053: "Addiction, Recovery, and God" with Buddy C - turning self-will over to a power greater than yourself.053: "Addiction, Recovery, and God" with Buddy C - turning self-will over to a power greater than yourself.
The SHAIR Recovery Podcast
Buddy C shares his journey from severe alcoholism and repeated relapses to faith‑centred recovery, along with his hard decisions as a father of an addicted son. The conversation focuses on surrendering self‑will, ending enabling, and building a daily life of service and spiritual practice.
1:08:59•16 Feb 2016
Addiction, Recovery and God: Buddy C on Letting Go of Self‑Will
Episode Overview
- You cannot fix or sober up a loved one; focus on your own behaviour and stop trying to control theirs.
- Treat an addicted loved one as you would anyone else you were advising: remove emotion, stop enabling, and let natural consequences happen.
- Sustained sobriety for Buddy only began when he fully admitted powerlessness and turned the outcome over to God.
- Building a daily spiritual routine — readings, prayer, and service — helps keep self‑centredness in check and supports long‑term recovery.
- Making life about service to others, rather than self, brings more peace, stability and protection from relapse.
“Jump all in. Don't hold back because as long as you hold back, this will not work.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This conversation between host Omar Pinto and guest Buddy C speaks directly to anyone wrestling with addiction, faith, and the pain of loving an addict. The episode begins with a heartfelt voice message from Danielle, who shares how hearing from family members of addicts helped her feel understood. That sets the stage for Buddy to talk first as a dad, then as a recovering alcoholic.
He explains how he had to stop rescuing his son from consequences, even telling a judge to keep him in jail and refusing to bail him out.
Buddy’s line sums up his approach: he “could no more sober him up than I can sober myself up,” so he chose to stop enabling and “turn him over to God and just get out of the way.” From there, you’ll hear Buddy’s own story: six years of in-and-out sobriety, a terrifying bout of pancreatitis, two surgeries, and still picking up a drink after leaving hospital.
He talks about knowing AA was his answer from the first meeting, yet needing every relapse before he truly surrendered his self‑will. His recovery now is steeped in daily prayer, Bible reading, AA devotions, and a life centred on service — sponsoring others, visiting an AA old-timer in a nursing home, and helping run a huge daily email of AA readings. Buddy’s message is simple and uncompromising: “Jump all in.
Don't hold back because as long as you hold back, this will not work.” For loved ones of addicts, he suggests acting as if you’re “an unassociated party” so you can stop enabling and let consequences do their job. If you’re torn between helping and rescuing, or struggling to hand your will over to a power greater than yourself, this conversation might be exactly the nudge you need to ask: what would “all in” look like for you today?
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