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Sober Talk SA - Trevor · Sober Talk SA

• 0:09
  Welcome to Sober talk. I'm Dennis and I've lived
• 0:12
  experience at alcohol. If you or anyone you know is
• 0:16
  struggling with alcohol, please call Alcoholics Anonymous on
• 0:19
  1300 double 22222 or check out their website on aa.org dot AU.
• 0:28
  I'll just run through the preamble of Alcoholics
• 0:31
  Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is a
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  fellowship of men and women who share their experience,
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  strengthen hope with each other. They must solve their come
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  problems and help others to recover from alcoholism.
• 0:43
  The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop
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  drinking. There are no dues of fees for a
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  membership. We are self supporting through
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  our 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
• 1:02
  oppose any causes. Our primary purpose is
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  stairsleman help other Alcoholics achieve sobriety.
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  Good day everybody. My name is Trevor and I'm an
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  alcoholic. My story begins when I was 13
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  and my mother committed suicide. Put in the boy tones and I
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  rebelled and I kept getting into strike and I finished up down to
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  a reformatory and for I was especially there till I was 18
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  and I finally got out at 7-9 and but from there I progressed to
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  to jails and prisons and I was in and out of jail from I died
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  until I was 24. And every time I've out of jail,
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  I was homeless because I wouldn't spend money on rent.
• 2:14
  I wanted it for grog. And anyway, when I got out of
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  jail in 1974, I met, which I didn't know at the time, my
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  future wife, and we got married in 1975.
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  We had four children, but I also got a a daughter to another in
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  another relationship. And to try and keep out of
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  travel and keep off the booth or join the railways, the
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  Commonwealth Railways. And I moved out to a place
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  called Haig Out on the western side, Western ferry inside of
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  the Commonwealth Railway in the middle of the Malabar plane.
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  And I was working out there and we got a train once a week
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  called the Tea and sugar. The woods would bring out our
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  food and had a butcher and and also our alcohol and I thought
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  well this will be good if I run out of grog out there, I can't
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  get anymore. The nearest town was 900
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  kilometres away, which was Kalgoorlie and I just couldn't
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  drop everything and just go to town.
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  And anyway, I'm there for for a couple of weeks, maybe a month,
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  and I found out I had a cousin working in the next camp.
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  And in the next camp there was a shop where you could buy
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  groceries and all that kind of thing, but it was full of grog
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  as well. So that finished that and my
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  time was on the grog again more regularly.
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  But then they moved the concrete gang in and they had a wetness
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  and the the wetness was every day and every day I was on the
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  grogs. And once the concrete gang went
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  through, they shut the camp. So we transferred to a place
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  called Manguri, which was 25 mile out of Kuba PD.
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  And so I didn't get my wrong as often, but what I could do was
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  stack up the wrong because there wasn't much to spend your money
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  on, which is that general necessities.
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  Anyway, by this time my wife had two children.
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  And then my wife got crook and we had to move to a town.
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  So we moved to Port Augusta and where she had two more children.
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  Well, anyway, my drinking progressed to more and more and
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  more and I finished up drinking 48 years and the 40th wedding
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  anniversary was coming up and the wife had all these things
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  planned and I, I decided to go on a Bender.
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  So 2 weeks leading up to it, I was drunk.
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  Come the day of the anniversary, I couldn't get out of bed except
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  to go to the toilet. And anyway, two weeks later I I
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  turned 65 and I really poured it on.
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  And anyway in 1982 my brother-in-law tried to get me
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  in the program but I didn't listen to him.
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  But I tried hypnotism, psychologist and pharmaceutical
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  medicine all to stop bringing. I tried on my own I don't know
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  how many times. Nothing worked anyway.
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  Did you try detox? No, I didn't try detox.
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  That's right. And the next day I was laying in
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  bed and was laying in bed and for some unknown reason, I think
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  it was my higher power, which I didn't know at the time, a A
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  popped into me head. Well, I laid there for a bit and
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  then I got out and was wanting to cop my medicine for my wife.
