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I recently attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a comfortable house in Santa Monica, California. The room was occupied by approximately 70 attendees, and even more sitting on the outside porch. The focus of this particular day’s meeting was step six of the 12-step program. The sixth step is stated as follows: “We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character” (Wilson, 1939, p. 76). Following the definition and interpretation of the sixth step, the main speaker of the day came up to the podium to tell her story. This woman was a recovering alcoholic and ex-heroin user. She had been sober for 14 years before she relapsed, and as of now she has been sober for 16 years. She explained that she has struggled with alcohol…
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Open meetings are for anyone who are interested in joining a support group. The benefit of an Open group is that every person struggling with addiction can join. I noticed that almost every member of this group knew each other well, as they talked amongst each other about what had happened over the weekend. One member was told, “We missed you last week”. The benefit of an open group is that you can share as much as you choose and not return if you dislike the dynamic of the group however this group was cohesive. There were 16 people in attendance mostly older adults in their late fifties. There was an equal amount of male and females, I noticed that there were two younger members possibly in their thirties. They were all Caucasian, the group was not diverse they seemed surprised to see me there as I was the only minority in the group. The group is composed of recovering Alcoholics. There were two facilitators who sat in different tables, as people were sharing stories both facilitators were comfortable with silence in the room as they did not push anyone to participate. Both facilitators shared challenges they had experienced during the previous week. The female facilitator was more open to sharing her life experiences. The process of the group was to talk about day to day struggles in everyday life. Every person stated that it is a struggle to wake up every day and stay away from alcohol. In addition to how life stress causes them to want to resort to alcohol. There was a spirit of friendship and community among certain members of the group. There were two subgroups one composed of 4 females and the other of 6 males. The females talked about what happened with kids, husband, and family whereas males talked about activities and things they had accomplished during the week. The subgroup composed of the females was lively and chatty as they all sat next to each other. Although everyone…
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Alcoholics Anonymous is an organisation dedicated to helping people recover from alcoholism. Open meetings are open to anyone, while closed meetings are only open for recovering alcoholics. Meetings are about one hour long. A major component of AA are the twelve steps as outlined in The Big Book:…
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the AA observations performed at the two Alcoholic Anonymous meetings attended. The first community support group observation took place at the Fellowship Hall located 12428 M 28th Dr. Phoenix, AZ 85029. The meeting was held from 1700 to 1800 on Thursday, January 21, 2016. The second community support group observation took place at Crossroads West located 7523 N 35th Ave. Phoenix AZ 85051. The meeting was held from 1900 to 2000 on Thursday, January 21, 2016.…
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The 12-step program is very time consuming with all of their frequent meetings and checkups. Most of the AA meetings occur a few times a week, and if an abuser is too busy to attend, people begin to question that abuser’s commitment to recover, or even worse; they begin to think you are using again. Some sponsors even make abusers call every night to ensure that they are keeping clean of substance abuse. The 12-step program is unproductive because it forces members to drop one addiction; alcoholism, and adopt a new one; becoming a successful and dedicated member of AA. In the 12-step program, sponsors also tell recovering abusers that they have to get a home group meeting where they will have to lead discussions on their own time outside of the normal AA meetings. Then sponsors assign addicts who have been a part of the program for a while to new coming abusers, which include “driving people around and helping them get their lives together – it may even include being sent on missions to talk a dangerously intoxicated person to attend an AA meeting (Perkins 10). This could be especially dangerous to a recovering alcoholic because they are putting themselves in the position where they must be surrounded by someone who has access to alcohol. Clearly the 12-step program is very time consuming, and other programs such as the Saint Jude Program,…
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1. I did not really know what exactly to expect before the meeting, because I never been to a AA meeting and I was kind of excited to go and hear peoples stories about their addictions and dependency.…
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One my way to the meeting I was feeling really anxious. I didn’t really know what to expect. I could imagine how many people would be there or what the energy would be like. I wondered if there would be tears, or laughter. If it would be happiness or solemn silence. I had never been to anything like that so I think the feeling was just me being completely unsure. I was also excited to see what it would be like. To hear what they had to say and to connect with them.…
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I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A) meeting, I felt in love with those meeting. I attended a meeting on April 23 at 6 pm. Location 1773 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. A.A membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence the may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. Membership to ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. This particular AA group was mix, men, women, young people, doctors, gays and others. They were all alcoholics, seek help, have different profession.…
