Recovery in the Rockies XVI

Recovery in the Rockies XVI

▶️ Play 🗣️ Ian Y. ⏱️ 1h 7m 📅 24 Sep 2005
hi everybody my name's in an attic from London England
thank you thank you
I had a really nice welcome actually you guys are his spittle and them
there is there's a sense of his politic hospitality that I get each time we come to the states is my third time and
and you guys look awfully really well can you hear me
nine
on the subject is speaking English as it was me and and so like say on Wednesday and that this guy said those men those caramel and then this guy does you know I understand that this crack addicts in Utah but I never knew that be drug addicts from Europe in London
my comment was well you know the real crack in London we got cracking apps and I'm sure that button you taught us the moment stay in it you know it's my credit
other areas is forty year
M. before we start
it's really important that we recognize the paper to put this convention together and I'd like you to join me in in uploading all of the convention committee for than a splendid job this weekend thank you
am I I have a personal note and I hope you'll bear with me for
my best friend is getting married tonight well he's already married with seven hours ahead his name is down now and I and I just like to
side I was invited here before I was invited to his wedding but I'm gonna give him a copy of the CD as a wedding present they'll be ready gradual full size
second is that join me with that congratulations to Darren and Gabby please
thank you thank you best friends is so important to recover you know the people I did ninety meetings in ninety days with this still my best friends today those are still around so if you're doing ninety nineteen is another date with you doing that
they make enemies stay friendly with those people because because they're yet they're my best friends I grew up in a
well I'm here to tell you I'm here to tell you that is my experience that you can stop smoking crack and stay stopped that's my experience and that's what I'm going to talk about tonight is my experience I can start your inherent and stay stopped and I can still injecting cocaine and spaced out I can stop drinking and I can stay stopped and I don't take prescription drugs
I thank smoke Ganja
then do any of that anymore and is my experience that is possible to stop and stay stopped and if I can get a message across those newcomers tonight that's what I want to give you a
I don't know it's a start button which is that of a nervous all day and and everyone's been really wanting me off about it
and I and I had some food and and it looks so calm down and I was just outside and these boys from Lake Tahoe Calif writing to me again
but I think they have a similar experience the the they've stopped smoking crack in that state stopped
and that's that's a result
the M.
I'm thirty three years old I was born the ninth of November nineteen seventy one
about teatime
it was a cold and windy day
and that and I didn't have my first drink tonight I think I was nine
and that it was a Halloween party and on the first the first time I had a drink and get drunk but how to drink outside with a cigarette I know some of us know good woman
and the
if I say anything that you guys don't understand feel free to have a career in the workshop where I said if you have anything to say put your hand in college the mark front we'll do that one
but if you don't want to come so much I feel free to heckle
M.
so no it is isn't embraced with ago and and I was very proud of myself at age nine and
I mean I guess there's a mixture of the combination between between the alcohol in the in the cigarette and the go but I felt fantastic
you know I I
I didn't have a lot of
stocks got off me but you know I was the first guy in my class to case a gun and smoke a cigarette and have a drink and the miracle was that I actually managed to stay sober from the age of nine three to the age of eleven
I'm quite proud of that many recently managed to pay that
M. S. the age eleven I I for the first time ago drunk with them
is that one of my family's PA is in my favor on to you is there anything she was the Q. one
Anna Anna and I thought I'd get drunk with her and
I did get drunk with her until I until I throw pulled over
I had my mom and her tidying up often I felt such shame I felt certain barrister Hey I was trying to show off to my favor on tree and and I just I humiliated myself
but I never learned my lesson
I am this is at age eleven you got to secondary school and
yeah I'm my mind behavior it was
was not pleasant I was a bully and I used to them I used to tease all the kids and as you go up PGA taste the kids in the in the in the line
a favorite trick your mind would be to take the young kids and throw him through the street shop windows and yeah I like a ram raid on did you do that I'm going to drive a car into a shop window instead of the goods well I just threw the new car the young guys through the window and stole the sweets
and I'm not a lucrative business in in luncheon vouchers and then if you do that over here but and then you get given these these vouchers to buy you lunch and I used to buy and sell them and then go down to the to the pop to the bomb and I'd spend on my earnings on the fruit machine the slot machines and and points at lunchtime
and I swiftly develops and an interest in in solvents things like glue and toothpicks that earned
anything that I could pick out really easily
nice one date
I did listen system ahead
and
but what was amazing to see I thought the school was a babysitting service I thought it was a place that I got as a kid so that my parents can buy from a well I have a job and and you know I get looked after so I just went there with his attitude of Hey let's have a lofty Scotus enjoy sales and I used to take pride in making the economics teachers cry and them US I just turned my behavior just got worse and worse and I I just I just had the best time you know they they say that school is not the best the easy life that's my experience and skill is great for them than a **** thing but it was great fun
I'm gonna really try to resist to use for fun is if there are any children
mmhm
you're welcome
M.
