018: "The Green Recliner" Carol M. shares her 30 year story of addiction, drug abuse and alcoholism until she finds recovery!018: "The Green Recliner" Carol M. shares her 30 year story of addiction, drug abuse and alcoholism until she finds recovery!
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Carol M. recounts three decades of alcoholism and drug use, the moment she surrendered in her green recliner, and how AA, sponsorship and daily spiritual practices support more than 16 years of sobriety. The conversation also touches on parenting, profound loss, and finding purpose in helping others recover.
59:01•16 Jun 2015
From the Green Recliner to Freedom: Carol M.’s 30-Year Battle with Alcohol
Episode Overview
- Daily basics—morning prayer, meditation, meetings, talking to another alcoholic, and thanking God at night—form the backbone of Carol’s sobriety.
- Simple practical changes, like avoiding certain routes and shopping times, helped break ingrained drinking habits in early recovery.
- Sponsorship and women’s meetings give Carol ongoing support and a way to grow by helping others.
- Grief, including the loss of her son to addiction, is faced one day at a time through faith and fellowship rather than alcohol.
- Carol urges newcomers to identify with stories in the Big Book to see their own alcoholism clearly and build a reason to stay.
“I poured the whiskey down the sink, turned the faucet off, and when I put the glass down, I said, I am done.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Carol M. offers one of the rawest answers you’ll hear, telling her 30‑year story of alcoholism and drug use from the same green recliner where she once drank herself numb. Omar Pinto sits down with his long‑time friend Carol, who has over 16 years of sobriety, and asks her to walk through life before and after recovery.
She starts with those first sips from half‑finished party glasses as a teenager, moves through beer‑and‑wine “social drinking”, and then into full‑blown dependence where bars, the golf course and the 19th hole became home. Her honesty bites hardest when she recalls telling her 12‑year‑old daughter, “Yes, I can,” and walking out on her family to keep drinking. You’ll hear how the green recliner turned from a place of hiding to a place of surrender.
Carol talks about pouring whiskey down the sink and saying, “I am done,” and how women from her local AA group immediately stepped in with practical guidance: pray in the morning, read daily devotionals, go to meetings, talk to another alcoholic, and thank God at night for another sober day. The conversation isn’t just about stopping drinking; it follows Carol through deep grief as she later loses her son to addiction and suicide, yet never reaches for a drink.
She explains how sponsorship, women’s meetings, and simple daily routines like “coffee, prayer and meditation” keep her grounded, and why she urges newcomers to “find yourself in the big book” and in the stories of others. Anyone wondering whether long‑term recovery is possible—especially parents, women, and those feeling utterly broken—may recognise parts of themselves in Carol’s story. Could a simple chair and a handful of daily actions mark the start of your own turning point?
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