ESH: Nancy D

ESH: Nancy D

How do individuals turn their lives around after addiction? Nancy D’s share from a 2012 AA speaker meeting in Atlanta offers a raw, honest look at a woman who started drinking at two years old and went on to survive abusive relationships, multiple marriages, near‑fatal drinking, and devastating loss – without losing her sense of humour or her faith in AA.

Nancy talks straight about loving alcohol from the very first burn, blacking out with strangers, and drinking “about a fifth a day” by her early twenties. She doesn’t sugar-coat the wreckage: a father she argued with just before he died, an abortion, a violent marriage where she was held at knifepoint, and a brother who later died by suicide after relapse. “This is a deadly disease,” she says, and she means it.

What keeps this from being pure heartbreak is how clearly she outlines the way out. Nancy explains how the 12 Steps helped her clear guilt and shame, make amends to her father, and move from rage to responsibility. She leans heavily on simple tools: daily journalling (over 9,000 days in a row), meditation books, meetings, hugs instead of handshakes, and what she calls a fierce “attitude of gratitude”.

You’ll also hear how service and AA history became her obsession, from becoming Georgia’s AA archivist to building travelling displays that keep the fellowship’s story alive. She’s candid about messing up in sobriety too – including dating a married man and being wrongly accused of stealing from the archives – and how the Steps helped her walk through shame without picking up a drink.

This share is ideal for anyone feeling buried under guilt, trauma, or long-term chaos and wondering if AA can still work for them. If Nancy can move from “everything I touch turns to a piece of shit” to a life built on service and gratitude, what might be possible for you?