ESH: Judge Ted B - 10 years

ESH: Judge Ted B - 10 years

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This talk from Judge Ted B offers a raw, funny and painfully honest look at how self-will, ego and fear can run a life into the ground – and how Alcoholics Anonymous can start to turn it around.

Speaking at around ten years sober, Judge Ted B from La Marque, Texas shares how he went from a successful lawyer and judge with charge accounts at every liquor store, to a man who couldn’t remember his kids’ ages, his wedding date or even five people he went to school with. He jokes that, “Everywhere I went, people left. I said, there they go. I must pursue them.

I am their leader,” capturing the warped thinking that kept him isolated and resentful. You’ll hear about his endless experiments to control drinking – jogging in tiny shorts, yoga, meditation, psychology, brain theories, supplements, even antabuse – all of which “worked for a while” until they didn’t.

He admits he first turned up at AA to help a rich drinking buddy and to check on people he’d sentenced from his courtroom, proudly explaining alcoholism without having the slightest clue about recovery. The turning point comes when an Al-Anon member bluntly tells him he keeps coming to AA because he’s an alcoholic, and when a sponsee he tried to "fix" dies by suicide, forcing him to face his own self-centredness and fear.

He talks about the slow realisation that his real problem wasn’t booze but selfishness, a constant sense of being different, and living for “someday” instead of today. This speaker meeting is ideal if you’re in AA, sober-curious, or wondering whether you’re “really” an alcoholic. Ted’s mix of courtroom wit, brutal self-honesty and hard-earned AA wisdom might leave you asking yourself: are you still waiting for someday, or are you ready to start with today?