On today’s episode, my guest Karen W. shares a chilling story that every long-term alcoholic needs to hear. It’s a story about alcoholism’s insidious ability to derail 28 years of sobriety into a seven-year relapse that nearly ended in suicide. Karen somehow survived that slip to achieve three years of sobriety as of the date of this interview. Her chaotic life of alcoholism and drug addiction started in high school and culminated in her banishment from the family and a hard collision with reality at age 21. Karen found herself in a rehab facility where she experienced sobriety for the first time in many years and her introduction to Alcoholics Anonymous. For the next three decades she was a mostly active member of the fellowship, though sobriety slowly started to lose its priority over the years. Surrounding herself with the trappings of a successful life, she gradually lost sight of the importance of AA and started to attend fewer and fewer meetings and distanced herself from the fellowship. By the time she slipped at age 50, her relapse was much worse than the life she escaped when she first got sober. For the next seven years, Karen’s experienced inevitable deterioration of her life. She  told her family she no longer wanted to live. That desperate cry for help marked her re-entrance into the rooms and a newfound desire to get and stay sober. Since that day in May 2021, Karen has humbled herself to the realization that she simple cannot live without AA. Nor does she want to. That she survived to make it back to AA is nothing short of a miracle.

I believe you’ll find Karen’s story to unlike any you’ve heard, especially if you’ve ever wondered whether long-term sobriety can be sustained with fewer meetings and less involvement in the Program. Hers is a story chock-full with lessons of how to do and how not to do a strong AA program. So please enjoy the next hour of AA Recovery Interviews with my friend and AA sister, Karen W.

If you’ve enjoyed my AA Recovery Interviews series and my Big Book Podcast, have a listen to Lost Stories of the Big Book, 30 Original Stories Missing from the 3rd and 4th Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s an engaging audiobook I narrated to bring these stories to life for AA members who’ve never seen them. These timeless testimonials were originally cut to make room for newer stories in the 3rd and 4th Editions. But their vitally important messages of hope are as meaningful today as when they were first published. Many listeners will hear these stories for the first time. Lost Stories of the Big Book is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. It’s also available as a Kindle book and in Paperback from Amazon if you’d like to read along with the audio.

I also invite you to check out my latest audio book, “Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism”. This is the word-for-word, cover-to-cover reading of the First Edition of the Big Book, published in 1939. It’s a comfortable, meaningful, and engaging way to listen to the Big Book anytime, anyplace. Have a free listen at Audible, i-Tunes, or Amazon.

[Disclaimer: AA Recovery Interviews podcast strictly adheres to AA’s 12 Traditions and all General Service Office guidelines for safe-guarding anonymity on-line. I pay all podcast production costs. AA Recovery Interviews and my guests do not speak for or represent AA at-large. This podcast is simply my way of giving back to AA that which has been so freely given to me. – Howard L.]