vol 307. No Matter What with Sue S.

vol 307. No Matter What with Sue S.

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? This episode of Keep Coming Back brings a raw, funny and honest story from Sue S, who got sober at just 20 and has stayed close to Alcoholics Anonymous for more than two decades.

Sue talks about growing up in a strict religious home, feeling constantly anxious and out of place, then finding instant relief in her first drink at 15: she thought, "why have I not been doing this my entire life?" That rush sprinted her straight into heavy drinking, meth and heroin, homelessness under a bridge and multiple trips to jail – all by the age of 20.

You’ll hear how she found AA in custody, picked up the Big Book she’d once dismissed as "for rich men who drank martinis", and suddenly saw her own thinking on every page. From there, she threw herself into the steps with a counsellor and an early sponsor, learning the unglamorous basics of sobriety – brushing her teeth, showing up to a minimum wage job, and becoming, as she puts it, "a worker among workers". The episode doesn’t sugar-coat long-term recovery.

Sue shares about going to jail in sobriety for domestic violence, completing 52 weeks of classes and 200 hours of community service, and still not picking up a drink. She talks about slogging through college, then law school as a single mum, fighting for her moral character approval, and eventually opening her own law practice. Spiritually, Sue’s moved from a narrow religious God to a flexible higher power: meetings, nature, music – "whatever helps me to stay sober that day".

Her message for anyone struggling is simple and uncompromising: "Just keep coming back and never give up." If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth hanging on, this one asks you to consider what "no matter what" might look like in your own life.