Aa Meeting Reflection

Attending an AA meeting was intimidating at first, but it was one of the most moving and enlightening experiences of my life. I attended a meeting called the “Nooners Group” at the Serenity Club in Alexandria. The group had six men and one woman in attendance. The members were mostly white and were about 40 years or older. The group seemed to be in a middle or lower socio-economic level. The meeting started with several short readings. I was invited to read the AA preamble. Then, the group leader suggested reading a story from the ‘big blue book.” The story focused on a woman’s denial of her addiction and eventual acceptance of her alcoholism. After the reading, almost every person spoke about their own addiction and how it related to the story of the woman. After the time of sharing, the group held hands, said the AA chants, and recited the Lord’s Prayer. Afterwards, some group members lingered to interact and chat. I was so moved by the power of the meeting. At times, it felt very serious and emotional, but there were moments of levity, where the group would laugh or nod in agreement. Overall, the meeting was emotional, inspirational, and healing.

We began the meeting by introducing those who are new to AA or those who were visiting from a different group. If a person did not want to introduce themselves, they were not made to do so. The meetings were very calm and were conducted in an orderly fashion. In a support group, the leader should create a safe environment where members can share (Jacobs et al., 2012 p. 43). I felt very comfortable being there and even though I was there as an observer, the group leader always encouraged me to ask questions or comments. Regardless of the topics that were discussed, no one was judgmental. I believe the positive energy I felt while in the group was because everyone truly cared about each other’s sobriety.

The purpose of this research paper was to attend two support group meetings and share my experiences. The meetings that were to be attended were an Alcoholics Anonymous

As a mentioned before I came away from the AA meeting with a feeling, of great sadness and warmth. I felt welcomed and excepted, but at the same time I still cannot

For the support group observation assignment, I attended the Gateway Group’s Alcoholic Anonymous (A.A.) meeting. The Gateway Group is part of a larger organization called the Tri-County Intergroup Association of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Tri-County Intergroup serves A.A. members in Franklin, Wake, and Warren Counties and is broken down into 113 separate groups. As the preamble states, the purpose of all A.A. group meetings are for A.A. members to share their experience strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. There are no dues or fees for being an A.A. member, and the only requirement for membership is to have a desire to stop drinking ().

I have never experienced what it would be like to be a part of an AA meeting. The only time I have had seen or heard someone mention meetings for alcoholics has been TV shows and movies, which would portray these meeting as a circle of strangers just deliberating stories of their life and how this disease has changed them forever. Therefore, I had no idea what to expect. I felt intimidated and had a sense of nervousness, so I decided I would not go alone and brought a friend. My expectation upon entering this meeting was to see beat up people with bad hygiene and a homeless appearance. As a matter of fact, the expectations I had upon walking towards this place was that I was going to get hit on and even get kidnapped. As crazy as it

I attended Celebrate Recovery at Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers, Arkansas on October 7th. This meeting is not for any specific addiction or problem, but spans many issues and therefore was very different than any other support group I have attended. The fact that it is a faith-based meeting was another interesting difference from the Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting I visited last semester.

I also enjoyed the prayer at the end. I didn’t like when everyone had to admit aloud that they were alcoholic (I get that it’s part of the 12 steps but it seemed like they had already admitted it to themselves because they were there). I did like that the meeting was held in a church. The atmosphere was relaxed, calm and non judgmental. Even in a room full of what could’ve been total first timers or strangers, they had an amazing and supportive energy that just filled the room. I loved watching the people connect, grow, and heal over a tragedy that took over their life. It was also amazing and empowering to see them make the step to give themselves and the people they love a better future.

The experience is humbling, and I appreciate community groups that provide this type of support for members with substance use issues, as I see this as strength-based. I felt a strong sense of bonding and great empathy towards one another. A Counter transference existed when the facilitators emotional and relapse experiences influenced an assertive reaction to strongly encourage NA attendance on members that decide to quit. The facilitator reported that quitting NA group, because he "felt better," led him to relapse, therefore, he wants to prevent others from making the same mistake.

