Hello and welcome to Sobercast, where we provide A.A. Speak meetings and workshops in podcast format.

We're an ad-free podcast, and if you enjoy listening, please help us be self-supporting by visiting Sobercast.com, look for the link, and drop a dollar or two into our virtual

basket. We hope you enjoy the podcast. Have a great day. My name's Courtney. I'm an alcoholic,

and it's always an honor to be at an AA meeting and have the... Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. I'll put it down here.

I'll put it right here.

It's always an honor to speak in an AA meeting.

And yeah, it's good to be here my first time in Sandy Springs.

So I've been stuck in Alpharetta.

But just to give you a little bit of background, my sobriety date is November 1st, 2005.

I got sober when I was 21.

That was not too young for me.

I know down to my bones that I'm an alcoholic.

I also have drugs in my stories.

I mean, alcohol is a big thing, but drugs definitely sped up the process of the downward spiral.

So, yeah, so I am from Kentucky, a really small town in Kentucky, population of about 5,000 in the county, one stocklight in the whole county, one public school, one school,

public school. There were 60 people in my graduating class. So I grew up in a very small town,

and I, you know, this is, I think, a ubiquitous feeling among alcoholics that you just

never feel like you fully belong no matter

where you are until you start to get comfortable in your own skin after you work the steps.

You know, after being in these rooms, that's been my experience.

So I don't think it's, you know, any mystery that I didn't really feel part of in the community

I grew up in. And, you know, I was always an anxious kid. And there was

...