vol 50. Sobriety Date 2/22/1971 (Seamus)

Show Notes

Seamus shares his Experience, Strength and Hope after having just celebrated 50 years of sobriety. Seamus brings perspective, humility and wisdom to this share. Once an ordained Catholic Priest with a Doctorate in Canon Law, he is now a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Addiction Recovery Specialist, and Life Coach.

Raised in Northern Ireland in a home with lots of emotion, anger and tension (though no alcoholism), he was constantly gripped with anxiety, and eventually depression. He spent decades of his life pleasing other people, doing what came next, avoiding all decision making. Seamus never felt normal, though it wasn’t until his first drink, two years into being a priest, that he realized as much.

Seamus gives a beautiful testimony of what the program of Alcoholics Anonymous can do for a flailing life. He brings a tone of gentleness that makes the listener want to hear more. Sobriety didn’t stick the first time he was up to bat, however the rooms, and the people, and the program, wrapped around Seamus and “grew him back.”

Quotes
“It’s only a beverage and it’s killing me.”

“I attempted suicide, that was my way out; I saw no point in going on with life. [After waking] I had a moment of clarity . . . I’m afraid I’m gonna have to live. I decided that if I was gonna live, I was going to have to be sober."

“You have to set aside your present understandings, and you have to tolerate the anxiety of not knowing long enough to come to experience and understand in a different way."

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