Members' stories

Many hundreds of Islanders have benefited from attendance at local AA meetings, helping them to stay sober and rebuild lives previously damaged or threatened by alcoholism.

These personal stories, by Guernsey AA members, tell what it was like, what it is like now, and how they found contentment and a new freedom.


Alice's story

In the end I just drank to live, yet it was killing me.

Sobriety has given me dignity, self-worth, and freedom of choice.

Bessy's story

I began blacking out and would wake up with vomit in my hair and a crying baby to look after.

AA gave me back my self-respect, my husband and my children.

George's story

I was too frightened to live and too frightened to die. I was as alone as any human can be.

AA enables me to make choices in my life and to live my life simply and contentedly without alcohol.

Jane's story

I looked up AA in the Guernsey phone book and made the most important phone call of my life.

What I found was nice people, normal people, happy people, people who seemed to understand me. I did not feel alone any more.

John's story

You get to the stage where you plan your life around the next drink.

There is a solution, in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Sarah's story

I was a completely broken woman, a shell who was not living a life but just existing in an alcoholic haze.

I was given a second chance, I took it, worked at it, and my life just gets better and better.