Sober Talk SA - Di -10th Sobriety BirthdaySober Talk SA - Di -10th Sobriety Birthday
Sober Talk SA
Di marks her 10th sobriety birthday by sharing how AA, the steps and a personal higher power shifted her from despair and resistance to peace and connection. The conversation focuses on her spiritual journey, practical AA tools and the changes she reports seeing in relationships, work and daily life.
28:10•23 Jul 2026
Di’s 10-Year Sobriety Story: From Resistance to an Invisible Friend
Episode Overview
- AA membership is based on a desire to stop drinking, with shared experience, strength and hope at its core.
- Initial resistance to the God concept can change over time through the steps and personal experience.
- Simple tools like "Just for Today" and the serenity prayer support day-at-a-time sobriety.
- Working the Fourth and Fifth Steps can shift a person from victimhood to seeing their own part in conflicts.
- Developing a personal idea of a higher power can bring freedom from control, self-pity and fear.
“We don’t live the rest of our lives without alcohol. We just live today without alcohol.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This Sober Talk SA episode centres on Di as she marks her 10th sobriety birthday and looks back on the twists and turns that got her there. The format is simple and intimate: a host opens with the AA preamble, then Di takes the mic and talks frankly about her life, her drinking, and what changed when she walked into her first meeting.
You’ll hear Di describe how the “God word” initially kept her away from AA, shaped by uncomfortable experiences with religion and a strained relationship with her mum, who was an Anglican priest. She’s very clear about the fear that alcohol was the only way she could cope, saying she was convinced she “could not live without alcohol” and had reached “that jumping off point” where life felt unmanageable.
Her story turns when she finally gets to a tiny, freezing AA meeting in a shed, hears people share, and feels both relief and dread: relief that others share her disease, dread at the idea of life without drinking. That’s where simple tools like the “Just for Today” card and the serenity prayer, plus small acts of service like drying dishes, begin to anchor her in the group.
A big chunk of the episode focuses on Di’s spiritual journey, including her resistance to the concept of a higher power and the gradual shift that came through working the steps with a patient sponsor. Step Four and Five are game-changers, helping her move from victimhood to seeing her own part in resentments and harms. Her description of God as an “invisible friend” she can hold onto is both honest and gently funny.
This one’s aimed squarely at people wondering if AA might help, especially anyone uneasy about the spiritual side. Di’s mix of humour, blunt honesty and hard-won serenity might leave you asking yourself: what could "just for today" look like in your own life?
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