what happened that that happened to me was I was I was thrown out of school at the age of sixteen they can prove it by was accused of burning down the fifth phone block
but I was quite clever addicts and they had no evidence and
the official reason why I was expelled was because I had an attendance physical education in three years and that was quite proud of that statistic
my parents went to proud of that statistic or fact I was expelled and they tell me to get a job only house leave behind
and you know what well excuse donate I will strike down I said I don't want to live here anyway
can handle my mom she
she had traditional values
and I couldn't handle my dad
here is a rather opinionated justifiably so if your father looking after his son but as a son I just wanted to say screw you so I did I will tell and at the age of sixteen in the first place I moved into was was a cattle shed in a field of metals with no windows no electricity no nothing no water had a bonfire and we had a party every night
in a
but these days a progress from any taking Sullivan's an unpleasant and smoking
would you call it marijuana
but I was I I was exploring and I stay in the delights of psychedelics and famines
and
and as of that day I was a homeless statistic for the next thirteen years
M. I. start of Raylan
things never quite gotten that much better for me
there's two things that happened at this point two things the first thing we ask our clients to map ahead another punk music and at the time and I had a rainbow my he can
and that was very dashing
Ivan Ivan out outstanding memory of walking down the High Street drooling just drooling on
if on down is but it sure is an alcohol and gluten
and and that's something that they're not
the it is not a pretty picture and I remember it quite vividly and
when people talk about anonymity
if yeah I I've never I've since returned to town and I live in that town again
and and I have not I have no qualms about mine and emitting everyone in that town so me walking down the High Street Truman
instead I worked on the High Street and I carry myself with dignity and pride and I can I can tell anyone I'm an addict because they remember I was like when I was using and today they see me as as a responsible member of society
and the fact that I've broken my anonymity no other level to press radio television film but under that level at the level of town center
I have I have managed to twelve step
relatives of people that know my family and I'm not put people into these rooms as a result of being able to say I was that junkie and I'm not anymore
I'm not gonna talk about your anonymity to be honest it really is not important to me
but I've night no problem about mine I'm in anonymity I'm sorry
I was up yeah I was a punk but well I came to realize that was the tungsten alloy drugs
but ravers did more
ravers did more drugs than anyone I knew
and I wanted to become a writer and I did and it was struck quite straightforward I progressed from scoring empty houses and couches and I don't I don't I don't I I got to the art of breaking into large buildings warehouses factories police stations fire stations anything that was abandoned I've done quite a few places that the there are fairly well known in the London circuit outbreak in on a Saturday afternoon and by Sunday night would have six thousand guests over
it was terrific
and them and I was actually part of the over and under Tory this sound system in the U. K. people would have had it over here again I
he program the clover
we were we were the baddest most I'm not gonna kiss state **** you we don't give a **** bunch of
Riva's gun and because on the central sort of tame
we became that we were the center of the drugs industry in the U. K. so these phones will be manufacturing drugs and they bring them out to us and we will be the getting fix them if they have got this new drug you'll gonna try it if it works is like a program of instruction if it works everyone's going to see us and they're going to buy these drugs
so I've actually had the privilege of of testing a number of different psychedelics Anna mention it when I'd be interested to see if anyone over here has any idea of any of them is anyone ever heard of D. O. U. T. do it
there is a derivative of the L. M. and one of the
D. O. M. comes from STP anyone try that one okay
D. STP comes from DMC yeah we know that one
okay so this is stuff we were doing to see baby in cats I mean I was involved in the IT came in experiments in the U. K.
and every now and again there be some cocaine from him as a present
anyone tried that
I saw you know thought that was my life I I was throwing pies taking drugs selling drugs moving drugs promoting drugs and them and it was fantastic if sex and drugs and more sex and more trucks and a new house to live in every week and six thousand guests on a regular basis and in the summer we go out to the fields in the countryside we have massive festivals you know
try to see a U. K. twelve the most outstanding memory in my life was made a first nineteen ninety two when we had twenty thousand guests over in a failed
it was awesome
we have a full times larger than the nearest village
and then we took to sell a couple of weeks later we had thirty six thousand people and we're on the cover of overly all the magazines and newspapers and it was the largest free festival to this day in the U. K. and and I knew I was going to get nicked
and it was my it is my duty and see if we get it I've been arrested and mixes are getting arrested you know
I've been arrested at about about thirty five times by this point and if you know it I had about thirty three different names
and I made the foolish decision of of of when I came off this this festival I was driving the rig we we had I think we had eighteen K. at that time which is slightly larger than this M. it's enough to care for eighteen hundred people and
I knew that they were going to arrest me and they they didn't at the time I I was I was a crusty I had dreadlocks down to my house
and
and based for a number of weeks actually helped by the number we scared because we have this site in Wales and with dams on the river and made a swimming pool and it was like he was actually went swimming in a wash
luxuries
M.
