ESH: Crickett RESH: Crickett R
Sober Cast: An (unofficial) Alcoholics Anonymous Podcast AA
Crickett R shares a candid story that moves from childhood abuse, street drinking and shock treatments to AA sobriety, literacy and motherhood. Her talk highlights how sponsorship, traditions and a willingness to not take the first drink can reshape a life that once felt beyond hope.
57:04•10 Nov 2026
From Shock Treatments to Serenity: Crickett R’s Long Road to Sobriety
Episode Overview
- Alcohol can feel like a solution to unbearable feelings, but AA offers a way to live without that first drink.
- Labels such as “incorrigible” or psychiatric diagnoses do not define a person’s potential for recovery.
- Sponsorship and AA traditions can protect difficult newcomers while still keeping the doors open to them.
- Learning basic skills like reading, writing and self-care can be part of rebuilding life in sobriety.
- Real connection, trust and love in recovery often grow slowly, especially for those who have spent years unable to feel.
“Whiskey became the only reliable, trustworthy friend I had. It became the only thing that made it okay for me to exist.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of addiction and recovery as Crickett R shares a raw, funny and painfully honest journey from childhood trauma to long-term sobriety. Speaking at the 11th Annual Great Plains Roundup in Omaha, Nebraska, she talks about getting sober back in 1969 and how alcohol once felt like her only reliable friend: "Whiskey became the only reliable, trustworthy friend I had.
It became the only thing that made it okay for me to exist." You’ll hear about a childhood marked by poverty, superstition and abuse, with Crickett hiding behind a wood stove for safety and taking her first drink at 12 in a desperate attempt to stop feeling anything at all.
She describes reform school, being labelled "incorrigible", years on the streets, and being locked in a state insane asylum with heavy medication and electric shock treatments that left her barely able to function. Her story shifts when a wheelchair-using AA member and his Al-Anon wife notice her in a Denver beer joint and challenge her to attend a meeting without taking a drink.
From that shaky first cab ride to 1311 York Street, through convulsions, traditions, and being escorted into meetings for six months, Crickett gradually finds a place in Alcoholics Anonymous—even when she’s still stealing from the basket and knocking red-headed greeters off their feet.
The heart of the talk lies in her later sobriety in Texas: learning to read and write in her late thirties, being sponsored by the formidable Betty Jean, and finally praying, "If there's any way you can help me to feel again, I'd appreciate it." With humour and grit, she describes becoming a mother, learning practical life skills, and discovering what love and trust actually feel like.
If you’re looking for a story that’s messy, human and grounded in AA’s steps and traditions, this one might stay with you long after it ends. How much change feels possible when you don’t take that first drink?
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