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…
“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men.” (Albert Einstein)…
Therefore, from my observation of alcohol and substance use (illness), and the Narcotics Anonymous (NA) support group, this illness is a serious issue that deserve attention and aware to. This illness is a life and death situation that is harmful for an individual and family/friends support system. The help of NA support groups and meetings is beneficial for an individual with the illness to make a change in their life, and turn away from drug use. It does not matter who the individual is and their age, their life is more important than having drugs to change your life for the worst. Everyone is alive to live their life to the fullest with goals, and with loved ones. If there is a need and want to live a clean life from drugs, NA and other…
During and after my addiction to prescription pain killers I have experienced many things, good and bad. I’ve experienced my personal rock bottom and also some of the best moments of my life. My experiences before and after quitting prescription pain killers have shaped my life, and myself into what it is and what I am today. I would like to compare and contrast my experiences before and after getting sober.…
I cannot believe that today is my last clinical day in ASN program. I still remember my first clinical day; when I did not know a thing about health care and nursing content. I know that I have growth a lot from who I was. Each semester gives me great experiences and knowledge. My previous semesters were really good. Luckily, I did not have any problem with my grades and papers. All of the instructors were very nice. Cox College is my favorite school because there is such no space between students and instructors; we are a family. It is funny when I think about the first time I started an IV. I was nervous and shaking, but now, I can do it confidently and quickly. I was lucky to have Bowers as my clinical instructors for a year. She is very…
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.…
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.…
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…
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is the largest and most commonly known self-help group in the world. Since the creation of AA in 1935, there have been many programs modeled after it, which are also based on the 12-Step Program. Some of these include Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and Chemically Dependent Anonymous, as well as programs for specific drugs, such as Cocaine Anonymous (CA) and Crystal Meth Anonymous (NIDA, 2012). Attendance and participation for self-help groups are open for anyone to attend and free of cost for all members, with meetings typically held in locations such as churches and public buildings. “Metropolitan areas usually have specialized groups, based on such member characteristics as gender, length of time in recovery, age, sexual orientation, profession, ethnicity, and language spoken” (CSTAT, 2008). Vast majorities of drug addiction treatment programs encourage the participation of self-help group therapy during and after formal treatment because the patients benefit from the social reinforcement that comes from peer discussion, while also helping to promote, achieve, and maintain drug-free and healthy lifestyles.…
Preschoolers. I was the junior counselor. The other counselor was a Grandma that was a church regular. I had to take all of the boys to the boys bathroom, i waited outside for them. and the little boys took for ever. two year-olds have very small bladders, they went all of the time.…
Going to this meeting I learned that alcoholism cannot be cured but instead, when sobriety is achieved, the alcoholic is still an alcoholic (he will always be one), yet now a recovering alcoholic. During the meeting it was also mentioned that alcoholism is often called a “disease” that is somehow a “family problem” rather than an individual problem. A few people shared their experiences and constant battle with their addiction to alcohol, they taught me that it is possible to overcome anything and everything that we want by believing in a God or a higher power and surrendering to it. Being self-centered, angry, depressed, among others, are some of the characteristics of the personality of an alcoholic, and surprisingly enough they change during recovery. I learned that recovering from addictions is highly important because it affects everyone around you (directly or indirectly).…
In the Narcotics Meeting, people were laughing, talking, and sharing their experience together without stress or fear. I noticed there are free addictive, but they still come to support others. Most of them hold the Bible, and they said how God was outside them, but now god live in their heart. At the end of the meeting they made hug circle to support each other and promised each other, they can do it.…
When I get older I want to be a substance abuse counselor. Substance abuse counselors are important because if you or someone you know is addicted to something they can get help from someone in this field. I think I would be a good person for this kind of job. All my life I have been around substance abusers and I myself was once a substance abuser. A substance abuser is someone who is prescribed something but instead of taking it when needed they abuse it and take it whenever they want to, usually too much of one thing. The duties of a substance abuse counselor are to help them recover from an addiction or if they are currently addicted to a drug you are to help them get off of that substance. They are also to help the user come up with coping…
here has been an ever present threat within the United States that continues to grow at an alarming rate by the day; that threat is substance addiction. Nearly 38,000 deaths were linked to overdoses in 2009; that exceeds the total number of traffic violations for that year (“U.S Heroin Crisis”). Citizens and politicians continue to name it the number one “growing public health crisis” (“U.S Heroin Crisis”), but how do these users get addicted and what is the U.S doing to stop this so called “growing threat”? The U.S has recently deployed the overdose antidote Naloxone into the U.S, which has been a large area of debate between users and nonusers. This drug is a good way to get addicts on the road to recovery and a great way to train the average…
1.1, (1.2,1.3): Examples of different types of service provision including their purpose and examples of who may use them.…