I was arrested and I I knew I was going to get I was gonna sentence because it was old and married at this time is all about you know these bloody rave is coming it destroying our countryside and
we we were not the in thing to rinsing
be slandered by the tabloids and them and that's the charge I had was a conspiracy to breach the peace
which is which is which is a heavy duty charge at the time and it was looking up to sixteen is currently taking a site that is on par with terrorism and **** like this
and I don't matter you know I made of I can do how many decisions although I don't regret
that's cool mmhm yeah that's one thing that I'm most scared of
then waking up without drugs and and and that would have been waking up in prison and I salute people the the direction I will can consider prisons and reach out to those guys my my experience is I I've never been to prison I've been arrested and spent nights in cells all over the place but I I've never been to pets do that time and so I left the country and I don't know if if any of you will identify with this but when you're an Englishman in you you need to go into a rapid exile there's really only one logical destination
as Amsterdam
I'm not gonna tell you the stories of I'm so I'm going there next weekend and I'm going to send a lot of that the term
yeah I'm so that is a fantastic place it said a slight geographically located in such a place that it just because the market maturity am I on the first people I met out there what what people that lights cornering the market
and and you know my experience has been that when I was using all these drugs at these pies the I fell on top of the world I felt fantastic I felt confident I felt powerful I fell in Pune I felt I just felt terrific and and you know I mean I couldn't bed not gonna without drugs I didn't have any experience of going out without drugs but I couldn't bear the thought of not going without drugs because I so love to feed in a bid on drugs into and to arrive in Amsterdam or something that these people that like to what I have and and they wanted my my energy and I and I make connections pretty fast I had a lucrative
import export business that runs through through Czechoslovakia Australia Austria Germany Holland Belgium France Spain and you know touching the cuts in North Africa and I need to get into detail but I used to drive up and down to just to point out I never drive my vehicle I used to steal the vehicles along the way and what is pretty worth putting out I never I never mind I stole the diesel to drive myself around that we used to siphon from vehicles and breaking stories the we had the special key thing for us to to help us route this case and we drive into a petrol station a gas station and on this key would just open up into the into the looks of it over the gasoline so we would we would take hundreds and hundreds of late is we have a fleet of you know between six and twelve vehicles to carry on a sound system which was a cover
and and we probably put start putting on the these legal rights across Europe and I still got nickel technicals and and that we were the center of the trucks market in the UK and Europe and drugs came through us and and we distribute them when we didn't
we had a great time
we never had a time without drugs and random I'm Byron and so sidelines and and
it is pretty easy to get hooked up with when you're in the middle of it and and at some point when you when you've got access to that amount of money in the amount of drugs and that amount of contacts and you're shifting K. as a kite anyway
you must move you must really delighted cut
and then there came a point where
where can I came in and and heroin became far more interesting to me than the psychedelics I was fed up with losing control and I wanted to be in control the only
okay can you make me feel fantastic and this might make me feel better
and some people talk about being paranoid on kite can crack and stuff and that's not my experience
when you do enough air in your account to share
well that is worth pointing out that people say that paranoid that the police were chasing them my my ex is my experience was the place where he went chasing me
and I I don't and I I know I got arrested a number of times crossing borders and you know is it was fairly I I I know exactly the route I would take when I went from through the Belgian border into the French border I knew exactly which point they're going to pick me up and I was fully prepared to be strip searched an eyed monster the art of creative fictionalizing I could bullshit my way through through
being strip searched them time and time again I I go through and and
I never looked at my house
this is quite good when you don't buy that often
I am but you know this house killing myself and I knew I I started messing around with needles because they're exciting
injecting cocaine anyone ever done not
what's the rush man
Jackson got kind
that for me what nothing else could have done for me before
but of course you have to balance that with the appropriate amount of heaven
and and I only had a problem with him and I don't have a problem injecting cocaine I love K. kind but so they had us feeling sick in the morning
and then
I would walk around with ten grams of smack in the Spokane ten grams of coconut milk and I just use I used anywhere and had not shine
and through our guide to the carribean to clean up of this this smart cabin
worth pointing out I was a DJ so going to the caravan was a good move because I take my records with me and I done illegal in legal living you know
so I went there on a
the clock to achieve it and I sure can then on that someone had cracked so that's a good idea
and and off we went I had them on smoking crack with the guns with the rest isn't down in the guys and I was I was the white boy you just
just didn't care
I thought that was really cool and then we put a lot of pies and someone will overload of eighties and we made a lot of money and **** around
how about hearing from after the season and not a crack habit to supplement my hair and have it which I picked up immediately which went really nicely with my needle fixation so I count on injecting cocaine
because it made me feel wonderful
I was working with a crew there was eleven of us SO there's twelve of us and all the other eleven got picked up their own arrested and some of them are still in sight to this day and I knew that that my time is coming and that is my birthday and I had three thousand guests I was in my party and I was the headline and I never showed up because I knew that I was gonna get picked up that night was smuggled into Spain and from spinal smuggle back to England and this was early nineteen ninety nine
and I came back to England with the shoes have it
and I had no connections I had no money I didn't know who anyone anymore hadn't been in the country for six years and I I was really sick
as I age twenty six and I was dying physically my body was teria in on out if you have a nice isn't really enjoyed him
M.
