ESH: Susan M - 37 Years

ESH: Susan M - 37 Years

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This recording from Sober Cast centres on Susan M, who shares how alcohol shaped her life from childhood on Long Island to getting sober in New York in 1986, and what 37 years without a drink has looked like since.

You’ll hear her describe growing up in a home where drinking was completely normal, with a father in the brewing business and parents who sent the kids down the street as “mules” for bottles hidden in brown paper bags. She jokes that as a baby she grimaced at her first sip of beer, “licked my lips, smiled, and reached for the can back – and that’s all I’ve done,” but the humour sits alongside some very raw family chaos.

The heart of the story tracks her chasing a “fun, happy buzz” through college, New York City work life, business lunches and commuter trains, escalating from beer to Jack Daniel’s straight from the bottle.

She’s brutally honest about knowing “that part was missing” and not understanding how anyone lived without alcohol: “How do you drive to the grocery store without drinking?” A vivid dream about an old school friend, Chuck, and his later phone call from AA become pivotal moments, eventually leading her into detox, meetings in Manhattan and New Hyde Park, and a first shaky surrender: “God, I can’t do this anymore.

So now what?” From there, Susan talks about sponsorship, learning to trust a higher power she’d once dismissed, and discovering that steady, ordinary sobriety – roof, bed, job – was more than enough. She also reflects on decades of step work, a long marriage with a sober partner, raising a daughter in a non-drinking home, and tiny spiritual tools like a child’s “God box” filled with thank-you notes.

If you’re in recovery or just sober-curious, this story might leave you asking where your own “fun, happy buzz” has really taken you so far.