466- Chris S - Healing a Broken Spirit466- Chris S - Healing a Broken Spirit
Sober Speak- Alcoholics Anonymous Recovery Interviews
Chris S shares how he came to AA with a broken spirit and found healing through the 12 steps, sponsorship and service. The episode blends humour with deeply moving stories, including starting AA meetings in a hospice for fellow alcoholics facing the end of life.
1:20:34•18 Sept 2026
Healing a Broken Spirit: Chris S on AA, Service and Real Recovery
Episode Overview
- Arriving at AA with a deeply damaged spirit is common, and the 12 steps are presented as a structured way for that spirit to heal.
- Simply attending meetings without step work can leave someone in untreated alcoholism; guided action through the big book is stressed as vital.
- Sponsorship and daily meeting attendance provided crucial stability and direction in Chris’s early sobriety.
- Service commitments in treatment centres, correctional facilities and hospice are shown as powerful for both the giver and receiver.
- AA’s spiritual principles are described as practical “best practices” that can transform personal life and work life alike.
“Every one of us would have the same broken spirit... you're going to come in with a broken spirit. And I came in with a broken spirit. And as I started to move through these 12 steps, that spirit started to heal.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head‑on against addiction? This episode centres on Chris S, an AA member whose story shows how a "broken spirit" can mend through the 12 steps, fellowship, and service. Chris talks frankly about arriving in Alcoholics Anonymous shattered by years of drinking, blackouts, lost relationships, and failed attempts to control alcohol. He explains, "Every one of us would have the same broken spirit... you're going to come in with a broken spirit.
And I came in with a broken spirit. And as I started to move through these 12 steps, that spirit started to heal." You'll hear how early sobriety brought intense anxiety, resentment and chaos, even while he was showing up to a meeting every night for years. The heart of his message is how structured step work turned untreated alcoholism into genuine recovery.
Guided by sponsorship and a big book workshop, Chris describes moving from toxic self‑centredness to what he calls a growing "God consciousness". His humour about blackout drinking, misguided drug experiments and early AA resentments keeps things light, while still pointing to the seriousness of the illness. Service is a huge theme here. Chris shares how carrying AA meetings into treatment centres, correctional facilities and, most movingly, a hospice, changed him as much as the people he tried to help.
He tells the story of sober women bringing meetings to dying alcoholics in hospice, watching one woman fight for her life and ultimately walk out to seek treatment after being told her lab results showed she was improving. John M frames the whole conversation as “your meeting between meetings”, making this episode especially helpful for newcomers, long‑timers who feel stuck, and anyone curious about how AA’s 12 steps can heal that deep inner damage.
It’s an honest mix of laughter, tears and hard‑won experience that may leave you asking: what could committed step work and service do for your own spirit?
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