the the Montana and I've done something he's had them but
if if if if you're planning on going back out there this is this is my word of warning when you have an overdose you don't know you're about to have an overdose you can't plan anything I'll just put everything away nicely so that when they find out if you just go over you don't know you're about to go out of a
and you have a white couple you dine
and been blessed with with waking up
Humm and I was back in the UK and and when I was I was very ill and
I start looking for some help
and I didn't know what help I wanted
I didn't really want to give up injecting cocaine
I didn't really want to give up smoking crack I thought they didn't really want to give up their anything I just wanted some help
maybe some money
a place to live would be nice
I found myself will inundate in ten bags and I guess that's a twenty unit go to twenty finished with the referencing and Jane petty crime
my only source of shopping was a twenty four hour petrol station Aken frequent daylight hours anymore
M.
as I told you about this ideology I went to the doctor I said look I need some help can you give me some denials and morphine Olson smacked
and the doctor sent me to the nurse and she was really sympathetic she is very kind and she gave me clean syringes
there is really helpful
and she really cared but she can do a thing and I think I think she wrote me a few the F. one when I prescriptions which is not hi let those cutting a Dodger cuttings journalists of
and of course this wasn't addressing my cocaine and crack addiction all money to frustration myopia have it for that matter but they you know they felt like they were helping me and that
you know he gave me gave me more money to spend on crack basically so when they referred me to the methadone clinic is it was great you know I just gave me more money than I was robin and stayed in to spend on on Crockett there's no solution whatsoever the methadone clinic I attended stabilize me after three weeks of fifty milligrams of methadone and then told me they were gonna take half a milligram a week for the next year
I didn't think that was a suitable solution
Simon went back on the smart users easier softer option and
when I was running around and I was getting a massage one point I went on a run to India and for the cloud came in and out of tasting domicile I went to the Dalai Lama and it wasn't there so I don't
I'm
I came back and
and and
I have this image of myself and there's actually a photo I think I showed it to Kelly when when she was over the
I'm sitting there in this in this this room I'm in and I'm naked on fixing cocaine
on on on on on on broken and I know that I can't go on I know that I'm dying and I know I've got a letter in my thighs right the evening I've got in my bed in the drawer next to my bed an initial letter that says something along the lines of difficult
fox
my life is is is is bollocks I don't know which way to turn on dying
how do I get out of this and this is the first time the
the goal ever came into my life dot every dress code
as gold
and
when people talk about what bottom it's not about how much or how little I love still hat it's not about material stuff that I lost because I never had anything
there is always one that time is always easy come easy go
but it was at this point well emotionally I was so alone that I offer help
M. way spiritually I don't have a clue in a jar it was all about me he always had been about me the women in my life it always been
doormats
the people that come into my power to help me at whatever
I just got to this point where
well I can go on
there was this girl
this was a gal
and she come into my house he was buying a dope backs of wheat
and then we we want to purchase cannabis cannabis cultivation company quite proud of that we had this beautiful poem it's going
so I was getting these golf bags full of wheat and this guy was going to miss me and
she saw the methadone bottles are saving on the side
and she said you know this is I didn't realize you're you're into smart but I can help you
and I feel fantastic
I need some **** help
especially for media
and
and and she told me the the the the there is a group of people that this had stopped taking drugs it had been using drugs the way I've been using them and although she doesn't attend these meetings anymore that I might quite like them
there is quite a good prospects in
is like someone who showed me a track marks
who was coming out to my house issues clearly yeah one of my kind of people
fifty
nice people to come out to my house I kind of identified a
and and she was telling me there's a solution
and then
the day that I wrote the letter to god would have been very early December two thousand
on Christmas Eve buy a chocolate bar on a packet of crisps and said the ten bags are not about thirty to thirty gram
analysts sick on Christmas day I was homeless and on Boxing Day went to stay with my sister
and I tell my sister can I just stay for a few days and
I just need someone to chill out for a few days she says you look terribly ill
she said it could have been the flute
if
I love my sister to bits in my sister's been with me since that day and and on that day she sat there she nursed me through the last details that I have with it
the last drink I had was with my sister's January the ninth two thousand one and we had to lay is a vodka and I drink too one and three quarters of it
and I was clocking in on us in such a physical withdrawal from the Harry and I managed to crash out for an hour and a half before I woke up talking again over over sixteen days I managed to sleep for ten hours or something
and I'm Anthony and I and then I went
I said to my dad the others back and I was ready for
in a conscious move in for a couple of weeks I'll get a job
because you know I'm good for jobs you know I've never been employed in my life that I'm standing again to my dad yeah yeah I'd just look off me feed me for a few weeks okay job
