Aa Meeting

When I saw on my syllabus that I had to attend an AA meeting, I was vey nervous, frightening and anxious. Walking through the door of my first AA meeting was, stressful and uncertain, since I did not know what to expect. Being an observator among total strangers, who, willing wasting their lives away by driking without any regards for their families and friends was not my idea of time well spend. There are hundreds of studies that had shown, alcohol have destructive short term and long term effects yet some people drink excessively without minding any of these harmful effects. By the way, what is AA meeting? “Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism.” With my notebook and a pen I healded to the meeting with specific guidelines from my intructor such as how was the meeting structure? What are the problems presented by the clients? What was my reactions to the meeting? And what is my belief in the effectiveness of this treatment modality?

Structure of the meeting
According to my researches all meetings, no matter the city or state, have similar, basic structures. They start at an appointed time, on time in quiet location. I thought there wouldl be someone in charge but there was not any. I later found out that one of the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous is that members are all but trusted servants, no one governs. However there was a chairperson who volunteered to lead that particular meeting and has years in AA recovery. She opened the meeting with a moment of silence, followed byt the Serenity prayer which personaly I love. It seems to give me that sense of calm and perspective that I often need. It also gives me hope in whatever ostacles I find myself. There is:

The Serenity Prayer | | God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;