Stacy S. AA FemaleStacy S. AA Female
Recovery Radio Network
Stacy S. shares an honest and often humorous account of her journey from heavy drinking, institutions and strip clubs to sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous. She talks about the twelve steps, sponsorship, family healing and surprising achievements like earning university degrees while sober.
54:22•22 Oct 2026
From Topless Bars to Degrees: Stacy S.’s Alcoholics Anonymous Journey
Episode Overview
- AA meetings, a strong home group and sponsorship are presented as vital supports for long-term sobriety.
- Working all twelve steps is described as the only way she experienced the personality change needed to stay sober.
- Service to other alcoholics and involvement in halfway houses helped turn shame into usefulness and healing.
- The amends process and showing love first are shown as key to repairing damaged family relationships.
- Questioning old ideas and being willing to be wrong opened doors to education and new opportunities in recovery.
“Your worst day is your biggest asset. That's right. We love you not for what we know you are but what we know you can be.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This Recovery Radio Network talk with Stacy S. gives a raw, funny and moving look at one woman’s experience with alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous. Stacy opens by sharing her sobriety date – 25 April 2003 – and her gratitude for reaching 12 years alcohol-free.
Her story covers adoption, early institutionalisation at 12, and a chaotic drinking career that began in middle school and eventually included working in topless bars, multiple arrests, and heavy use of medication: "I was taking pills like five, six times a day… and it's not getting any better." Stacy’s humour lightens the darkest parts, but she never glamorises the pain, reminding newcomers, "When it's happening, it's not funny." The heart of the episode is how AA’s 12 steps, sponsorship and service changed her.
She talks about her lively, literature-focused home group in San Antonio and how AA has turned a once "very small" world into a life full of friends, travel and service. You’ll hear how she went from having "nobody to call" and no mobile phone to a network of people who drive across states just to support her. She describes being "saturated with self-centredness" and finding that only alcohol used to bring relief—until it stopped working.
Guided through the Big Book by tough-love sponsor Annie, and inspired by her AA hero Gail, Stacy talks about experiencing a "personality change sufficient to overcome alcoholism" and awakening to "a loving God that was present the whole time." Stacy also shares powerful amends and family healing, including learning she was never "thrown away" by her biological father and challenging her old idea that she wasn’t "school material"—going on to earn university degrees in sobriety.
If you’re wondering whether AA can work for someone who feels too damaged, too angry or too far gone, Stacy’s story might be the reminder you need to keep coming back and let your "worst day" become your greatest asset. What part of her journey do you relate to most?
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