and them
I wonder what my dad said none
but my dad did met a guy who who had who had twelve step recovery
and my dad sent me to him
and I went into a treatment center
and then I had one pair of shoes with a hold of him
I was gray I I wait what I used to say I weigh forty percent less than I do today that's not true because I'm losing so much weight rapidly
I have always put about thirty percent less than I am now so I would have been about a hundred pound hundred pounds pounds
am I I couldn't bend my my elbows my knees my ankles
I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs and I had a bit
I was quite a vision VA
and
and then I heard something for the first time
that for the past three years I've been trying to find and this is the first time I heard it
I'm gonna say it's you you're going to think but not so obvious but at the time it completely eluded me but I'm going to share with you in a minute because I heard at this point but it just it is just like so over this one I think that I and you're going to ask you some of the same question why nothing gets done but well I heard that day that I never heard before during the three years I was trying to quit using smart with the most effective method to stop using other people to western jet came in for a week that was good
the the the with the one thing I heard
on the phone when I arrived at the stream is Anna the the I could never fool of myself but now it just seems so obvious was that if you want to stop using drugs
you have to stop using drugs
it just seems so obvious to us now
but I'd never quite current that wonderful I've never owned I don't know what to do with what we have to stop using old drugs even the gun it was telling me to get this fellowship thing was still scoring weight off me getting drunk with me I thought it was a good solution to this but no they told me I had to stay for motorbikes
and they say is a gift to desperation and to be honest when you're five miles from the nearest pub and you can't walk up a flight of stairs Bender any relations you angle much chance of scoring anyway
and I resigned myself to doing what I was told
I resigned myself to them I was told no I'm in any case I'm a free live a I do whatever I want to go with any board I go to any country not commit any crime I'm not going to list that I'm not gonna share now but suddenly I made it I'm I'm a made a choice that I was gonna and term that we use in these rooms is always going to surrender
and I surrendered
and I sat there in a in a and I sat in treatment and and I go on with what they were saying and I was quite attracted to to what was going on he was a trunk of his
what's the word there's a group of people that did the same **** that I did not use the same so drugs I did that the same kind of mild stores I did where one of the signs of drug culture stuff talking about not using drugs and hanging out together I thought this is perfect I can hang out with people who like the same stuff is all day and just talk about not using drugs room what a great life that's that's grace us a solution for me
hello if I wanna go home without start going to a different finish it because we're in the middle of nowhere and I went to this finish it when they said we we live to use and used to live in that makes sense to me in a case stemming
and I did I did twelve weeks in primary that and then I was moved into London for stick intricate
okay so
and here's what was going on for me I'm working the steps
and I've got to go for any treatment
which is a really good idea if you don't want to get emotionally from the counselors
and
and one weekend
when we can I will gain from my step right in and I'm on I'm on step nine another head of everyone else and thinking I can do this week yeah I can do this all at once and get it will arrive within a week you'll never forget fantastic
and and and and and what happens is a one time
to my parents to get some time and I found a crack pipe and within a minute and a half that's great how the resin respected
there's no choice
there wasn't much shallow shoreline there wasn't a
I'm not meant to do that stuff there's a crack pipe scrape out of resins market that's what I do
yeah I remember when I had loads a crack in it I used to sell
okay and I got from one house to the next house I will shop every house I go to
and when I run out a joke but hello all the houses and just walk straight in the door and scrape out the pipes there was no civil servant shivering around about it
I'd seldom that crack smoking their pipes and then come back just to scrape the pipes are
and here was a found a crack pipe
this makes it
within hours I was drinking non alcoholic beer
and it wasn't too long after that and scored half a grammar rock
ten pounds worth
she's about sixty per gram of heroin in the spoon hi my arm and out over the next
that was months to sixteen two thousand one that also happens to be the day of cocaine anonymous U. K. convention nine
and simultaneously the not the day before on the Thursday attended my first see a meeting
and
they tell me it was a cocaine convention down on
and
I didn't have the courage to bunker trying to get to this convention I didn't have the stamina to think that I was gonna make it and I didn't want to go there not ninety one despite the fact that
I'm gonna name a season I'm from Miami offered to give me a bad if I just call that
and
and that not of interest
and looking back
looking back it is it's kind of like
so now I am on step nine on bulking
I'm poking because I'm not
it's hardly willing to make all of these men's
because really I hadn't humbly Oscar to remove my shortcomings
because I hadn't actually become entirely ready to have them removed because I hadn't been finished and thorough and in the state for read it out in step five because I hadn't actually made a decision a toll in step three based on the fact that I didn't believe that that you were gonna restore me to sign a
