Topic: I Saw - I Felt - I Believed

Topic: I Saw - I Felt - I Believed

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This AA speaker-style session with Gordon R from Aberdeen, Scotland, gives a raw, honest look at one man’s path from teenage blackout drinking to a life shaped by Alcoholics Anonymous and a power greater than himself. Recorded at the Magical Mystery Tour Zoom meeting in February 2023, the talk sticks to classic AA format: one person sharing what it was like, what happened, and what it’s like today.

There’s no chit‑chat or panel debate here, just a straightforward speaker meeting aimed at people in recovery, AA members, and anyone curious about how the AA programme is actually lived. Gordon talks about growing up feeling "less than, awkward and inadequate" despite loving parents, and describes an early sense of "a hole in my soul, an internal spiritual malady" long before he drank.

He walks through his first bottle of vodka at 15, early blackouts, being dismissed by a GP when he said at 17, "I think I'm an alcoholic," and the years of weekend bingeing that followed.

The turning point comes with a late‑night drink that "didn't work" and a desperate prayer: "I saw and I felt and I believed." Gordon explains how that moment led him to his first AA meeting the very next day, where he finally "found my tribe" and heard alcohol described as both a physical allergy and a mental obsession.

From there, he talks honestly about spending four years in the rooms without doing the steps, the return of the mental obsession, and the relief of finally taking inventory, making amends and embracing daily spiritual practice. Along the way he shares about grief, Zoom meetings during lockdown, early‑morning meditation, and family relationships that have been repaired.

If you’re drawn to real AA stories, big book language, and a mix of humour, honesty and hope, this one might leave you asking: what could change if you "do the right things" too?