ESH: Eli W (Young Peoples)

ESH: Eli W (Young Peoples)

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This Young Peoples ASCYPAA talk with Eli W offers a raw, funny, and very direct answer. Speaking at ten years sober, Eli shares how he went from drinking at 11 to blackouts, institutions, gang violence and devastating loss.

He explains his alcoholism in plain language: the physical allergy, the “phenomenon of craving”, and the mental obsession that told him, *“We’re going to drink this… for a couple of weeks… then come right back and take a newcomer chip.”* Instead, that “couple of weeks” became five and a half years. You’ll hear how meetings alone left him “untreated”, chasing chips and slogans while the obsession quietly waited.

The turning point came when someone finally took him through the AA textbook and the 12 steps, giving him a way to understand why, even after his girlfriend died from a drunken fall off a bridge, he still couldn’t stop drinking. Eli speaks frankly about trauma, including childhood incest, and how inventory and amends helped shift him from victim to participant in his own healing.

He describes making amends to his sister and to the parents of the woman who died, saying that each amends grew his faith and showed him a power working in his life: “It’s within me, but it’s not from me.” For young people, his story hits especially hard. He talks about acting tough, using humour to hide thin skin, and how alcohol once felt like a spiritual experience that “let me breathe”.

He also shows what long-term recovery can look like: meditation, daily 10th and 11th step practice, rebuilding family relationships, and even surprising his son in Hawaii for a birthday surf session arranged through an AA connection. If you’ve ever wondered why you drink again when you absolutely don’t want to, this talk might feel uncomfortably familiar – and oddly hopeful. Are you ready to hear your own story in someone else’s words?