Addiction and Recovery Assignment: Going To an Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting For this addiction assignment I attended meeting run by the oldest Alcoholics Anonymous group in Auburn, Maine. This group, the Auburn Serenity Group, was founded in 1959. I found this information on their page http://www.csoaamaine.org/groups/5/auburnserenity.htm when researching meeting information. I attended on Wednesday night (10/8/14) at St. Philips Church on Turner Road in Auburn. The meeting was chaired by a man named Paul. First, let me start by saying that I really did not want to do this assignment. I had an image in my head depicting what it was going to be like, and it wasn’t pretty. After watching enough TV shows showing AA meetings in …show more content…
Crap, did I get the days wrong, I really needed to get this assignment done! There were probably 30 or more people standing outside in the gloom of the church hall entrance smoking and talking. I quickly sent a text to my classmate who I was supposed to meet, “Are you here? Are we in the right place?” It had never dawned on me that there would be more than 10 or 15 people in attendance. My classmate and I managed to find each other in church parking lot and made our way through the cloud of smoke and into the building. We entered a large hall filled with people of all ages. There were at least 50 people there; sitting, standing, hugging, talking and laughing. A couple of people were running a raffle in a corner. Coffee brewed in the small kitchen. I grew up catholic and this had the distinct feeling of being a church function. My classmate and I sat in the back and settled in. We didn’t introduce ourselves. Who would we even begin to introduce ourselves to? We were just a face in the crowd. People starting sitting down and at 8PM the meeting started. “Hi, my name is Paul, and I’m an alcoholic”. To this all replied, “Hi Paul”. We were all welcomed to the Wednesday night meeting of the Auburn Serenity Group. Some group business was taken care of quickly and we headed into the Serenity Prayer. It was easy to fall into the rhythm of this meeting and I found myself saying the prayer too. After all, this was
5. Corrective recapitulation of primary family group - experiencing transference relationships growing out of primary family experiences providing the opportunity to relearn and clarify distortions. Members learned that they could resolve issues from the past
Lastly, the chairperson recounted her own personal story with addiction. I was surprised how the group handled her story in a positive way. I noticed at times members laughed and even smiled and others making brief supporting comments. Rather than judge the events of her life, the group members seemed to connect in a personal way. I liked how the meeting was honest and open. Afterwards different members of the meeting read brief AA literature, "How it Works," the "Twelve Traditions" and "The Promises." I listened to each of them very closely
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,
The objective of this study is to write a reaction on a 12-step meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous with the focus of the meeting being attitude modification. The meeting attended was the Stairway Group meeting in Decatur, Alabama. The members who attended this group meeting were of all ages, of both the female and male gender and were white, black, and Hispanic individuals. The majority of the attendees were males.
Weekend “Mass” in the Catholic denomination is a form of church service where churchgoers gather to worship God for at least an hour. A shorter vision of Catholic “Mass” is practiced on the weekday and the longer version is practiced on the weekend. This religious meeting is referred to as sacramental worship where people truly believe they have established a connection with God. Personally, I am not familiar with Catholic worship as I grew up a Seven Day Adventist until I eventually moved away from the church. However, my mother’s acquaintance invited our family to “Mass” on the Easter weekend at a Parish near our house. We accepted the invitation and attended the evening Mass at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. This report expounds on the different elements related to Catholic “Mass” such as the setting, size of congregation, type of service offered, social aspects, and likely psychological processes involved in the experience. Also, the psychological effects of the songs, scripture readings, sermon style, and the building itself will be examined in detail. My
The morning was wet and gloomy. Hunter and I approached the church, the wind was blowing at his tie, and sweeping through my dress. We walked into the house of God and found our spot on the hard pews. Shortly after our classmates found their seats and joined us. They stood alone with their sponsor behind them. Waiting their turn to walk up to the bishop and speak in front of the church. Yes, Hunter and I walked up to the bishop alone but when we both returned, we returned to someone, unlike our class mates.
The people who came ranged from ones I see on a regular basis to people I had never seen before. The weather was poor, but I guess it matched the circumstances. It made me feel good however that so many people showed up. The prayer was moving. Halfway through I looked over at my mother who I saw her crying for the first time ever. Through good times and bad I had never seen her cry, not once. I felt something missing in my heart that day. The puzzle piece which held me together was lost forever, I was not complete anymore.