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  And all she said to me was I've, I've been here for 40 years
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  watching you slowly drink yourself to death.
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  I'm not hanging around for 41. Yeah, that was a wake up call.
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  Another wake up call for me because she'd kicked me out a
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  zillion times. But she never threatened to
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  leave me. And that sort of shocked me.
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  But I didn't tell her what I was planned because I I told her in
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  the past, her and the kids what I planned and and everything was
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  didn't work. And so I tried not to tell her.
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  Anyway. I rang a A on the Monday in Port
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  Augusta and the meeting with Troy.
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  But I'm just grateful that I was that crook that I didn't want to
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  drink anyway. Because if I wasn't that crook,
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  I wouldn't have made it day. Because boy, Wednesday I was
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  being back on the piss, back on the Grogs.
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  And anyway, Troy come around and I got ready, had a share, got
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  dressed and and I come out all ready to go and the wife said
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  where are you going? I said a A the first time I
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  mentioned it and she turned to me and said bull crap, you're
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  going to pub. And I said, no, I'm going a, A
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  Anyway, we were standing there arguing back and forth.
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  And I, I just thought, why am I standing here arguing?
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  So I left her arguing with herself because I walked out,
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  jumped in the car and I went to me first a, a meeting.
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  And that was the greatest thing I could have ever done because
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  the senator walks through them doors was like a great weight
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  lifted off me. And anyway, at home about two
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  hours later, and then she started again.
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  But while I was at the meeting, they gave me a beginner's
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  wallet. And I had that in my back pocket
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  where she couldn't see it. And anyway, she said, what are
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  you doing home? I said the meeting's finished.
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  And again, bull crap, you've run out of money haven't you?
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  I said no, the meeting for me. She said well don't look at me,
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  I'm not giving you no money. I said I don't want any money
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  anyway. She was starting to carry on a
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  bit, so I handed her the wallet and she looked at it and she was
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  sort of shocked because it was a A.
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  The thing was, even though I started a, A, the family and and
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  my wife, they weren't sure because of all the other
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  Band-Aid fixes I'd tried that didn't work.
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  And but I'm grateful because we had a really strong group in
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  Port Augusta and without them people to support me, I probably
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  would have went back out drinking.
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  I don't know. But my sobriety date is the 5th
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  day, sorry, 28th of June 2015. And I've just passed 9 1/2 years
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  sober and it's been the best 9 1/2 years of my life and my wife
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  and my family because now they believe me.
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  At 15 months sober, my daughter got married and I walked her
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  down the aisle. But I don't know if you know the
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  Flinders Rangers at all. She got married up and the
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  Flinders Rangers at a place called Ticklebelly Hill.
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  And anyway, I did the right thing.
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  I've got everyone's number. No problem.
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  Ring us, we'll be there to support me.
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  And anyway, walked her down the aisle.
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  Oh, but me walked her down the aisle.
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  And lo behold, after the wedding and that I went and asked the
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  bloke running Ticklebelly Hill. I said playing coverage up here,
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  no phone coverage. Well, I told my my son and my
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  son-in-law that just got married to my daughter and they kept
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  their eye on me all night and so did my wife.
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  But I had no drama. They're more worried about peer
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  pressure, you know, people trying to get me to have a beer.
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  1 won't hurt and all that, this kind of thing.
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  One beer actually will kill me. And if I didn't join a A at the
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  time I did because I was just drinking for Blue Oblivion and I
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  would have been dead within 12 months, I would have been dead.
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  I honestly believe that. So I'm just so grateful to this
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  program and I was told by my first sponsor, if you're asked
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  to share, you get off your royal and get up and share.
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  And ever since then, that's what I've done.
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  Sometimes I do a a reasonably good share and next time I do a
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  crap one because I I'm I'm getting dementia and it's it's
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  progressing and so I am. I struggle with a lot of things.
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  I think I'm autistic as well. I haven't got a clue, but my
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  brain just doesn't work like normal peoples.
