With two years of AA recovery, Mark's story may strongly resonate with newer members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Longer-term sobriety enjoyed by many AA’s I’ve interviewed may seem unattainable or out-of-reach to people with less than a year or two. But the recency of Mark’s experience with alcohol has an immediate and compelling impact. Raised by divorced parents, Mark’s early life before alcohol reflected many of the same fears, self-doubts, and loneliness familiar to all too many of us. By his early and later teens, liquor became the antidote to his problems and opened new vistas to life. From college on, alcohol loomed ever-larger in his life. Complicated by concurrent food and work addictions, his toxic lifestyle morphed into more than a few miserable years. Mark had accomplished brief stints of sobriety, and even attampted AA for a brief time, yet his half-hearted attempts predicated on wanting to please others met with failure. His opportunities to drink and use Adderall were unleashed by owning his own company with no outside accountability to family or friends. Spiraling out-of-control towards rock-bottom, Mark finally made the decision for himself to quit drinking. He crawled into AA in late 2020 and has been there since.

Unlike his first forays in AA, Mark found a solid group of men who embraced and helped him work his way into the “middle of the herd”. Working the steps with a sponsor, going to daily meetings, enlarging his spiritual life, and sponsoring other men have become Mark’s recipe for success in the Program. The model of AA sobriety he follows has worked undeniably and is available to all who seek it.

Please enjoy today’s episode of AA Recovery Interviews with my relatively new friend, but solid AA brother, Mark D.

If you’ve enjoyed my AA Recovery Interviews series and my Big Book podcast, have a listen to Lost Stories of the Big Book, 30 Original Stories Missing from the 3rd and 4th Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. It’s an engaging audiobook I narrated to bring these stories to life for AA members who’ve never seen them. These timeless testimonials were originally cut to make room for newer stories in the 3rd and 4th Editions. But their vitally important messages of hope are as meaningful today as when they were first published. Many listeners will hear these stories for the first time. Lost Stories of the Big Book is available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. It’s also available as a Kindle book and in paperback from Amazon if you’d like to read along with the audio.

Check out my Big Book Podcast, the complete unabridged audio version of the First and Second Editions of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Big Book Podcast is an engaging cover-to-cover, word-for-word reading of all 11 chapters and Personal Stories, many of which were left out of the Third and Fourth Editions. Follow us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Or listen on https://bigbookpodcast.com

[Disclaimer: AA Recovery Interviews podcast strictly adheres to AA’s 12 Traditions and all General Service Office guidelines for safe-guarding anonymity on-line. I pay all podcast production costs and no one receives financial gain from the show. AA Recovery Interviews and my guests do not speak for or represent AA at-large. This podcast is simply my way of giving back to AA that which has been so freely given to me. -Howard L.]