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Sober Talk SA - Neil & a bonus from 1952 · Sober Talk SA

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Welcome to Silver, tell Cam Dennis and I've lived experience
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of alcohol. If you or anyone, you know is
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struggling with alcohol, please call Alcoholics Anonymous on
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1,300 CC of double to double to, or check out their website on
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are DOT org, dot, are you I'll just run through the Preamble of
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Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is a
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fellowship of men and women who share their experience strength
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and hope with each of them both. So there, Come problems and help
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others to recover 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 are faced with
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a membership. We are self-supporting through
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our own contributions is no allied with any sector
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nomination, politics organization or institution does
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not wish to engage in any controversy.
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Neither endorse is that oppose any causes our primary purpose
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is still sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.
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Hello, my name is Neil, I'm an alcoholic.
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And here's my story. I was grow up broadmeadows and
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Melvin pretty poor. My first addiction was lollies
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when I could get them. Anything that made me feel good
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instantaneously was my addiction right throughout my life,
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actually. So I'm what you may call, a all
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of the above alcoholic, my tried everything more than once.
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And my first drink started with a Brandy on a toothache with the
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cotton bud or cotton swab. And And I place it on the tooth.
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There, numb, the pain and a bit trickle down the back of my
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throat and did something to my head as well. 10 minutes later,
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I was reaching for another Gaba. Brandy on the Cotton bud.
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I'll cotton board and not much stayed on the tooth.
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I think I sucked. It dry two or three times until
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I was quite a little bit of hammered for a nine-year-old.
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And I remember dancing into the lounge room and showing off
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doing a bit of a boogie. And dad said, I think you're
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pissed. I think you need to go and have
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a lie down which I did and I woke up a couple hours later and
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like a bear that are coming out of hibernation too early and it
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made me feel like I just didn't want to live.
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I always, I I changed, you know, prior to that day, I had my own
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little bubble and it was a bubble of all happiness.
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And that first drink changed my life.
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I suppose I overindulged on a spirit.
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I stayed off alcohol, it scared me.
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I stayed off alcohol until Millie my 18th birthday and
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mate. Next door.
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And I went around to the Foodland shop grabbed a couple
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of bottles for bottles were Babbitt's logger and proceeded
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to drink those for dry. Sitting on his home in Chevy In
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the Heat of the day. I didn't feel too good after
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that and I went, I did the same thing.
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I went to bed and woke up a few hours.
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Later. Swearing I'd never touch the
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stuff again. But I wanted to drink like a
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man. So I tried and I tried and
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failed and tried and failed, and I couldn't take to it, but I was
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becoming used to drinking when I did in Social occasions.
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And I overindulged. I made a fool of myself.
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I became a laughingstock sometimes and I was the life of
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the party others and I couldn't control what that drink was
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doing to me. Never have been able to On a
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constant basis, I haven't been able to reliably reliably rely
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on alcohol to be anything but a foe to me.
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I had many jobs, I moved on jobs because I thought that the jobs
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didn't suit me, but it was a Restless discontent and
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irritability within me that saw me not only getting bored, but I
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needed a new face in life, you know, every now and then if I
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found myself embarrassed by my alcoholic Behavior, How did this
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and gravitated through, from Victoria through New South
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Wales? Brisbane.
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Back down. Using my thumb for transport.
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A lot of the time and sleeping in cow paddocks.
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I did that for a couple of years and then knocked on the back
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door at home after my father suggested, I should go and find
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myself. I thought I'd been out for a
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long enough to show him that I had.
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This lasted probably six months and I was back off the wagon,
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back in back in Melbourne and I was on the road again looking
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for a place to live. I had good jobs throughout my
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life. I worked in cinemas, I worked in
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gardens. I was a Rose Garden for a while
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and many others too long to to mention Restless discontent and
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and irritable. I got married.
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When I was 26 I was working in the gardens in Brisbane.
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I followed a girl from the Geelong up to Brisbane and said
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this is the girl for me but it wasn't it was and and I wasn't
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for her in the long run. I joined the military and got
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posted to Melvin then Adelaide and I thought the military will
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sort me out. I'll become a better person and
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that was my intention to try. But I think it was a party for
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me in the military because the drink was cheap.
