ESH: Sally R

ESH: Sally R

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This AA speaker meeting-style episode features Sally R from Dell, Arkansas, sharing her experience, strength and hope at the Atlanta Georgia State Convention. Sally talks with humour and brutal honesty about going from a "good Methodist minister’s daughter" to a woman detoxing herself on bourbon in a motel kitchenette.

She traces how prescribed uppers and tranquillisers slowly slid into full-blown alcoholism, saying that these substances "did something for me that I couldn't do for myself" – numbing anxiety, anger and loneliness, but also blocking out "every bit of joy for 11 years." You’ll hear how family dynamics, motherhood and shame wrapped tightly around her drinking and pill use.

She describes collapsing in front of her young son, being confronted by her devastated mother, and the moment her husband finally stopped rescuing her and let her feel the consequences – a turning point that pushed her towards real change. Sally is very clear that recovery wasn’t quick or glamorous. She talks about multiple hospitalisations, failed attempts at AA, abusing antabuse, and the deep depression that followed a heart attack even years into sobriety.

Yet she also shows how simple program tools slowly rebuilt her life: truly taking Step One, using the AA group as a higher power when she felt she had no faith, and letting love in even when she felt utterly unlovable. Her story widens out to family recovery too – children growing up, relationships healing, and her sister later finding AA thousands of miles away.

With plenty of laughs at her own past (including a disastrous hair-rinse moment and a red corduroy “drinking robe”), this talk offers raw honesty, hope, and a reminder that "God can do and will do for us what we can't do for ourselves." If you’ve ever wondered whether change is still possible after years of chaos, Sally’s story might be the nudge you need.