Aa Meeting Reflection

I’ve been to hundreds of AA/NA meetings. In this essay I’ll talk about the three I went to for this class and I’ll incorporate some of the experiences I had in other meetings as well. There is no doubt that every meeting has a different feel to it. The location, people attending, and structure of the meetings have a large impact on the on how they are run. These factors, and others, played a big part in how I felt after leaving the meeting. When I was released from jail, the most important goal I had was to stay sober. For a long time going to 12-step meetings was a big part of my life. Being able to socialize with other people in recovery helped me not to feel alone. Being sober meant that I needed to cut ties with any of the people I knew who used drugs. The problem was that all my friends used drugs.
Including myself, there were only four people at the meeting. Due to the small number of people, and that one of the people in attendance was a friend from class, I had the opportunity to discuss Al-Anon in depth with the other two attendees. They were a husband-and-wife that had been running the group for many years. They started going to Al-Anon because of their son was an alcoholic and continued to go even after he got sober. Al-Anon is ran similarly to AA. The meeting opens with reading core values of the group and reciting the serenity prayer. This group would then read some inspirational passages from Al-Anon books. I asked what the difference between Al-Anon and AA. They said, “AA is where you go to stay sober and Al-Anon is where you go to stay sane.” I can’t say for sure if it was the size of the group that made the Al-Anon meeting more enjoyable or if it was being able to have an open conversation, but I found Al-Anon to be more inspirational and therapeutic then the AA meetings. I should note, Al-Anon is based off the same structure as AA. They even participate in the 12