Stephan B. AA MaleStephan B. AA Male
Recovery Radio Network
Stephan B recounts his journey from teenage blackout drinking and repeated car crashes to long-term sobriety in AA. He talks through his experience of the Twelve Steps, sponsorship, and making amends to his family, highlighting how recovery reshaped his relationships and sense of purpose.
52:36•29 Sept 2026
From Blackouts to Healing: Stephan B on AA, Family, and Finding Hope
Episode Overview
- Alcohol can escalate quickly from social drinking to blackout behaviour and serious harm, even without a dramatic initial motive.
- Reading the AA Big Book and hearing honest speakers can create a sense of recognition and offer genuine hope for change.
- Writing and sharing resentments, fears, and secrets with a sponsor helps reduce their power and reveals personal blind spots.
- A flexible, personally meaningful idea of a higher power can support long-term sobriety and emotional stability.
- Consistent amends and contact with family over many years can significantly soften past harm and restore trust.
“Alcoholics Anonymous had given my mom her son back for 30 years.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? Here, Stephan B – "My name's Stephen. I'm an alcoholic" – shares how Alcoholics Anonymous completely changed the course of his life, from blackout drinking and car wrecks to decades of sobriety and family repair. You'll hear about his small-town Louisiana upbringing, sports-filled childhood, and the seemingly innocent six-pack in a brand new Ford Bronco that rapidly turned into seven accidents before the age of twenty.
Stephan talks bluntly about being "almost like a terrorist" in his parents' lives and the emotional aftermath of crashing two vehicles in a single day. The episode then shifts to his turning point in 1987: entering treatment to save a job, being handed the AA Big Book, and finding himself stunned by how closely the early chapters described his drinking.
A weekend of detox, reading, and hearing a brutally honest AA speaker gave him something he hadn't felt in years – "a little hope, like, maybe this could work for me." He states that he has never had another drink since.
Stephan walks through his experience of the Twelve Steps in practical, down-to-earth terms: identifying 154 resentments, decoding his own fear and dishonesty, sharing eight long-held secrets with his sponsor, and using a personal description of a higher power as "loving, kind, available, reliable" to steady his mind. He explains how resentments, the "evil and corroding thread" of fear, and his blind spots around health and parenting still show up, and how sponsorship helps him keep perspective.
For anyone curious about how AA can rebuild family relationships, his stories of making amends to his parents and grandmother are especially moving, including being able to say that AA "had given my mom her son back for 30 years." The tone is warm, funny in places, and deeply honest, leaving you to wonder: what kind of life might be possible if you gave recovery everything you've got?
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