Al-Anon: Maria SAl-Anon: Maria S
Sober Cast: An (unofficial) Alcoholics Anonymous Podcast AA
Maria S, an Al‑Anon member from Los Angeles, shares how the family side of alcoholism led her from despair and control to recovery and spiritual growth. Her story touches on relationships, family healing, and the practical impact of working the Twelve Steps with Al‑Anon and AA literature.
1:06:31•20 Jul 2026
Maria S: Finding Her Own Recovery Through Al‑Anon
Episode Overview
- Al‑Anon helps people affected by another’s drinking build their own recovery so they stop contributing to alcoholism.
- Control, superiority and victimhood can be just as destructive as drinking, and Al‑Anon offers tools to address these patterns.
- Working the Steps, including thorough inventories and amends, can transform family relationships and self‑worth.
- It’s possible to make meaningful amends and healing connections even after years of estrangement or institutionalisation.
- Placing spiritual principles above personality becomes a practical way to live, whether in meetings, family life or career.
“Al‑Anon is a place where we learn to find ourselves and get our own recovery… not so we can control alcoholism, but so we don’t have to contribute to alcoholism.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol when they’re not the one drinking? That’s the thread running through Maria S’s moving Al‑Anon share from the 30th Annual Crested Butte Mountain Conference. Maria, an Al‑Anon member from Los Angeles, talks candidly about how the family side of alcoholism almost destroyed her long before she found help.
You’ll hear her describe falling in love with Alcoholics Anonymous meetings while dating a newly sober man, yet resisting Al‑Anon for herself: “Al‑Anon is a place where we learn to find ourselves and get our own recovery… so we don’t have to contribute to alcoholism.” Her story blends sharp humour with raw honesty.
She jokes about being “trapped” for a week with Alcoholics at altitude, calling it “an Al‑Anon’s idea of an open bar”, then cuts straight to the darker parts: suicide plans, multiple terminated pregnancies, and using relationships as a drug when alcohol didn’t work for her. Through it all, she threads in the tools she learned: inventories, sponsorship, working the Steps from the AA Big Book, and placing “principles above my personality”.
Maria also speaks about complex family ties – a loving father in television, a mother wounded by her own past, and a sister whose journey includes institutions, AA, cancer, and late‑in‑life amends. Her story highlights how Al‑Anon offers a way to show up differently: making living amends, respecting other people’s paths, and learning that her disease “was caused by little old me”, not just by contact with Alcoholics.
If you’re affected by someone else’s drinking, or you recognise yourself in Maria’s craving for validation and control, this share offers a mix of laughter, hard truths, and hope. Could Al‑Anon help you stop contributing to the chaos and start building your own recovery?
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