A powerful story and great message - Catherine got sober in January 2000.The youngest of seven in a Catholic family, she says she was not the "baby" of the family. Her dad traveled and her mom was alcoholic so she had to take on responsibilities early in life. Her dad was abusive when he was home. Catherine realizes today that her parents gave her everything she needed to be successful and that she is alcoholic because she is alcoholic. Her older brothers introduced her to alcohol at an early age.
She was put in a Catholic private school that probably saved her life. She got into running early. She compartmentalized her life. She drank during the summers but during the track season substituted the obsessive running program for obsessive drinking.
She went to therapy to deal with childhood issues and came first to Al-anon. She even drank at Al-anon meetings. She came into AA when she was finally ready. Her family likes to talk about movies when they get together but when she really needs help she calls AA.
Her husband abandoned her in her first year in the program - pregnant. She nearly died from complications spending the last three months of pregnancy in the hospital. Her family could not be there but AA showed up. Ladies stayed overnight. It took her years to recover physically. The week before this talk she ran her 1st marathon ever - the Marine Marathon in D.C. - 26.2 miles with the last 0.2 up a steep hill to the famous marine monument. Now she looks forward to the next thing she gets to do as a result of this program.
(43 min) (14.8 MB) (id#413)