Ali H Conference of the Lakes 2026Ali H Conference of the Lakes 2026
Mad Dog Recovery AA Speakers
Ali H shares his journey through alcoholism, relapse, and spiritual growth, describing how AA and a loving higher power transformed his relationships and daily life. He reflects on family struggles, heavy life pressures, and the practical use of the 12 steps to find peace in the midst of ongoing storms.
47:21•30 Apr 2026
From Desperation to the Eye of the Storm: Ali H at Conference of the Lakes
Episode Overview
- Relapse can be met with honesty and humility, including resetting a sober date, rather than hiding in shame.
- Staying close to AA’s steps, traditions, and service helps keep a person in the “eye of the storm” even when life is heavy.
- Resentment and deep self-centredness act like a barrier between a person and their higher power, while the 12 steps offer a way back into the “sunshine.”
- Making amends and seeing parents through a new lens can transform long-held blame into genuine love and connection.
- Newcomers are urged to join a home group, get a sponsor, and fully commit to the steps so they can stop chasing the light and instead “become the light.”
“I used to tell God how big the storms in my life were. Now I tell the storms in my life how big my God is.”
What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Here, Ali H shares his story at the Conference of the Lakes 2026 in Penn Yan, NY, offering a raw mix of honesty, humour, and deep faith that speaks straight to anyone wrestling with alcoholism or long-term sobriety.
Ali opens by calling himself a “great alcoholic” and immediately admits to nerves, using that anxiety as a reminder that he’s “not in charge” and that, left to his own devices, he’s “nothing” without a loving higher power. You’ll hear him describe being separated from alcohol since January 2012, then humbly owning a reset in 2016 after taking his wife’s post-surgery pills. That reset, he says, led to “a little bit more humble, more loving, more compassionate” living.
This talk leans heavily into AA’s spiritual foundations: staying in the “middle of the circle and triangle,” the importance of old-timers who “keep the lights on,” and the idea that “we don’t shoot the wounded in Alcoholics Anonymous.” Ali paints a vivid picture of life’s current pressures—war in his birthplace Iran, his parents’ dementia, financial stress from a commission-only job—and still describes being kept in “the eye of the storm” through the 12 steps.
He brings the big book to life with concrete examples: the “gift of desperation,” the allergy of the body, and the way resentment cuts him off from God like going into “the basement of life” while the sun still shines.
Family reconciliation, especially with his father, and becoming a loving husband and dad are threaded through his story, all credited to AA and a “loving God.” Ali closes by urging newcomers to “set aside everything that you think you know,” get a home group, find a sponsor, and “become the light” for others. If you’re feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired, this talk might be exactly the nudge you need today.
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