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Each and every single day, we walk past many different types of people that come from all walks of life and some who are the typical definition of “normal” that are battling addictions to alcohol. My eyes were opened up a great deal when I attended an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that had a guest speaker named James and if I would have walked past him on the street, I would have never known the internal battles that he has faced and does face everyday he gets up out of bed.…
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Before I attended the NA meeting, I had felt more than a little apprehensive; I really wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the meeting and that made me very nervous. I have talked to and listened to addicts and recovering addicts many times before, my brother is a recovering addict and a few friends are also, but that did not prepare me for the sadness, grief, and happiness I saw in this meeting.…
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Walking into the AA meeting made me feel very awkward and out of place, but as the meeting began and everyone started sharing their stories I began to feel comfortable about being there. When I first went in the room the chairs were set up in a circle with some on the outside of it. I decided to take a seat on the outside so I wouldn’t be of focus during the meeting. They started the meeting off with reading some inspirational words and then reading the 12 steps. Their focus tonight was on a higher power and how believing in that higher power helps you stay sober. After brief introductions and stating their names, they began discussion and whoever wanted to speak had the opportunity to do so. Listening to all of their stories was really interesting. Almost all of the members have been sober for at least 30 days and more and about four people were just recently sober, with one being sober only three days now. One of the member’s stories really stood out to me. He said that he has been an alcoholic for years now, but always believed he can cure himself and control how many drinks he has. He mentioned that he went out last week with his buddies and wasn’t able to stop himself from going overboard with the drinking. He said he was in a blackout for four days and lost his job. That’s why he ended up at the treatment center; he said he realized that it isn’t possible to be a social drinker when you are an alcoholic. During his story he explained how he had the shakes and the classic withdrawal symptoms and I began to think about what I had learned in class and related it. Another member’s story was about social drinking. She said that her friend was coming home that she knew from college and wanted to get together. She thought about the friendship and realized that she wasn’t a friend and that she was just an old party buddy. She explained that she has a whole new group of sober friends that she hangs out with and that she can’t hang out with her old friends of whom she…
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Alcoholics Anonymous is a close-knit program which is a very successful method of recovery for alcoholism. The program was the first of many to adopt the twelve step approach to recovery. This program is three dimensional: spiritually, mentally and physically which is represented in the twelve steps. The steps stress anonymousness, kindness and rejuvenation within all members. It gives recovering alcoholics a place to feel comfortable and unashamed to know others are going through the same recovery. Members are encouraged to be sponsored by a companion recovering alcoholic with more experience in the program to help to better understand AA. The sponsor is the same gender as the member and usually the relationship between the two is a gift that both members can benefit from.…
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When people think of substance abuse they think of cocaine, heroin, or even something horrible worse however, what gets vastly overlooked is having an abuse to drinking alcohol. As it was stated in the textbook and the review PowerPoint 70 million people suffer from alcohol dependency. Alcoholic dependence is very dangerous and life threating, but luckily there is help for this substance abuse as well. Just like in the USA countries around the world have help called alcoholics Anonymous or also known as AA meetings. Alcoholics Anonymous is an international fellowship for men and women who may share their experiences with alcohol in hopes of trying to get better from their alcohol dependency. It is a positive treatment that comes from different…
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I attended an A.A. meeting on April 5, 2010. Before the meeting I seemed very anxious. This was not my first meeting I have been to meetings before but they all seem to make me nervous. When I arrived the nervousness had eased off because everyone had made me feel welcomed. I was made to feel like a part of their family from the beginning to the end of the meeting. I seemed to have realized I missed going to these meetings and I miss the fellowship but it has not interfered with me staying sober.…
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The recovery process is not a straight forward given the risk of reverting back to drinking. Recovery for alcoholic dependence is easier when AA participants have strong social support, as they have a sportive outlook on life. Having people with similar experiences with shared goals attending the sessions brings together individuals who seek to break alcoholism. One can form close bonds with the participants, while becoming a member of AA, providing an opportunity for long-term recovery.…
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