do plenty of mains. In the early days I'd try and do
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  a meeting every night. I'm better off, you know, in
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  Alcoholics pretend to be an alcoholic than being outside
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  pretending not to be. And, you know, one of the
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  analogies of alcoholism I made a friend says, Henry says, is
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  that, you know, alcoholic, there can be a bottle of beer in one
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  corner and his family in the other, and he's got a choice to
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  make. And every time he'll pick the
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  bottle of beer. And that's exactly what I did,
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  you know, and, but I've stuck around Alcoholics Anonymous,
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  it's been over 29 years now. And I'm not bragging, I'm just
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  saying that it's working for me. You know, it's working for me on
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  a daily basis. Them kids come back.
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  Me son went to play his chosen sport for Australia eventually.
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  And you know, I've got, I've got 6 grandkids today.
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  I'm involved with Alcoholics Anonymous, I'm involved with
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  this radio station and it's just a easy, simple life.
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  You know, this is the easiest software and the cheaper way.
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  I reckon Alcoholics Anonymous is the most expensive club in the.
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  World to join. And, and sometimes it's not, but
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  we're not talking about money, we're talking about things that
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  you'd alcoholic. Alcohol is a great remover and
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  it just doesn't remove paint off off fences and things you know,
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  it removes, it may removes families, cars, you name it.
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  And yeah, it's, it's a simple programme for complicated
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  people. You know, we've got people that
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  have been around in, in Adelaide, you know, think 1
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  fellow Adelaide out has just celebrated 59 years of sobriety.
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  So, and it's worked for him, it's worked for me.
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  You know, I'm a member of a group, I've been a member of
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  that group. There's lots of meetings in
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  Adelaide. I think there's about 70 or 80 a
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  week or summit in Adelaide and at all different times of the
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  day. There's also Zoom, which is is
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  lead to connect to. Yeah, there's you know, there's
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  a number you can always phone for a funny any information.
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  That number's 1300 double 22222, pretty simple number to
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  remember. And if you phone that number,
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  it's 24 hours a day, it's a 24 hour a day helpline.
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  You'll get, you'll get another member or alcoholic on the other
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  end. And, you know, we find in
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  Alcoholics Anonymous and it's said everywhere, you know, that
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  there's only an algae can understand an algae.
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  You know, now true is that, that, you know, we have a
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  spiritual connection. As I said, I think earlier, it's
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  not a religious programme, it's a spiritual programme.
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  And it, it works if you work it, you know, you know, just a
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  little bit of me, I have, I got involved in travel and in
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  Alcoholics Anonymous. I love travelling and I've done
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  a main in every state in Australia.
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  I've been overseas and done meetings.
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  They do what they call in Alcoholics Anonymous Tagalongs
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  where a bunch of members will all get together and travel
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  around the country. And you know, it's enabled me.
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  I've been to, there's actually a big tag along and what they call
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  a roundup in Darwin. I've been up there about 15
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  times and I just love it. I love the camaraderie of
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  Algolics Anonymous. You know, I've found my tribe.
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  You know, I've found the people that understand me.
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  We've all, we've all trudged, you know, through the sludge and
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  the muck and the dare to get here.
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  You know, nobody comes into Alcoholics Anonymous and says,
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  I've seen an advert for Alcoholics Anonymous and I'd
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  just love to join. You know, we're all beaten to
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  the ground in all at the rock bottom and end up hopefully in
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  Alcoholics Anonymous and hopefully stare.
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  So it's a day at a time. That's all you'd have to do is
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  one day at a time. Yeah, There's no choose a phase
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  for a membership. You know, we, we contribute what
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  we can and it's a great show anywhere.
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  I hope if anybody's listening, don't forget that #1300 double
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  22222. And I'll keep coming back.
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  It's working for me on a daily basis.
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  And thanks for listening and good luck.
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  We have local meetings for the full week in the local area.
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  Monday is Gala meeting at 8:00. Tuesday is Elizabeth E at 8:00.
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  Wednesday is Elizabeth E at 8:00.
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  Thursday is 2 Wells at 8:00. And Friday's Salisbury at 8:00,
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  there's a meeting at Deveron Park at 12:00.
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  And on Sunday, there's a maintenance Salisbury at 7:00.
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  O'clock. And many of the maintenance in
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  the. Area for details of your.
• 20:22
  Local meetings, please phone 1300 double 22222 and once
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  again, if anyone you know is struggling with alcohol issues,
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  please call Alcoholics Anonymous on 13 under Double so, Double
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  so, Double so. The website isaasa.org dot AU.