because why don't fail to grasp was step one
the reason why I had no choice when I picked up the truck but was because I didn't have a clue about step one when it talks about being powerless over cocaine and another Monday between substances the palace that is referring to as I understand it today's choice
I didn't have the choice not to use that that part when I found
in a more broader sense how is literally can be translated to Douglas
because it explains to me in step two that a power greater than myself could restore me to destiny and god gives me a pound but I didn't have that power therefore I had no choice when I found that part this makes it
and that became the foundation of my step one and I am a nuisance that day and and and and what happened was
I went back to the C. Amy and I found heaven was just back from a convention
I don't you know I genuinely hope that you guys carry the energy that you pick up this weekend back to your fellowships because I got high of the folk that were coming back from that weekend they carried a message of hope to me that I had not experienced anywhere else before
they loved me unconditionally
they can tolerate my behavior despite the fact that I didn't really know how to behave in in civilized society they bankers meets keep coming back they explained to me when it was appropriate to shaving it was appropriate to change on the way when it is appropriate to change my clothes
they reminded me of the cardinal
they took me out for coffee in the booking meals
some of them gave me laughs to meetings they didn't take me just anywhere and any tickets in meetings
Hey let's get to the Scotland Dr they encourage me to go to meetings and they carried me to meetings someone asked me earlier about carrying the addicts in on on he was talking about is someone that's about as far as people carried me they encouraged me to get a meeting so if you wanna carrying out it carried into me and that's what people did for me and
take an enormous loves me like no other fellowship will and whether it was in the room is a fellowship of recovery or any of the other fellowships I lived in I lived in tribes in comings and cruise and mass his policies
my sponsors a see a fundamentalist and all my sponsors come from cocaine anonymous and I carry messages I've learned and and cocaine anonymous but a ten a ten dollar fellowships and if there's no I'm a see a meeting in in in in on the day that I want to go to a meeting on opening you want
and don't be scared to open a meeting last September a year ago myself and talk with Tom started me in in the town there's two of us in a big book got showed up for the first three weeks and and I visit it recently a couple weeks ago a year later and those over twenty eight people in a in a in
don't be scared to open a meeting addicts will come
sorry we got
step two
I came to believe that progress to myself who was doing this on a what I and what is P. from C. either just loving me and I'm bracing man they charging me and they give me confidence in
and on any daily basis when I wanted to use I picked up the phone I phone them and they restore me to Sunday they were a power greater myself when I didn't have anything else to explain what was going on and and that is in simplest forms what was going on for me these people reaching out to me on a daily basis and they were they were encouraging me to stay clean stay sober and when it feels like **** there's no reason to use it
just turn up to me and what will come after you and that was my basic conception of step to
and and I'm grateful for that so that when I can just add three animated decisions to my one of my favorites you can go to sounds that her
the only reason house
M.
it was it wasn't that difficult for me to make that jump from them being a high pound will power greater myself to a god of my understanding because all these old people talking about go to their own understanding my sponsor Lebanese on gold well it worked but he said at some point I have on my own
it's the ABC's best there is a power line that's not human
and
how I found my own goddess
and then made a decision
an instant freeze like a step above that more more about more more about as I go along M.
the I. us that much of a project
by year of Saigon and I don't have a clue how I was going to do this I've never been had any experience doing the stuff and I didn't know how to see the I see the end result of that was going to be six months away what I have to do to get there and what I do is I've got myself a task list and wake up in the morning I don't know what how to do that day
and I do everything I have to do that day and I go to sleep in the night and I let go take care of the results
I don't wake up the next day and I forget about the work of the just innocent go on with the day's work stuff because god was taking care of what I did yesterday good is gonna take care of whatever I did today I just had to do the work
and I thought that's what I have to do
I had to frequently remind Michael also myself did god want me to succeed and she did
in a and that's how I carry myself you said three in song going step for me
I take must must posses three step for the way I was taken to St full
you turn up to ten o'clock in the morning and you write in a day
and if you skip a step full and a lot of people are really scared to stay full is really no need to be scheduled that for you what what you will what I needed was was just
having made a decision to tell my what I'm on offense to care of god at the beginning of the day the faith actually was gonna be a cafeteria staff for
you are already in a day that it was six columns
we went down no across Louisiana my
M.
I say I really sympathize with people having taken across the most ready to head in
just write a list I'm angry and resentful
you know it works if you don't know how it works hurry up and get a
if you want to hurry up the phones come to see me on how to if in a day
M.
