I Have More Time Sober Than I Did Drunk - AA Speaker - Laila M.

At twenty-six, Laila has ten years sober after entering AA at sixteen, and she makes a fierce case that an alcoholic's seat is equally worthy whether they drank for six years or sixty-six.

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Laila entered Alcoholics Anonymous at sixteen after growing up in an alcoholic home, using alcohol and drugs to bury fear and trauma, and reaching a dangerous emotional bottom that led to treatment. At first, AA sounded like strange slogans, and she misunderstood sponsorship so completely that she imagined finding a business to sponsor her like a Little League team. She began learning the program, received her six-month chip from her dying grandfather during a family AA meeting in his hospital room, and then moved from a thriving young people's fellowship to a town where older members told her she was too young and had not drunk enough. Laila eventually stopped attending meetings without taking a drink, but sobriety without connection left her sick, isolated, and unwilling. A woman who agreed to sponsor her for just thirty days met with her every day, took her through the Big Book and Twelve Steps, and restored her faith in Alcoholics Anonymous. Years of meetings, service, sponsorship, and repetition later, those actions carried Laila through the deaths of an aunt and her brother within days of each other. With the phone in her hand and the book in her lap, she kept calling, kept doing what AA had taught her, and stayed sober. Her message after ten years is simple: no one else gets to measure an alcoholic's bottom, the solution belongs to every member, and one more sober day is the gift worth passing on.

Laila M. from Stafford, TX speaking at the 3rd Annual Arkansas Traveler Roundup in El Dorado, AR - September 2002

Music: Deep by KaizanBlu