Personal Narrative: My First AA Meeting

Attending an AA meeting was a new experience for me, although I had family and friends that had attended meetings they never told me what the meetings were like. Arriving to the meeting was different than what I expected. When looking at movies they would show dark rooms and sitting in a circle, completely different than what a real meeting is. But once I was there the lady in charge greeted me and introduced herself. I was surprised to see everybody being so friendly to each other. They looked beyond each other’s race and social class, they were there because they knew they had a problem and that by being there they were going to get the help they need. They were willing to help each other out in any way they could. I felt happy to know that

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and reflect on my experience attending an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting. Alcoholic anonymous (AA) was created to help individuals effected by Alcohol collaborate and support each other during their time of need. All AA meetings are structured differently. However, there are only two types of meetings: opened and closed meetings. During my experience, I attended an open meeting where anyone can come regardless of a diagnosed alcohol problem or the level of experience one had with participating in such meetings.

Fabian Castaneda Mrs.Kehrmeyer Contemp. Comp April 25, 2015 The Problems With AA AA meetings are for people who are struggling with alcoholism which means they have an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. I believe that these meetings are not helpful and in some cases cause harm the people who are trying to change and no longer alcoholics or drug addicts. These meetings do not have high success rates in fact they have very low rates.

History of Organization Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio, and is a spiritual based organization with the sole purpose “to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety” threw fellowship. Alcoholic Anonymous (A.A.) foundation is built on a 12 step program that involves taking 12 step that will guarantee your sobriety (according to A.A.) because you start the 12 steps but you never end, it is designed for you to consistently work the 12 steps for the rest of your life to remain sober. There are 12 traditions with the 12 steps and this is what A.A. has taught them as they go through the program. When attending an A.A. meeting there are no membership fees or dues to pay and

One guy David really stood out to me, on Tuesday he celebrated 12 years sober, when he went and got his medal and stated that he was 12 years sober the room immediately congratulated him and told him to keep up the good work. It made me feel like the people there treat each other like family not strangers, and help each other overcome obstacles. Also at the very end of the meeting, while walking out I noticed people talking to the new people that were either new to Alcoholics Anonymous or new to the group at St. Joe’s. They were very welcoming to them and gave them hugs and congratulated the new members for coming. It just made me feel like this group actually helps the members change.

The meeting might help him quit drinking. Bruce went to the AA meeting. However, after the meeting, some of the members secretly offer him to go out and drink. It was an ineffective meeting. He is trying to avoid them, but sometimes he can’t refuse them.

Once a person does become an alcoholic, helping an alcoholic can be very difficult. Alcoholism varys from person to person everyone is different. It efects everyone diffrent . There are so many types of treatments for alcoholics. Such as Alcoholics Anonymous or “AA meetings “ which are meetings that help alcoholics with their recovery.

Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. The first chapter of The Big Book tells how Bill Wilson was introduced to the concept of using a faith based, group support program to provide the mental and emotional support needed to manage Alcohol Addiction. The main purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. The program is unique in that each chapter is self funded, develops their own meeting format. I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on Thursday, October 6th at 8 p.m.

A fairly common approach to alcoholism is a 12 step program, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). It has been asserted that there is enough evidence on the validity of the 12 step model that it can be considered an evidence based practice.

A 12 step recovery program such as Alcohol Anonymous is a program designed to help one who is labeled as an alcoholic to “recover” from their “disease.” In the 12 step program, the person is considered an alcoholic and will always be that way because it is labeled as a disease. However, the Bible does not call it a disease but a life dominating sin. Instead of calling someone an alcoholic, they should be called a drunkard. Since drunkenness is a sin and not a disease, the Bible has answers and solutions on how to put off drunkenness and to replace it with those things that are honoring to God (cf.

Throughout the meeting there was a main focus on spirituality and higher power. Using these tools as foundational skills and support during the journey of recovery is in line with sexaholics anonymous philosophy. A spiritual support system seemed integral to the lives of the people at the meeting. Furthermore, the meeting started off with prayer and ended in the serenity chant. With a strong goal of meeting to reach a point of sobriety, peace, and serenity, the journey has its ups and downs, while some need to hit rock bottom before climbing up.

During all phases, the participants are required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings (Circuit, 2010). During phase one they must attend a high number of these meeting per week and as he or she phases up, the number of meetings required decreases. In addition to this, the participants must also attend counseling and group therapy sessions (Circuit, 2010). The participant will be assigned a counselor and will meet with the counselor on a regular basis. If the counselor finds it to be necessary, the participant can be sent to a doctor for a mental health medicine evaluation and

When long-term sobriety is a challenge, for support and guidance, many people turn to 12-step programs by Alcoholics Anonymous and other organizations. Although there are numerous reasons to embrace the principles for 12-step recovery in St. George and throughout the world, there are still many lingering rumors and misunderstandings that surround this effective program. The original 12-step program was established in the 1930's by a physician wanting to recover from alcoholism. Even though this distinguished program has a long history of helping millions of people with the battle against addiction, many people still struggle with the guiding principles, especially in the early days of their participation.

I constantly stay ‘plugged into’ my recovery community in a variety of different ways. I know that it plays a huge part in my personal recovery in helping me stay clean and sober. A few of the ways I am able to stay connected are through hospitals and institutions, as well as picking up service commitments at my home group. I am a big advocate of H&I’s because they were a key component of my recovery when I was in treatment. I was tremendously inspired when I heard someone who was doing well in the outside world share their experience, strength, and hope. I believe that coming into a treatment center to share the message gives the clients that are in treatment a great amount of hope and shows them that they are very capable of staying clean

In 1983, NA created its first textbook which also enhanced the rapid growth so much so that at the end of the year, the organization has spread to over a dozen countries attaining 2, 966 meetings worldwide. Today, NA is considered to be a well-established international organization that is multilingual, and a multicultural fellowship that attains more than 63,000 weekly meetings in 132 countries (“Information about NA”, 2014). The NA program attains a white booklet that describes the program’s anonymous way. The white booklet explains to members that all drug addicts, regardless of certain types of drugs or a combination of drugs, is accepted in this program. They adapt to the AA’s first step of the disease model but other than using the world alcohol they replace it with addiction.