step five it must at five to my sponsor the end of the day and then instead sixties he asked me if I was entirely willing to have god remove all these defects of character and and I have to say I wasn't
I was not entirely willing to let go take away one of my oldest my dishonesty
I know I
being dishonest was a way of life and it would be a way that survive for a long time and and I was scared to let go of dishonesty
I was quite happy to go to take a lot of other **** why
I thought of one animal god kind of sounds good to me
and
I must want to tell me to go and sit with it and see how you get in on and come back to me in two weeks time
for you know forty eight hours later I was on the phone and help me I don't want this anymore
any any any tell me to sit down put the book on the shelf
and said a step seven press I'm trying to get in contact with the got the I understood
and see how it could work for me
November hotel lights came on in my eyes and I have the privilege of sending people off to do the steps six and seven state and on one of the miracles he seeing someone at the end of this step five coming back to a couple of hours later with the lights on having done the six and seven ready to DeStefano if you ain't gonna get into it what the steps from the book and see that miracle I have a matter of hours the lights come on is for is truly beautiful experience
this out there's more private school version of step seven and let's talk about how many on Scott's removal my shortcomings
bike going to meetings on a regular basis
all right counterbalance or my character defects let me explain I'm selfish self centered at this honest self seeking fearful anxious locker patients lack of tolerance lack of understanding not forgiving you know it does mark the full and by going to meetings I have to actively at the complete opposite
I have to be patient around you come is intolerant of the men and show empathy you know I have to ask so firstly I selflessly
and I have to be giving of myself with my timing with with with my manager
I have to behave in a manner that is respectful towards others and I think
these old new emotions on new ways to hide from me
and these are the sorts holes are picked up in in this in this program he's a hard change the way that I behave yes it's our country and the tell you about how it's changed how you think that way will change how you feel and that way you will behave differently
that doesn't really work for me M. what I have to do is have to change the way a bloody behave and as a result of changing the way I behave actually feel more comfortable comfortable about the way that I behave in the things I do the things I got to and as a result I feel better and and and my hope
personality changes and evolves and I've become well
person I am today
his work in progress
L. instead Hey I made a list and came from a state for not doing a few more because an attorney down in a damaged on the best I could
and he stepped on a if you just get a state full of this ninety three is going to step four we have every reason to be scared us that nine
St nine is a very scary price this and that but it's also the most freeing is the most healing process I've done
is that going through the motions of on demand it is one of the most beautiful experiences I'm **** **** myself walking out the door
knocking on the door and
yeah and you know most of the time I don't know who the hell you are because if it was all it was all in my own head anyway most people don't know you I don't know man most people didn't realize that I had done them home it was all my own stuff that was in my own head anyway
so I might in my experience it's been eighty percent of the amends are made of turned out favorable and there have been some you know I've come out of it and and and and feel felt
I haven't had the clothes and I wanted
but you know what it's his hating process and in in the term turtles upcoming Amanda as a result of things that six and seven my experience was I became a man when I was doing my step nine when I was actually got up and I was confronting my fears and I was going through and I'm praying among the finds most poems adult Jeez dude but that was that was the the
that was the moment where the obsession was lifted from me
now my son a
was that I knew I was dying when I was using I was waking up in the morning and I knew I was dying
I was so overwhelmed by the feelings that I knew I was during that the only way to escape those feedings of of of of morbid resource most of it was to **** have another hit
that was what was removed from me as a result of working moments the obsession to use was removed as a result of the obsession being removed at the end of the first
if at the end of the first hit the compulsion is not triggered
if I have the first one I scrape out the resin the pipe I will drink beer and then I will have a hit on I will die and believe me as well people have died and don't know the date because you don't nine
if session was removed from me is people in coffins in another in coffins
it's a sad reality I see people go out and then come back and win my first ninety days in recovery I thought I'd buried someone every week
step nine was the frame process it was where the obsessions users would have was lifted from me
many readings re read the print ready means you read the promises that is my experience
I almost at ten I'm and you know I love my sponsor for the final time help me with the steps
that's not that's not the purpose of my relationship between myself my sponsor it is is look at my step tends inspection is basically doing step three through tonight on a daily basis
it's not a big deal because you not to do it now and once you got experienced at working step three three two nine
you're not gonna have any resentment you get a day sometimes get two or three it's no big deal it's not told order to to expect myself to do step ten on a daily basis when you consider the freedom I get from the result there in it
that is an interesting step eleven so through premeditation to improve our conscious contact with god as we understood him praying only for knowledge of her will for me and how to count out
let's break this down
my sponsor tell me again it and explore religion Hey so you don't have to join in the oven but just you know look into see if anything but surprised to see if there's anything that is interesting for you I see what you think
the underlying experience I had
strangely enough involve the Dalai Lama the well I had I would say someone left a few years ago
and I was researching the Dalai Lama I need any says a spiritual life is one being of service to others
when he heard that before
this is true program it's only and the Dalai Lama's telling me the spiritual life is one being of service to others
so that was awesome
tell us about step eleven so through premeditation to improve a conscious contact with god as we understood
so I have to pray I have to meditate and off to see
I have to see god what I seek a sixth
so the premeditation to improve occurs concept of god as we understood seeking only power any knowledge of god's will for me and the parents carried out she doesn't want me to pray for a new car or a new job my friends get off my back she wants me to pray for the power to carry out her will
god's will that's what step eleven is asking me to do but what's going to
what's going to go
much have to insist
firstly god wants me to be happy joyous and free
and if you're in this program for the same reasons as may you probably want to be happy joyous and free as well
