The Roundabout Interview Research Paper
The Roundabout Interview
What brought you to AA?
My husband told me I had to go and if I didn’t he would tell our four grown-up daughters how bad my drinking was. I didn’t want to go but couldn’t bear the thought of the girls knowing so I went.
Was there one thing that made you realise you had a problem with drink?
I knew something was wrong with my drinking but the crunch was when my husband pointed it out to me. He told me that he was not prepared to go on the way things were. Him intervening the way he did, putting me in the car and taking me to a meeting against my wishes, meant that my drinking didn’t get any worse, I realise that now. Thanks to what he did a lot of things like hospital admissions or losing my job didn’t happen. I started drinking at 55 after suffering a panic attack and being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Previous to that it was a fortnightly couple of drinks with a sister, which if it didn’t happen was no big deal. I thought a drink would help me with my anxiety. It started with a quarter bottle which would last me three or four days, …show more content…
I didn’t know that when someone asked: ‘How long are you coming about?’ they meant how long have I been coming to meetings. I didn’t know that when people talked about the old ODAAT Centre in Clydebank, ‘ODAAT’ stood for ‘One Day at a Time’. I didn’t know what a ‘group member’ was, that it was them who opened up the hall for the meeting and who got the tea ready and that to join a group all I needed to do was say to a group member that I was to joining that group. Sharing from the body of the hall wasn’t easy. I didn’t know what to say, so I’d just thank the speaker, in particular for their honesty. I heard someone say you can share as much or as little as you want, which was good for me. If I couldn’t share from the body of the hall about myself I would speak to the top table speaker at the break and tell them about the identification I’d got from their
What brought you to AA?
My husband told me I had to go and if I didn’t he would tell our four grown-up daughters how bad my drinking was. I didn’t want to go but couldn’t bear the thought of the girls knowing so I went.
Was there one thing that made you realise you had a problem with drink?
I knew something was wrong with my drinking but the crunch was when my husband pointed it out to me. He told me that he was not prepared to go on the way things were. Him intervening the way he did, putting me in the car and taking me to a meeting against my wishes, meant that my drinking didn’t get any worse, I realise that now. Thanks to what he did a lot of things like hospital admissions or losing my job didn’t happen. I started drinking at 55 after suffering a panic attack and being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Previous to that it was a fortnightly couple of drinks with a sister, which if it didn’t happen was no big deal. I thought a drink would help me with my anxiety. It started with a quarter bottle which would last me three or four days, …show more content…
I didn’t know that when someone asked: ‘How long are you coming about?’ they meant how long have I been coming to meetings. I didn’t know that when people talked about the old ODAAT Centre in Clydebank, ‘ODAAT’ stood for ‘One Day at a Time’. I didn’t know what a ‘group member’ was, that it was them who opened up the hall for the meeting and who got the tea ready and that to join a group all I needed to do was say to a group member that I was to joining that group. Sharing from the body of the hall wasn’t easy. I didn’t know what to say, so I’d just thank the speaker, in particular for their honesty. I heard someone say you can share as much or as little as you want, which was good for me. If I couldn’t share from the body of the hall about myself I would speak to the top table speaker at the break and tell them about the identification I’d got from their