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Everyone seemed to be participating and but not as
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much as me, you know, I'd make it a habit and it was brought to
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my superiors attention that I was making it too much of a
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habit and I needed to be counseled And I took that
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counsel because the other alternative was the tank in in
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Richmond, in New South Wales and I'd heard about it and I tried
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my hardest to stick that out. I didn't though I end up getting
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canceled and and spoken to and and a written warning, this
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meant that the next time I'd be a formal warning and I'd be in
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real trouble. Sorry, my life started in AI in
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the year 2000. My family's gone back to
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Brisbane. I'd separated from a wife and I
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started life a new winner in a room.
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That was a much bigger that bigger than, you know, a prison
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cell, it was called an airline's block, and that's where he lived
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and walked down the hall to Shave and shower.
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And then back to that block was Solitude oil.
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It was not the best way after I came out of her, married
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quarter, and, and kids and family to be stuck in that spot,
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which was my own fault. You know, I wasn't smart enough
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to realize what path I was going down and it made me maybe think
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a little bit, you know, once I had some money gathered or I
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moved off base and bought a house with a bit of money that I
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had I don't know how I found it. I think it was a cash in of some
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super and I put a money down on a house in Salisbury and
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continue to drink and you can't do that when you've got a
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mortgage. And I lost that house after
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renting it out and living with some people that I befriended
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and they did some damage. So I lost the house and had to
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start all over again. I found my way to LA to go all a
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meeting after talking to an office manager by the name of
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Horst. And he said after he's telling
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me his story and I spoke a little bit about where I was,
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you said, well you better get yourself without a drink to a
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meeting tonight at gawler And I did that and it was the best
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thing I've ever done in my life because it wasn't that night
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that changed me. That wasn't the next or, you
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know, four or five meetings later but something twigged in
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about my fifth of six meeting. I, which I spoke at all the
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meetings in the northern suburbs are from Monday to Friday or
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Monday to Thursday and which is the best thing I could have done
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to because I was getting a lot off my chest.
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It must have bored people but I needed to do it and I needed to
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talk. And and one member said, that's
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what you need to do. You need to need to talk.
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You need to get honest with yourself and other people.
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A few weeks later, I had an argument with a Zen girlfriend
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and I put 100 dollar bill in my top pocket.
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And I went off to the front bar the Salsbury Hotel.
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With the intentions of getting drunk with the poor meat.
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And at that stage, I'd already bought a big book.
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I went to go into the bar but for some reason, I reached out
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to the left hand side of the bench seat and we holdin and
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grabbed hold of the big book that I purchased proceeded to
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walk to the door of the front front bar at Salsbury, Jack's
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Bar. and, I realize when looking down in my left hand, and I was
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pushing with my right hand to go into a pub, and I had a big book
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in the other hand and I thought, I'll something's telling me
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something here. There's a story behind this, so
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I got back to the car was a Wednesday night and got to the
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second half of the Wednesday night Hospital meeting in
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Elizabeth. Which I was greeted with all the
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friendly faces, after not drinking to get into a meeting.
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And, and that was when my lifestyle changed, Headphones on
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my sex started and I haven't looked back since that day.
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Oh yeah, I took a request of from an older member that I
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should start a meeting or not. Start a meeting but take over
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from a meeting and and be secretary, which I did.
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And it was a good big job for. This was a few months later and
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I was about six months. Sober at this stage and they
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said you're ready, do some do some internal work. 12 months
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later. I found myself organizing a
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camper Melrose camp and, and doing that that same job and
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then wearing two hats and which wasn't condoned at any stage
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that you should. But I felt I could handle it and
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put my hand up for it. I've always been a bit of a
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workaholic Like, I think that was to support habits that I
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that I created alcohol being the mainstay. and I, I guess. it was
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up to me to do something, you know, and I felt not in the
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Inner Circle but I felt that I was a part of ia2 to become a
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member and a valued member to to do Something that was right for
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a change and not something that was wrong.
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I can see a change in myself. I could see people other people
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asking advice the newcomer. And I was only knew myself, I
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did my best to either Point them in the right direction or answer
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their questions and at became a good thing for me to help other
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people. And I think, you know, in the
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wrong one, you know, after 22 years helping people is what AAA
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is all about and to start off and realize that early was a
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good thing for me. It was a good thing for people
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that I helped. I am now five years sober for
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more than the first time in my 22 years.
