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…
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…
My second group observation called Hope Seekers Group, Initiated with the facilitator Nadine introducing the new members that were joining for the first time. Nadine started by reading the declaration of Unity. “This we owe to A.A.’s future to place our common welfare first; to keep our fellowship united. For on A.A. unity depend our lives, and the lives of those to come.” She also advised the new comers that they were responsible for seeking help if they ever felt the need to drink and to consult with a sponsor for support during their struggles. During the meeting the members alongside Nadine were also celebrating one year of sobriety for a member named Cassandra. Cassandra was asked to share her story with the group and the newcomers, with…
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,…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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…
The group that I would like to lead is Al-Anon because I believe this group would benefit many who have family members, friends or someone who is close to them with alcohol abuse problems. “Alcoholism is widely recognized as a progressive disease of compulsive drinking, which can be arrested, but not cured” (Al-Anon Family Groups, n.d.). The purpose of my group will be to end addiction by empowering the members to cope with alcoholism of a person close to them. The group members will learn how to resist the fault, responsibility and disgrace of having a close relative who is an alcoholic. “Those of us closest to the alcoholic suffer the most, and those who care the most can easily get caught up in the behavior of another person” (Al-Anon…
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.…
Hello everyone, I went to my first NA/ AA meeting tonight and could not wait to discuss the outcome. The main thing I found interesting is many people was in recovery for years. At least 10 people was clean over 5 years, but continue to attend meetings as part of their recovery process or to maintain clean. Also, many people became addicted to drugs due pain management. Speaking about knee pain, back pain, several people was in car accidents or hurt at work. Regular pain medication was not working and they wanted something stronger that turns into an addiction. Or they did not want to feel severe pain and kept taking pain medicine to prevent being in pain. Then emotional pain was also a discussion, causing people to abuse alcohol and drugs…
The topic of the meeting was on feelings and emotions which I definitely could relate to. As people discussed their emotions and feelings I started feeling sad for some of them. I did not realize how much pain these people are in. I could feel their pain as they talked about what was weighing so heavily on their minds. I sat there and thought what I could do to help them. I started to feel a little sorry for some of them because I feel they depend too much on others to keep them from drinking. Don`t get me wrong the support network they have is amazing but only you can do it for yourself. I wanted so bad at times to tell some of these people only you can keep yourself clean. I think some of these people acted like only these meetings could keep them clean. I do not believe that to be the truth. I felt sorry for one girl because her friend had just committed suicide and she was having a hard time not taking a drink over it but the ones with more recovery time seem to come to her rescue. However, I thought what these people would…
Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, is an open discussion meeting with anyone who wants to be a part of it or learn options for help. Many people join AA for the idea that they can relate to others and not feel judged on their past and present life choices. I personally, have a hard time understanding alcoholics and what their need for over use of alcohol. I went to an AA meeting with the hopes of understanding and being able to put myself in “their shoes” so that I can learn to help more. From the beginning I was scared, nervous, and confused with the thoughts of attending an AA meeting; therefore, my brain was constantly racing with thoughts on who, what when, where and why would happen while I was at the meeting.…
They were very welcoming and friendly. When the meeting started a man starting talking about his addiction, how it was ruining his life, and everything he went through to work towards sobriety. He told the group that his last drink was 9 years ago. He was very inspirational and told everyone in the meeting that we are all equals, we do not judge anyone, and to not be ashamed of who you are. I felt like he made everyone that was listening become very comfortable. He told everyone that we are all going through the same thing and we are here to support each other. He was also referring to that we have to believe in a higher power to end this addiction and focused it around the 12-steps. He spoke for about 20 minutes, then we came together as a group. In the group, every person went around and introduced themselves if they were comfortable with doing so. They would talk about their addiction, problems, cravings they have, etc. It was very interactive, everyone would participate and give feedback and input to each…
Wine, beer liquor, all shares the same properties. That is when consumed do something magical to a person. Alcohol makes situations more comfortable and fun. Ancient myths and folklore depict alcohol in their stories. Some depict alcohol as having wonderful healing assets. While some like the bible states many warnings against the misuses of alcohol. For the contemporary drinker alcohol when misused potentially can have devastating effects on his or her life. Not only his or her life but also their family, friends, co-workers lives as well. Although this is the case, there is means of arresting the disease. Before rehabilitation programs individuals were places in sanitariums with the mentally insane. One program changed all that. The program titled Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) was the first of its kind. Alcoholics Anonymous is a 12-step program. To the common person A.A. may seem mystical. Except for the millions of individual who have gotten clean through A.A the steps are no magic fairy dusts. This paper will examine the first four of the 12 Steps in order to understand the content of each step with the goal of developing a spiritual awaking, and the process of a continuum for the recovering individual. The 12 steps represent a beginning of a continuum for a recovering individual, and the acculturation of upright principles and ethics.…