During this service, we were instructed to sit in the chairs in the back of the room instead of standing with the other church members during prayer and worship. I had some trouble picking up everything from the second service, but I did catch some primary themes. The Imam spoke about a story of a blind man who was able to miraculously see again. However, others judged the man for various reasons. He also spoke about the conflict of a student and a teacher who simply did not understand each other at first. Nonetheless, after some time, the teacher begins to take time to listen to the student and attempts to understand the student’s background.
As the day had me running all around town, however, I opted to “come as I was” and focus on being timely instead. I also recalled learning that contemporary worship services are very relaxed and, as such, I figured I would be just fine. Indeed, I was just fine and I was most grateful to be attending an informal church filled with attendees dressed as relaxed as I.
As I looked around the room after prayers, I noticed that the majority of the other attendees were individuals in their 40s and a few handful of individuals were in their late 20s. I also noticed that there was an imbalance between males and females, the former outweighing the latter. Prior to attending the
For the Easter vigil I attended at the Ross Hall Chapel at 7:30 pm at the University of St. Mary on Saturday, April 15th. Although this was my third time going to this chapel I still felt a little lost how the Chapel did their services. From how the service was structured, to certain prayers I felt overwhelmed with the many sacraments that were done that night. This time I prepared myself to leave on time and reached the church ten minutes early. As I was heading to the chapel area I saw many of the attendees walking out of the chapel.
The moment I embarked on this journey, I was completely immersed in a culture that was foreign to anything I’ve known. Never in my twenty two years of existence had I experienced something like this before. I was aware that the service began at ten in the morning therefore I made sure that I arrived before that time for the simple reason that I did not want to attract any more attention to myself. As I walked in, everyone was standing near the entrance socializing with one another. The one only person I knew there greeted me at the door and introduced me to other members of the congregation including one of the pastors. They were all very friendly, greeting me with a handshake and a smile. We made our way to the “main sanctuary” as they called it and the rest of the members had already taken their seat. I noticed their apparel was very dressy almost as
The outside of the church has light brown bricks, with an assortment of dark brown bricks mixed in. The church itself was pentagon shape with just a square extension. The front part, with the square extension, has brown panelled overhead above the door, and windows lining the top. Just next to the windows is a white cross with the name of the church. On the other end of the church, the pentagon part, has a round roof that points at the top, kind of like a witch’s hat, that is layered with blue-grey shingles. The square extension is the entrance way, the floors were white tile and walls are white with bulletin boards and places to donate clothes and food. Walking into the big wooden doors, into where mass would take place, the church opens up into the pentagon part of the building. The walls are also white but the floor has an emerald green carpet. The ceiling has panelled wood all around it, the middle was risen up to the top and there is a levelled out boarder around the building. There are about 2 rows of 20 pews in the middle, and 4 separate rows of pews to the side facing the pews in the middle. When we first walked in, just to the left of us is a votive
On this remarkable entryway are twin columns on either side that rise above the roof they surround with attached brick piers at each corner. When walking into the lobby, on the entrance door, we were welcomed by a very friendly greater. They handed us cards highlighting the upcoming event of the church. Upon entering the church on our right, was a food and coffee bar. If you loved food and coffee, you were free to have it, and if you’d like to bring it into the Sanctuary they always gave my parents spill proof mugs. As we head into the Sanctuary for the service, an Usher helped us find our seats. The service, I always looked forward to. I always looked forward to praise, worship, and the sermon. In this European church, praise and worship gets crazy! People clap their hands loudly, shouting to God with cries of joy. They sing the glory of God, lifting high his name in praise-making one feel as if they belong to something bigger. You would hear singing, trumpets, drums, flutes, harps, and cymbals. People rejoicing in their maker; the people in the church we were glad in our king. We praised his name with dancing and music with harps. We worshiped with gladness: We came together every Sunday mornings with joyful songs, and most importantly, we knew that God was God-we knew it was he who made us, and we were his; we are his people. We praised because we wanted other people to know that we were with Jesus Christ. Worship was so much appreciated. Think about how much fun
We rushed to the car and my driver sped away. I had never been to the city or the church where they were taking me. I knew nothing about it or even how this last minute decision happened. I laughed inside as I contemplated how one goes from not speaking to speaking in the blink of an eye. I just smiled and asked the Lord to give me something to share.