The Delta Group: Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Alcoholics Anonymous is mutual aid group that supports individuals in their recovery from alcohol dependence. Established in the mid 1930’s, Alcoholics Anonymous was borne from the principals of self-improvement and mutual aid practiced by the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group was a popular religious movement in the United States and Europe at that time. (AA)

One commonly known self-help group is Alcoholic Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous is also known as AA. Alcoholic Anonymous is formed for the purpose of the treatment of alcoholism. Alcoholics Anonymous generally takes place in a church or school in the community. Alcoholics Anonymous is not the only type of self-help group. Self-help groups can be based on anger, anxiety, depression, marriage improvement, hoarding, shopping addiction, weight loss, sex addiction, self-harm, eating disorder, grief processing, etc.

Group therapy has evolved so much that the participant are learning how to help themselves and others. Self-help groups are one of the most popular forms of group therapy. One of the most known self-help groups is Alcoholics Anonymous also known as A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international organization produced to assist alcoholics to recover and live alcohol free lives. It was founded by Bill Wilson and Robert Holbrook Smith in 1935. It is a program, complete with twelve steps and twelve traditions, that was put together to help addicts

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

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Al-Anon groups have helped a lot of people become sober, and to deal with an alcoholic family member. It takes a lot for a person to first admit to having a drinking problem, and then share their experiences with a room full of people. If they want help, that is what they have to do. Research on two AA meetings provided a lot of knowledge and understanding.

In 1935, a fellowship by the name of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) originated as an effort to develop a method for understanding the complexities of and recovering from alcohol abuse and addiction (Clinton & Scalise, 2013; Hester &Miller, 2003). AA is a non-professional spiritual organization of men and women who gather to share their experiences with alcohol abuse/addiction, to convey hope and strength to overcome alcohol dependence, and help others in the recovery process (Clinton & Scalise, 2013).

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 ().

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,

Alcoholics anonymous was founded in 1935 by a stock broker, Bill Wilson, and a surgeon, Robert Smith. Wilson being a recovering alcoholic had originally attended the Oxford Group, which was a Christian fellowship that based their teachings that all people are sinners and all sinners can be changed. While Wilson later credited the Oxford Group for saving his life, he separated from them, and in his desperation to recover from his own alcoholism he decided to form a group where alcoholics could get together and share their stories and help achieve and maintain sobriety with each other. (Branscum & Sharma, 2010) This group became Alcoholics Anonymous. “The book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was written by Bill Wilson, Dr. Robert Smith, and the founders of AA, with contributions from over 100 recovering alcoholics.” (Inaba & Cohen, 2014, p.9.28) Today, there are over 97,000 AA groups with over 1.7 million members that attend yearly. (Knack, 2009, p.86)

Alcoholics Anonymous is a group composed of men and women who want to stop drinking and help each other stay on the path towards sobriety. They are not affiliated with any other organization, denomination, or institution and the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop drinking (Fisher & Harrison, 2013). They meet at least once a week, if not more to support one another and to share their experiences, struggles, and successes.

On Tuesday, November 21, 2017, I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting at the Chandler Lodge, a sober living facility for men that was established in 1960. The facility is fairly decent but can use some renovation. The racial mix was a combination of Hispanics, Caucasians, with a few Asians and African Americans. The gender mix was a combination of males and females, with a few more men than women. There must have been a total of fifty people in attendance. The capacity of the room could hold about one hundred people.

I attended the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting held at the Westhampton United Methodists Church, 6100 Patterson Ave, 23226, which is 3.8 miles away from my home. The meeting started at 7:30pm and was structured as an open meeting that welcomed beginners. I utilized www.aarichmond.org website to search for AA meetings in the Richmond Area. There were about 30-40 meetings offered a day within a 15-mile radius of my home zip code. I selected the RVA YPG because I assumed Y in YPG stood for youth or something related to young people. Then I researched it and found one possible meaning for the acronym was Young Planners Group. I was interested in attending the YPG meeting because I am always fascinated with the progress

Today, one out of every thirteen adults abuse alcohol or are alcoholics. That means nearly thirteen million Americans have a drinking problem. (www.niaaa.nih.gov) This topic offers a broad range of ideas to be researched within the psychological field. For this particular project, the topic of alcoholism and the psychological effects on people best fit the criteria. Alcoholism is defined as a disorder characterized by the excessive consumption of and dependence on alcoholic beverages, leading to physical and psychological harm and impaired social and vocational functioning. (www.dictionary.com) Through this project, the most important information regarding personal experiences

There are millions of people who have and who are suffering from alcoholism. For those seeking help with their addiction, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) may be the right for them. While this program is not promised to be a cure, and the authors of this program does not promise full recovery, it provides an atmosphere where members can be honest about their dependency on alcohol. Furthermore, AA provides support from other alcoholics, and rewards for meeting certain sobriety anniversary dates. This paper explores the history and major developments of AA. Furthermore, this paper explains the structure of meetings, and the roles the leader and members play during meetings. This paper also touches on AA’s definition of success and how it handles members who relapse. Additionally, this paper explains this student’s experiences of two AA meetings she attended, which include what she learned from attending the meetings, and what she learned from the people she met at the meetings.