Personal Narrative: My First Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

I attended my very first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting last week. Prior to the open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, I did not have prior knowledge to what it entailed. Social media, society and my peers had depicted a negative image in my head of how the meetings go about. Going into an unexpected and different environment made me nervous. The level of nervousness I was experiencing is abnormal. My heart started pounding, and my hands started to sweat. The majority of the way I was feeling was influenced by the thought in my head of getting judged by the members of the group. I thought that they would have been able to tell that I wasn’t there because I have an alcoholic issues and I was afraid that they would call me out on it. Although, I had unsettled feelings towards the meeting, I was also excited to experience something that is out of my comfort zone. To hear about peoples

The members were all clean, looked healthy and well kempt. I was expecting an entire different presentation from everybody in the room. When I walked into the room, there was a lady standing and greeting people as they walked in. She walked up to me and welcomed me, I didn’t have to explain why I was there or what I wanted. There was coffee and cookies at a table and the chairs were in the centre of the room. Everybody there looked friendly, which made me less nervous and more comfortable with myself. A women stood up to speak to the crowed and she thanked everyone for coming. I looked around me and I was appalled because I never pictured myself ever attending an AA meeting in my life. People spoke about the issues going on in their lives, and they tried their best to make sense of the mistakes they’ve made. I absolutely felt like I could relate to the feelings they shared. While it made me sad to hear that so many people are struggling, hurting and fighting to overcome such a powerful problem, it amazed me at how strong these people