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In a, a first bus was eight and a half.
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I had a wine turn that wine around in my hand after it was
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poor data. Naughty Boy, someone who was a
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friend of and he had received this bottle from his father,
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handed down to him to open during this.
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He's birthday, his 50th birthday.
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I had a glass in front of me and I turned it around and around
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and around, it was warm and it was fingerprinted and and it
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wasn't worth while drinking because I changed that Grange 86
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into goon. I Not drinking it straight away
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or when it was ripe and and anyway I had a sip.
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And then the next two golf's was as if it was grown. and I, It
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changed me. I didn't drink straight away,
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but retrospectively. I look back and said that wasn't
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so bad. and then was a few lights later, it was a few
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Heavies later within a week and And it was a change, your life,
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I'd busted. And I'd throw in a way, what I
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thought eight and a half years sobriety which is a lot of dogs,
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a day at a time. But it wasn't the end old.
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You know, I've learned some things in a and that was to come
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back. Do some work confess?
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The fact that you've had a drink, you're busted and start
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again, that very next day after my last drink.
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And which lasted a few weeks. And I eventually happened to
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bust another two times. My Road in a I thought was all
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straight and narrow wasn't such and I didn't take advice from
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people to do the steps. I took advice from close me up,
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friends to do certain things. I did do a steps program with
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Border Town, Eric, a guy that was in the early days around
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about the 2000. Mark, I don't know what's
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happened to him now, but I value his friendship, then, and And it
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was an x-ray. I remember that had the 12-step
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program going and I wasn't the only one in attendance and you
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helped a lot of people. He knew about alcoholism.
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You knew about the steps program, and he took me through
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them and then 16 weeks later, I felt that I was ready to stand
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up on my own and, and, and do the right thing.
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I did and I lasted another five or six years and I've got the
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poem. He's I I was on a work pressure
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and I think pressure kills the alcoholic is good.
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Precious, it's bad, pressures. There's pressures of weddings,
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as you can lose your job, you have the addiction and and it's
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the first thing people reach for is the remedy for the addiction.
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That's The immediate and it wasn't until the last five years
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of my sobriety, which I've just covered up to five years and two
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months that I've learned in the last five years.
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What a, a has been all about and that's to be honest, open down
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the line truthful. Now, I've had bust on that
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truthfulness. I've had a bus in other avenues
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of my life. But I've repented to the truth
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with somebody, a close wealth friend which has helped me get
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over those. It hasn't helped.
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The fact that I've had to confess to my wife and my
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ex-wife through the night that I've relieved.
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Certain aspects of a a that I didn't didn't know existed.
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I'd never got to the night before.
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You know, in a, in a, in a way that I've actually not stepped
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people and my ex-wife was the hardest because she knew me
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she'd been to Al-Anon me meetings and and during the hour
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and a half phone call with her. She actually said, oh, I went a
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Ellen on a long time before you went to AA, and I didn't even
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know. So it's a, it's a closed mouth
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for a fellowship either way, whether it be Ellen, I know.
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A or, you know, you don't have to sing it from the rooftops.
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But your friends are within the fellowship and and my friends
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are still here. You know, I can, I can talk to
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people and whether it's playing music with them or, or, or going
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out to dinner, or swapping advice.
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It's something that My life has changed because of a and I can't
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think I and the people in it enough because there's always a
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fellowship at every different group conscious that you go to
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with, in a meeting and some suit, some people some suit
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others. But I got to be honest now and
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say I love them all. Now, you know, I didn't in the
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past, I always had a, you know, Way a wall up against some and
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resentments and resentments is it can be what someone of the
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biggest Killers because people drink on resentments. but, Yeah.
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I'm at an AA camp at the moment. I'm hidden away and so I'm not
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interrupted. So I'll wish everyone that's
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listening to this a good night, good day and I hope you get
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something out of my share. Thank you.
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And now a historical broadcast made on behalf of a first
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broadcast in Adelaide On 5K in 1952 good evening everybody many
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times in these go. Cast.
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It has been stretched by members of a, a, and an alcoholic.
