Sober 27 years since 6/21/1982, Line has a delightful French Canadian accent and wonderful sense of humor.
As long as she could remember she had been afraid, had nightmares, went everywhere in fear until her first drink at age 13 when all that went away and she woke up the next morning with a boy next to her.
"...which is a pattern that remained with me throughout my drinking career and I felt ashamed and guilty and, oh my gosh, what did I do? And I couldn't wait to drink again."
Then she began to think,
"If only _____, then I would be happy",
and started filling in the blanks.
By age 24 she had a license to practice law and moved to California, got the rich guy with the Porsche and motorhome, got a cleaning lady ...
"... and I supervised her with a drink in my hand. My outside circumstances are irrelevant. I drink because I'm an alcoholic and what makes me an alcoholic is - once I begin to drink, I cannot stop."
She lowered her standards until she was on the floor in a most embarrassing and degrading manner. From that point she could not get drunk or black out.
After several days she called AA. Two members took her to a downtown detox center.
"And the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous started for me that day."
She was not rocketed into the fourth dimension but rather "oozed into it over the course of 10 or 15 years."
(1 hr 1 min) (14.1 MB) (id#1793)