but I think also this step presented in step twelve having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we try to carry this message to the other addicts as prices proved wasn't on offense so having had a spiritual experiences as a result of premeditation we try to carry this message to allow addicts god wants me to carry this message to other addicts does goes well for me in the simplest form as explained in the steps well I'm to practice these principles in my faith that's a total order
so I take a look at all the spiritual principles I've I've learned through all of the steps I need to practice these principles in my fez so yeah it is about doing front line working with others helping you come and stuff but it's also about completely changing my behavior
I got my first job at six months going
that's another story I'll share with you privately
in my current
and then a good time with some
interestingly enough when I was eighteen months clean I got a job working in this in the city of London where will the money gets changed and hence I wept instructors and and and money became one you caught
and I lost sight of this principle is the the third third this program was on the line to me it was no longer about a power greater myself that could restore music signee it was about making enough cash to get a new suit new time new show whatever Nikon you house I completely lost sucks either an interesting play
when I just took my sponsor he would insist that I didn't go to meetings and moan about it
interesting thank god the means a man about it said
talk about it with your friends share it with those people he did nineteen ninety with
those people save my life
the other suggestion response you gave me
was to shop in pride well to shop and help someone else
when he was telling me to shut up and play
he was referring me to step eleven where I see god's power that goes with me in the past got out which explains that to always chosen to shop in helping you come
so sometimes when I was really pissed off you just tell me to shop and when you come on and sometimes if I was on a little bit pissed off he tell me to try and through prayer I learned I had to open you come it will come back to the same thing
okay back to helping others to working with other people
the I'm gonna read this passage now
this is this is the my favorite two paragraphs from the book
and this is where it's at for me
it's on page A. nine chip to seven working with others I read it this often and I'm going to read it again
well it's a good experience shows that nothing will so much in show immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics
it works when other activities fail this is a twelve suggestion carry this message to other alcoholics you can help when no one else can
you can securely confidence where others fail remember they're very ill
life will take on new meaning
towards people recover to see them help others to watch loneliness vanish to see a fellowship grant about you to have a host of friends this is an experience you must not miss
we know you will not want to miss it we couldn't contact with newcomers and with each other is the price both of our lives dies when my program is that
as a result of working all these steps
I don't wake up in the morning we've been obsession to use
as a result of working all these steps and having an obsession two years removed from me I don't pick up the first months of the compulsion is not triggered
that is my experience of how to stop smoking crack and stay stopped
that is my experience about to stop shooting dope and spaced out and how to start using alcohol and stay stopped
it's a simple as working the steps
Douglas say twelve simple steps
and there's a lot more of it you know when I came to the U. K. I'm four and a half years clean now and when I came into the U. K. that was fourteen meetings in the whole of the area and now we have ninety we split into five districts Scotland is going into an area the European region is just being formed there's a there's meetings throughout Europe Sweden has become an area spent Holland is an area Hong Kong is an area South Africa as an area I'm gonna do some work in Spain fit in the in the show
featured on and god willing Spain will grow
you know I had I had the pleasure the privilege of doing Jimmy's job at the convention in the U. K. last summer
last April
and it was cool dust we grab that box that we gave to the new comes today that that's a very important gift last week right it's about how this fellowship grows up around us because of the intensive work that that was taken upon ourselves to what to reach out going into prisons going into hospitals institutions and treatment centers
that's where the need the blood is that's within that's what you're getting you comes from
my experience was I I was in vogue love raving Angelo parties so we are
how can I help CA so we'll see I can do for me what can I do for CA I got involved in fundraising it's time upon partisan sold merchandise and and you know I found the my experience could benefit others
and I'm not scared to take a risk
you know I've watched just my mom in London we district early this year we go forty seven meetings in London and when I came there was eleven well I when I when I came to meetings and you come out to ninety meetings in ninety days in west London I lived in north London a bun the train I I I didn't pay the Boston and I took me an hour and a half to get down around three calls to get back in that meeting was on an hour long and you know I went to any leads and over the past year or so now just around the proximity where I live there's eight meetings you know go out and open meetings and what she's finishing grounds this
such privilege
and when it when it when I when I see my spot C. sponsoring people and I see my grandsons he's getting well
and getting the gift that we will go
if there's one message I need to carry to those people to come up on stage at tonight and picked up that that big books
keep coming back you can but you know what we keep coming back and I'll give you a clue why we keep coming back we keep coming back because you keep coming back
and we need to work with you and you need to work with us and it's kinda Yang Yang thing I'm not quite yum yuck
I need to close this but but I just want to say sorry quickly about god because she's crime prone to me I've been exploring my my step eleven recently in dem a come to the understanding on haven
and I have many gods
and some of them in this room and some of them some of the people and some of them are going to rain and sun and moon enough and trees and stuff but there is one who has all power and her name is going to
and may you find him now
because ultimately when it comes to the crunch I am excited to be a pound there's no human who's gonna restore you turn off Sunday to have the courage to get on with the rest of this program
and sent away and you find yourself like I found myself on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere without a phone without my finish it without
the people to reach out to and the only person that can stop me from walking down the hill and going into that policy whoever moves past was going
as a result of that last year I found five grams of cocaine in a in a record and I was able to throw away I found smack since I've been in these rooms are not being able to throw away I've given what a hash of made wraps with people to not have to **** consume them I have come across drugs and I do not have the compulsion to use them I do not have the obsession to use them I've been to restore turn off Sunday is my experiences that you can stop smoking crack and stay still thanks for admission