“Sliding Professional Scale” 😂 – AA Speaker – Jay S.
Jay S., an AA speaker, shares his drinking days as a bartender—blackouts, DUIs, and the delusional reasoning he used to justify his addiction before getting sober.
Jay S. was a bartender deep in his drinking, waking up in the early morning hours in a cold sweat, needing a beer just to function. In this AA speaker tape, he recounts the absurd logic he used to justify his drinking—asking a judge for a “professional bartender discount” on a DUI and leaning on his sponsor’s advice to keep a beer on the nightstand just to sleep through the night.
Jay S., an AA speaker, describes his active alcoholism as a bartender, including blackouts, DUIs, and the delusional thinking that allowed him to rationalize his drinking. He shares how far denial took him—from needing beer to sleep and before work, to trying to convince a judge that his blood alcohol level of .28 shouldn’t count against him because of his profession. His story illustrates the cunning nature of alcoholism and how the disease warps thinking until even the most absurd excuses seem reasonable.
Episode Summary
Jay S. walks through a vivid snapshot of his drinking days, when he was a bartender and active in his disease. The talk captures the claustrophobic reality of late-stage alcoholism—the kind where you can’t sleep without a drink, can’t function in the morning without a drink, and can’t get to work without a drink. What makes this share memorable is Jay’s unflinching honesty about the delusion that came with his drinking. He had a sponsor at the time—men who cared about him—but instead of working a program, they were giving him advice on how to manage his drinking more efficiently: keep a beer iced on the nightstand so when you wake up in a cold sweat at 4 a.m., you can drink it down and get a couple more hours of sleep before you have to get up at six and have a few beers before heading to work.
The drinking had consequences. Jay had lost his license and couldn’t afford another DUI, another lawyer, another ticket. So he took public transportation. One day a judge looked at him after he blew a .28—nearly three times the legal limit—and asked the obvious question: “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?” And Jay’s response, delivered with complete seriousness in his own mind, was to ask the judge for a “sliding professional scale” discount because he was a bartender. The absurdity is devastating—and that’s exactly the point. At that stage of his drinking, Jay genuinely believed this argument made sense. His thinking was so warped by alcohol and denial that he could look a judge in the eye and make this case without recognizing how far gone he really was.
This is what the disease does. It doesn’t just make you drink; it makes you believe the drinking is normal, justified, professional even. It makes you think a bartender has a different standard than anyone else. It turns logic inside out. Jay’s story is a raw look at denial and the cunning way alcoholism protects itself by rewriting reality. For anyone who’s ever caught themselves making excuses or rationalizing their drinking, Jay’s “sliding professional scale” hits home—it’s the exact moment when you realize the disease has you talking to judges about professional exemptions from the laws of biology.
Notable Quotes
I had a judge one time look at me and he said, ‘Mr. Stenant, you blew a 28. Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?’ And I looked him dead in the eye and I said, ‘Your honor, I’m a bartender. There should be some kind of sliding professional scale.’
I had men who cared about me that told me what you do is you keep a beer next to the bed iced so that when you pop up, drink the beer down and you can go back down for another couple hours.
I can’t afford another lawyer. I can’t afford another ticket. I can’t afford the driving under the influence, the insurance, all that stuff.
Hitting Bottom
Early Sobriety
Humor in Recovery
Resentments
Topics Covered in This Transcript
- Denial
- Hitting Bottom
- Early Sobriety
- Humor in Recovery
- Resentments
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Full AA Speaker Transcript
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And so I get home early and then I I I lay down for a little while because I'm a little weary from the evening's activities and I pop up about four o'clock in the morning. Fortunately, in those days I had good sponsorship. I had men who cared about me that told me what you do is you keep a a beer next to the bed iced so that when you pop up because some of the alcohols the depressant alcohols washed through you and you come up, drink the beer down and you can go back down for another couple hours.
Excellent. Excellent advice. And then I get up at six o'clock in the morning and I start to get ready for work and I have a few beers because I have to have a few beers before I get on the bus.
And you guys all know why it is that I'm taking public transportation, you know, because I can't afford another lawyer. I can't afford another ticket. I can't afford the uh the uh the driving under the influence, the insurance, all that stuff.
I had a judge one time look at me and he said, "Mr. Stenant, you blew a 28. Don't you think that's a little excessive?" And I looked him dead in the eye and I said, "Your honor, I'm a bartender.
There should be some kind of sliding professional scale. You can't judge me about these lames, you know. I mean, come on.
You didn't find that funny, right?