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No matter his station in life, his religious beliefs or his
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political convictions. Need not experience any feeling
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of timidity or discovered, whatever in approaching an
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alcoholics anonymous group. But even today, you members who
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have summoned up sufficient, courage to take the first step
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towards recovery frankly, admit that they had previously.
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I hesitated to come to us because of weird.
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I'll misconceptions of a its environment and its members.
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In this broadcast, I will endeavor to give a true
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portrayal of the atmosphere of AA meeting, and a tent picture
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of the evidence member admitted that every alcoholic is
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hypersensitive in between belts. Here is not 5 minutes at his
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first meeting before here. Realizes that all his fears have
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been grounded, impact laughable. Neither need a new member, feel
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any humiliation in coming to his first meeting.
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I certainly felt love unity. Yes.
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But not even the agent, that was what I would agonizingly
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experience when suffering a reversal recovery out of bounds.
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And if it to pronounce an alcohol in any company, among a
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alcoholic who have suffered as we have seven, or before extreme
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temperature, Advocate who made the Sizer for what they
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consider. Our weakness GPA only joy and
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pride in the house. And if you are contemplating
22:31
coming to your 40D removed from your mind in the idea that we
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are a religious text, or that we are losing phonetic.
22:40
Numbers are out of many creeps, if one member knows and others
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religious denomination. It Is by X's there by voluntary
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and unpolluted achievement as a great Redeemer up.
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Aliens to any specified, organized, religious body, and
23:00
any members faith in his own concern, only in its broadest
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sense, its General application is religion ever discussed at
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the meeting We are not religious in the sectarian, but we are far
23:15
from even a, a program radiate, spirituality front cover to
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cover, but do not confuse us with those obsessing.
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The video on hating saying, abandonment at revive the
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fusions in other countries, you may have If we discovered a man
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bordering on me 33 and doesn't realize that one is a dangerous.
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As a matter of being, whatever the record may have Z whatever
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humiliation. We experience in retrospect, it
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is bearish. When we realize that a US is
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given a pair of pair denied, even two, Ministers of religion
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and medical men. And nevertheless, both do Yeoman
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service. Collecting personalities and we
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are deeply grateful to five. Stay or do you go up top?
24:58
This session has proved the most effective means of contacting,
25:02
those who are willing to help you see, a is composed of two
25:07
parts, the selfish and the, under the former prevails where
25:13
we are. So out of coverage, land surface
25:16
element activates really had re-established.
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Pastels and to capable of helping others.
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But Coon extent, we are sensitive about individually
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after that help. We are not curious or
25:31
inquisitors about another man's problems, but we are always
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willing and anxious to have helped himself.
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The new member felt the sprayer to unburden himself.
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All these problems even before the full group of members, we
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need even then he will know you and the agency.
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Of the lives of most alcoholics but of the same button.
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When you remember night, imagine, he has been a deep
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Dives in. What else perhaps take it today
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have been presented in comparison to those of some
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members who composed the audience.
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I hope I am not creating the impression that members are men
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and women with do thought their Chieftain gain Society,
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accepted, maybe Paul has been the ha Ah, may have wrote to
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themselves for the fitting isn't group.
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The alcoholic is the greatest ever.
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But a new member is not ask The Boy Who Sold the World, believe
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into that small portion of its represented by a a usual
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practice to have it stuck in the ready room, with an old member
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before, he tells it all member of his fallen and indicate that
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he is anxious and willing to do. We have local maintenance for
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the full week in the local area, Monday is Golem meeting. 8:00
27:02
Tuesday, is Elizabeth East at 8 o'clock.
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Wednesday is Elizabeth East at 8 o'clock.
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Thursday is to Wells at 8:00 and Fridays Salisbury at 8:00.
27:15
There's a meeting at Devon on park at 12:00 and on Sunday,
27:19
there's a maintenance Salisbury at 7:00 and many of the meetings
27:22
in the area, For details of your local Maintenance.
27:28
Please Fawn 1300 double to double to double to.
27:33
And once again, if anyone, you know is struggling with our
27:36
Global issues police call Alcoholics Anonymous on 1300
27:40
double to double to double. So the website is in South
27:45
Australia. Dot org dot, are you