Compare And Contrast Alcoholics Anonymous And Alcoholics Anonymous

For this assignment, I observed an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting held at The Meeting Place on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. There were 15 members in attendance, 12 men and 3 women not counting myself. The group leaders were both women and sat at the front of the room. For confidentiality of the group member names will not be included. The meeting began with the group leaders reminding the attendees of the rules of AA and the process of the meeting. Several of the attendees read the declaration of AA and the documents associated with the meeting structure. After the introduction, several of the members gave their testimony regarding their own experience with drinking. Following the short declarations, a passage of the big book was

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 content of this paper is an interview with Laura Crain from the McHenry County Substance Abuse Coalition. In the paper I touch on the history of the Coalition and how its evolved throughout the years. The coalition has a lot of involvement with the community in various counties. The work on a larger scheme rather than on a one to one basis. This interview covered the mission and goals set for the Coalition. Laura discussed with me the influences internal as well as external that affect the Coalition. Another thing we discussed was the struggles that come along with running an organization like this. I also touched on my personal experience and my thoughts regarding my internship.

It should be noticed that in the recent few decades, the science developed at an astonishing pace, and the problem of substance abuse cause a huge public concern. Currently, substance abuse has already become a pandemic around the world. It costs individuals substantially, and it of their family as a whole. It is essential for the society to help those people who struggle with drug addiction to get rid of their pain and get back their health and balance life. Therefore, I understand the substance abuse is a tough area, and people who are struggling with addiction really need help. During the course of the interview, I

Narcotics Anonymous is a support group using the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous but designed for individuals addicted to narcotics (Fortinash & Holoday Worret, 2012). The programs emphasize both personal responsibility and mutual accountability by means of a social model recovery program which is peer-driven. Recovery Kentucky utilizes care and change as their foundation for the peer-driven model. Participants are often reminded the program is not just a pit stop for drug and alcohol use but a commitment to change the whole body, mind and spirit. They are required to attend community meetings and complete a twelve step program where the client will acknowledge the problem, recognize a solution and develop a plan of action that will support the ultimate goal of sobriety (MIC Program Description, n.d.).

Drugs and alcohol is a major social issue (J. David Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and Janet Y. Miller, 1992). It is not something that can be solved by the law (Lee P. Brown, 2008). Throughout history, many attempts have been made to try and legalize and control alcohol and drug addiction but has failed.

Substance abuse is a tragedy that touches many lives. Abuse begins with a single use event that, with continued use and overindulgence, transforms into a battle. The abuser most always loses that battle. Personal relationships, social ties, and employment suffers. Irresponsible and erratic behavior becomes the norm, and though the abuser is aware on some level of the reckless and thoughtless acts that they commit, they continue to use and abuse their drug of choice. What starts as experimentation often ends in addiction. The best hope for a person in the grips of substance abuse is immediate,

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 in Akron Ohio by Dr.Bob and Bill. They created this organization because they were alcoholics trying to get over their addiction at the time, they wanted to expand this group to help out even more people. How this organization started to take off and expand farther than Akron Ohio is, the two men Dr.Bob and Bill went to the hospital in Akron Ohio to help the alcoholics in the hospital. This man that they helped in the hospital helped the two men start the first AA group, later on the idea spread to New York which started the second group, a third group started in Cleveland, within these three “founding” groups it took over four years to produce 100 sober people out of the three groups together.

It was determined that AA is a beneficial resource for an individual seeking abstinence, but the extent of its effectiveness may be limited. As Kelly recalled (2003) “The authors concluded that “AA had a positive, but moderate, salutary effect on drinking behavior and psychosocial functioning” (p. 643). Consequently, these studies are considered to be limited because of certain variable flaws that resulted in measuring the full extent of AA’s effectiveness difficult. Some of the discrepancies are related to the level of care that an individual was attending and the amount of available services. Individuals attending outpatient treatment were found to have higher levels of success, but those who were attending inpatient treatment may attend more meetings (Kelly, 2003). A link was found to correlate a positive relationship to the amount an individual was drinking and the quantity of meetings they were attending (Kelly, 2003). Conversely, research by Project MATCH found different results among meeting attendance and why it was

Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935, on June 10. This date is known as the day that one the co-founders, Bob Smith, of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) reached sobriety (Gross, 2010). As Gross (2010) states, Bill Wilson, who was a newly sober alcoholic, met Smith and used the techniques, the 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Wilson used on himself to help cure Smith of

Alcoholic Anonymous and its founded history is somewhat complicated however in a book written by Kertz (1979) he described that the four founding moments in the idea of Alcoholic Anonymous, were those of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s conversation which took place in 1931 with Rowland Hazard at the time struggling with alcoholism and attempting to find aid from Dr. Jung. However, after some months of sobriety Mr. Hazard relapsed and requested further treatment from Dr. Jung at which time Dr. Jung refused recommending that he had done all

Narcotics Anonymous, or NA, is a twelve-step program much like the more popular Alcoholics Anonymous. NA maintains that all members of the group are important in the unity of the group and that in no way does one individual rule over another. As a person in recovery and member of NA I have learned, through literature, meetings, and my sponsor, that NA is built upon an egalitarian model. A study done by Jeffrey K. Snyder and Daniel M. Fessler has determined that NA is an egalitarian organization that is unique in that “brings into stark relief the conflict between egalitarianism and the social dynamics of knowledge transmission.” By this Snyder and Fessler mean that because of the process that keeps addicts clean is based on gaining knowledge

Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid fellowship founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. AA states that its primary purpose is to help alcoholics "to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety". With other early members Bill Wilson and Bob Smith developed AA 's Twelve Step program of spiritual and character development. AA 's initial Twelve Traditions were introduced in 1946 to help the fellowship be stable and unified while disengaged from "outside issues" and influences. The Traditions recommend that members and groups remain anonymous in public media, altruistically helping other alcoholics and avoiding affiliations with any other organization. Subsequent fellowships such as Narcotics Anonymous have adopted and adapted the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions to their respective primary purposes.

Drug addiction can be a powerful and complex situation for some individuals to gain control of. Research and health professionals have historically shown that 12-step programs provide the tools and healthy social networks that are immensely beneficial to achieving sobriety. However, prior studies have largely focused on these programs’ effectiveness for adults, whereas younger populations are also seeking treatment for drug addiction. This longitudinal study will have only adolescent participants to enhance the minimal research that has been done on this population. It is relevant to social work because the results of this study will help social workers to better understand that Narcotics Anonymous may be more effective for some adolescents, namely those with many positive social supports as compared to those with few positive social supports.

Drugs control everything in an addict’s life; they lead addicts to jails, institutions and death. A drug addiction is a disease that leads to complete failure of self. Drug addicts lose everything: family, friends and their own lives due to their compulsive and obsessive use. There is no known cure for this devastating disease, but it could be arrested at some point and the affected person could get help if desired. This is something that no one should do alone. Initially is important to know that dealing with a drug addict is not a simple process and also that the persons suffering from an addiction is struggling to get help; sometimes they just don’t know where to get it, others don’t care to get any help at all. But why not help an addict that wants help? These are the three basic places that a drug addict could go for help: outpatient rehab centers, inpatient rehab centers and long term process-anonymous meetings.