Workshop: Forgiveness NSFWWorkshop: Forgiveness NSFW
Sober Cast: An (unofficial) Alcoholics Anonymous Podcast AA
AA member Ed M leads a workshop on forgiveness, sharing painful personal experiences with violence, loss and resentment, and how the AA steps reshaped his view of God and other people. The talk focuses on forgiveness as a practical path to freedom in sobriety rather than a purely comforting idea.
1:01:01•4 May 2026
Forgiveness, Resentment and Letting Go: Ed M’s Hard-Hitting AA Workshop
Episode Overview
- Resentment is described as a primary offender in sobriety, giving a false sense of power while quietly destroying peace of mind.
- Forgiveness is framed as an action that frees the person doing the forgiving, rather than excusing harmful behaviour.
- Ed explains that professing a faith you have not yet experienced can be dangerous, stressing honesty about one’s actual spiritual condition.
- Stories of forgiving those involved in his father’s murder show how step 8 and 9 can focus on healing the harm, not centring the offender or the victim identity.
- Self-forgiveness is linked to treating oneself with the same care and respect shown to others, instead of continuing lifelong self-abuse.
“"Forgiveness isn’t about serving self. It’s about healing. It’s about moving on."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This Forgiveness workshop with long-time AA member Ed M offers one raw answer after another. Recorded as an AA speaker workshop, this talk is aimed at people in recovery who are wrestling with resentment, grief, anger and the big spiritual questions that often surface once the drink is gone.
Ed’s style is straight-talking, funny in places, and very direct about painful material – hence the NSFW warning and his early reminder that, "It is impossible to discuss forgiveness without discussing the things that need forgiving." You’ll hear Ed trace his story from feeling like "white trash" and utterly disconnected as a child, through violent drinking days, to decades of sobriety. Along the way he shares the moment alcohol first gave him "peace...
chemically", his early resistance to the "three-letter word" God, and how AA old-timers helped him see that others had felt the same inner emptiness. The heart of the workshop centres on forgiveness as a practical, spiritual action rather than a polite idea. Ed talks about forgiving those involved in his father’s murder, even visiting one of the men in prison and saying, "God loves you, and I love you...
and I forgive you." He’s clear that this didn’t excuse what happened; it freed him from living as "the son of a murder victim". He also tackles tough topics like abuse, ex-partners, self-hatred and resentments that linger long after someone has died, asking bluntly: are you carrying the message, or the mess?
For anyone stuck in anger and wondering why sobriety doesn’t yet feel peaceful, this workshop offers AA-based experience on how forgiveness, step work and a new view of God can start to shift that inner weight. If you’ve ever thought "I can forgive, but I can’t forget", could this be the next message you need to hear?
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