The participants were looking for help, which it created some confusing thoughts; I thought AA meetings were mandatory for all participants. It also made me realize with all the brief stories how alcohol is an enormous concern in our society, however our society has normalized those concern and convert the negative impact of alcohol into something positive. It drive me to think that 12 steps program work, and it should be part of a treatment. After, the meetings that I attended; I feel the 12-step program will work if professionals in the Human Services area introduce the program on a positive manner. It may be challenging because of the religious portion for some cases, however this may introduce the participant’s new ways to cope with the struggle of alcoholism. At the same time, the main benefits for the client will be abstinence and support. The abstinence is a continuous process and through the meetings clients will be able to keep the abstinence from alcohol or other drugs. Conclusively, there was an environment of hope in the meeting. During, the meeting one of the participants was a new member. He described how alcohol destroyed his family and he is trying to get his family back, however his wife does not want to come back with him and a divorce petition was completed. This particular participant found in the 12 step meeting comfort and support from his peers. Besides, the comfort the participant

When I walked into the meeting, I was a little apprehensive. It was only a small group of about ten people, which was held at a local hospital. Knowing that I had to explain I was there to observe as a student studying social work, I was worried that the participants would hold back from their real behaviors in the group and that they would be cold to me. However, that assumption could not have been farther from the truth. All my apprehension flew out the window, as the members of the small group all welcomed me with open arms. Apparently, these were regulars. Most in the group attended every meeting, and continued to use the support of the group to deal with the continuous chaos and trauma of living with an addict. I was welcomed to sit and observe the behavior of the individual members of the group express their grief, fear, and

Walking into an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting I did not know what to expect. I have never been in a room with so many people who were desperate to stay sober or even become sober. Individuals that are trying to stay sober realized that life is worth living, and they are deserving of a fresh start on life because of the AA meetings. Some people have been sober for a long time (over ten years) and still attend AA meetings. There were people from different ages, gender, and race all in one room. They were people who worked a blue collar job, businessmen and women, people that retired. Each any every one of them had one thing in common, substance addiction. Most of the people at the AA meeting were alcoholic, some addicted, and others introduce

Going to the AA (alcohol anonymous) meeting, I was not sure what to expect for this is my first time attending such meeting. I did some research just to have an idea. Walked in saw a group composing of both men and women of different races and age sitting ready to be given the signal to talk about a something most of them don’t have control over. Most have been an alcoholic for over 20 years. The discussion leader introduces a topic with some brief comments and then throws the meeting open. A guy name Pete who is a recovered alcoholics started off by stating his name and began to explain the impact of being an alcoholic has had in his life and his loved ones, the daily struggles he would go through. He talked about times where he would feel like nobody. He went on to describe his first experience about coming to the AA meeting stating that he felt as if he was in the wrong place, with the wrong people, and taking the wrong approach to his drinking problem, but after attending a few meetings with the help of other members, hearing stories of other people he knew he was in the right place. Everyone else saw him as a human being who has an addiction and looking for help.

This meeting was broken up into two different sections. First part was story telling. A guy told personal stories of his struggles with alcohol use and abuse from his past in addition to his struggles to remain sober. This part took about 30 minutes. The second part was open dialogue which took about an hour. Nobody was instructing us to do this or that in this section. It was a dialogue which communicating, saying, sitting there, and listening to somebody telling their personal stories. It allowed everyone to talk about their struggles, as well as encourage one another. Before each person started telling his or her stories, that person had to announce his/her name and that his/her were an alcoholic or addict. After the person finished

The meeting began with a prayer and a reading of the twelve steps, which I did, and preceded into a 25-minute meditation session. Following the meditation session, the floor was opened up for persons to reflect on their meditation. It was quiet for sometime, but eventually persons began to talk. Each person that spoke introduced himself or herself as, “Hi I am XXXX and I am an alcoholic” in which the rest of us responded with a hello. The discussion each person brought to the circle often revolved around what they had been experiencing in the last week, and ended with a positive-spin that reflected back on their journey with sobriety. One gentleman talked about his spring break on Orca Island with his kids, another discussed a speaker he was arranging to have visit Spokane, and another woman talked about an “essay reading party” she went to in which wine was being drank by the majority of participants. The meeting ended with the serenity prayer, something the girls at Daybreak say before lunch, and simple discussion between some of the participants. During this time I talked with the woman who had told me where to find the AA meeting. She talked with me about the need to find the proper AA meeting for myself, encouraging me to explore multiple