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  But I was someone all my life struggled to fit in.
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  I didn't fit in. I was always an outcast.
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  Even in my family, I was an outcast, the black sheep of the
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  family. If anything went wrong, who got
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  the blame? Me.
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  And I mightn't have even been there and I still get the blame.
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  And my sisters, my two older sisters, me.
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  And did they get me into a lot of crap?
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  I got flogging after flogging because they blame me for crap
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  they done. And anyway, I've I've made
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  amends to my family. I've forgiven because I didn't
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  invite any of my friend family to my wedding.
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  I said to my future wife, if any of my family are sitting in here
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  when I walk in to marry you, I'm gone.
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  I'm out the door. That's how much I didn't like my
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  family today. I get on well with them and
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  it's, it's so brilliant to have them in my life, you know, But
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  it's only through this program and working the steps that I've,
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  I've got, I've got, I've got an outlet.
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  I can step up. I'm getting confused here.
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  I'm sorry, I've, I've got a program, that's what I meant to
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  say. I've got a program where I can
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  handle most things and what I, what I can't handle, I'll ask my
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  higher power for help. I've always believed in a higher
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  power because some of the scrapes and car accidents and,
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  and you know, just some of the dumb things I've done.
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  I should should have been dead years ago, but I knew back then
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  something or somebody was looking after me.
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  So I've always believed in the high pair.
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  I just didn't know what he was called.
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  It's only coming in the program that I, I finally could give him
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  a name. I had a little bit of trouble
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  with the word God in the program because as a kid I got punished
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  for not reading the Bible. And because I got punished, I
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  was in a boy's home and I got teeth the hell.
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  And I got in a lot of scrapes. So that brought on more
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  punishment and and I just hated religion, hated God.
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  But I tell you what, some of the things I got into, who was the
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  first person I called on my mate God.
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  So, you know, even atheists, they believe in some sort of
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  God. You know, it might be the Bible
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  God, which I don't believe in. My higher power is I'm actually
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  sitting in a place called Taruna Bay and on an AA camp, and it's
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  so peaceful and serene here. It is unbelievable.
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  It's so beautiful. And this is the type of things I
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  missed out on because of alcohol.
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  I've never seen anything beautiful.
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  It was all droll. And yeah, you know, my family
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  had a horrific time with with me with me alcohol.
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  My kids missed out on a lot, you know, because I had to have my
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  alcohol. But thanks to this program, I am
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  so, so grateful. And I do service in a, a like
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  Dennis just called me out wiping dishes to do this talk.
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  And yeah, but I, I'm being secretary.
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  I'm neo treasurer of my group, you know, and I, I just love
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  doing service, you know, and I'll, I'll pick up a broom or
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  whatever's needed. And I'll do this without being
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  told because. You tell an alcoholic they're
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  not going to do it. You ask an alcoholic and I will
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  do it because our program works on suggestions, not you will.
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  And that's another thing I love about it.
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  And the people are incredible. One thing I love about the
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  people, if they can't help you, they won't harm you.
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  And that to me, and these people were all strangers to me.
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  When I come into pro, I didn't know anybody.
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  And the amount of friends I've made and will do anything for me
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  within raising a course, it's just, it's just incredible.
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  It's just so hard to explain. I'm, I'm grateful I am an
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  alcoholic because without being an alcoholic, I wouldn't have
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  what I've got today, which is peace, serenity.
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  And I just love it. Am it?
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  Look am it? Good.
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  They were fin finish up and I just spoke to Dennis and he said
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  it's time for me to finish up. So yeah, I'm just so grateful to
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  be in the program and to be able to share my story.
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  And yeah, I'll just leave her that.
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  Thanks. And if you're in the program,
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  keep coming back. But on your trap.
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  Thank you. 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 Devon Park
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  at 12:00 and on Sunday there's a maintenance Salisbury at 7:00
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  and 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
• 22:31
  Anonymous on 1300 double 22222. The website isaasa.org dot AU.