Sober 17 years since 1/19/2005, Alex is a great talker, involved in a home group that practices the Three Legacies of AA.
That was not the date that he came to AA, but that was the date he stayed because he identified at depth with someone and became willing to take actions that made no sense to him at the time.
He grew up with a mother who had severe mental illness and his dad was verbally and emotionally abusive to her. Alex thought that was normal.
He was super embarrassed about who he was and where he came from.
