Preview

Alcoholics Anonymous Support Group (Aa) - Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
791 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Alcoholics Anonymous Support Group (Aa) - Essay
N121L Alcoholics Anonymous Support Group (AA)
Location: Wesley Church on Barstow The support group I attended was on October 19th, 2012 at 12pm at Wesley Church located on Barstow Avenue. It was in the Winterburg Education Building in room 3. A gentleman by the name of Andy was leading the group. He first said a prayer and then asked if there were any new members. There were none so he asked if there were visitors. I introduced myself and said I was a Fresno State nursing student. He then said today they were going to talk about Step 12, which was about service. Service was about introducing AA to people that could benefit from the program. Before you were expected to complete step 12, they wanted you to complete steps 1-11 first. The first person that spoke about his past was the leader, Andy. He shared with everyone that he had had three divorces and at one point his children didn’t talk to him. Alcoholism destroyed his life in his early years. He’s now twenty years sober. His last wife never came back to him but his children have since come back into his life. He leads AA meetings now because he expressed how AA helped him get his life back into order. Next to speak was a gentleman by the name of Rich. He was 257 days sober. He said that he is nowhere near step 12 but was hoping down the road he will make it there. He talked about having depression, diabetes type 2 and alcoholism. Alcoholism runs in his family. A year ago he almost died from diabetic ketoacidosis. That’s when he decided to turn his life around. He felt that he was given a second chance at life and wanted to do positive things. He said that drinking doesn’t produce anything positive and he wanted to make the most of the rest of his life. A lady by the name of Carmen spoke next. She was three months sober. She talked about how her brother doesn’t believe this will be long term. She always falls back into drinking. Carmen wants to prove to not only her brother, but herself, that she

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I recently attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a comfortable house in Santa Monica, California. The room was occupied by approximately 70 attendees, and even more sitting on the outside porch. The focus of this particular day’s meeting was step six of the 12-step program. The sixth step is stated as follows: “We’re entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character” (Wilson, 1939, p. 76). Following the definition and interpretation of the sixth step, the main speaker of the day came up to the podium to tell her story. This woman was a recovering alcoholic and ex-heroin user. She had been sober for 14 years before she relapsed, and as of now she has been sober for 16 years. She explained that she has struggled with alcohol…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alcoholics often have a difficult time acknowledging, understanding, believing or admitting there is a problem. In the scenario 12 video, “Alcoholic in Denial” this person is no different. The therapist uses several strategies to portray a need for Tonya to change. This is initially done through motivational interviewing. During the beginning of the interview the therapist asks open and close ended questions to better understand the client’s situation and why she is seeking help. Understanding the Tonya’s situation creates a pathway to provide the motivation for change. Motivating a client to change that truly does not see a problem in their life can be difficult. In the motivational interview the assessment is completed by clarifying the understanding of the problem and…

    • 1502 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Alcoholics Anonymous is an organisation dedicated to helping people recover from alcoholism. Open meetings are open to anyone, while closed meetings are only open for recovering alcoholics. Meetings are about one hour long. A major component of AA are the twelve steps as outlined in The Big Book:…

    • 48 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    My second group observation called Hope Seekers Group, Initiated with the facilitator Nadine introducing the new members that were joining for the first time. Nadine started by reading the declaration of Unity. “This we owe to A.A.’s future to place our common welfare first; to keep our fellowship united. For on A.A. unity depend our lives, and the lives of those to come.” She also advised the new comers that they were responsible for seeking help if they ever felt the need to drink and to consult with a sponsor for support during their struggles. During the meeting the members alongside Nadine were also celebrating one year of sobriety for a member named Cassandra. Cassandra was asked to share her story with the group and the newcomers, with…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The 12-step program is very time consuming with all of their frequent meetings and checkups. Most of the AA meetings occur a few times a week, and if an abuser is too busy to attend, people begin to question that abuser’s commitment to recover, or even worse; they begin to think you are using again. Some sponsors even make abusers call every night to ensure that they are keeping clean of substance abuse. The 12-step program is unproductive because it forces members to drop one addiction; alcoholism, and adopt a new one; becoming a successful and dedicated member of AA. In the 12-step program, sponsors also tell recovering abusers that they have to get a home group meeting where they will have to lead discussions on their own time outside of the normal AA meetings. Then sponsors assign addicts who have been a part of the program for a while to new coming abusers, which include “driving people around and helping them get their lives together – it may even include being sent on missions to talk a dangerously intoxicated person to attend an AA meeting (Perkins 10). This could be especially dangerous to a recovering alcoholic because they are putting themselves in the position where they must be surrounded by someone who has access to alcohol. Clearly the 12-step program is very time consuming, and other programs such as the Saint Jude Program,…

    • 2209 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Living Sober

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This member expressed how her current situation is debilitating her both physically and mentally eventually making her weak and susceptible to going back to her drinking habit. However, she has been praying and reciting the first things first principle along with the twelve steps. She said that praying had helped her. Also, when her son told her that if she goes back to drinking, then he is not going to have anyone to help him through his struggle with drugs and alcohol. Other members shared as well and what I noticed is that all of them rely on…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Each and every single day, we walk past many different types of people that come from all walks of life and some who are the typical definition of “normal” that are battling addictions to alcohol. My eyes were opened up a great deal when I attended an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that had a guest speaker named James and if I would have walked past him on the street, I would have never known the internal battles that he has faced and does face everyday he gets up out of bed.…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although difficult, the initiation stage of the 12 Steps includes a lot of help for the alcoholic to fulfill the aforementioned test. There is a connection with an individuals ‘higher power’ and a development of knowledge and skills for the individual to sustain their recovery. This incorporation of religion and new skills is typical of the initiation stage that heroes undergo in their Rights of…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Alcoholism is not something that can be treated alone many times. The more a person is dependent on alcohol in their lives, the more their brain attempts to convince themselves that they do not need help and that if they stop drinking their lives will be worse. In each testimony given, everyone had a different way they initially made their approach to get better, whether it be rehab or Alcoholic Anonymous meetings, but the one thing they all had in common was that the more meetings they attended the meetings the easier the healing process was. They all said that when they begin to miss meetings it would cause the urge to give in to the temptation to drink, and sometimes they did give…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aa Meeting Reaction Paper

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I attended an A.A. meeting on April 5, 2010. Before the meeting I seemed very anxious. This was not my first meeting I have been to meetings before but they all seem to make me nervous. When I arrived the nervousness had eased off because everyone had made me feel welcomed. I was made to feel like a part of their family from the beginning to the end of the meeting. I seemed to have realized I missed going to these meetings and I miss the fellowship but it has not interfered with me staying sober.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The counselor started the meeting with how families and attitudes play a big role in sobriety. She spoke on this topic for about 15 minutes and then said to everyone, “How do think your attitude helps the people in your family with their sobriety?” Everyone in the room took turns in answering her question. Then, she left the floor open for anyone to ask her questions.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    They were very welcoming and friendly. When the meeting started a man starting talking about his addiction, how it was ruining his life, and everything he went through to work towards sobriety. He told the group that his last drink was 9 years ago. He was very inspirational and told everyone in the meeting that we are all equals, we do not judge anyone, and to not be ashamed of who you are. I felt like he made everyone that was listening become very comfortable. He told everyone that we are all going through the same thing and we are here to support each other. He was also referring to that we have to believe in a higher power to end this addiction and focused it around the 12-steps. He spoke for about 20 minutes, then we came together as a group. In the group, every person went around and introduced themselves if they were comfortable with doing so. They would talk about their addiction, problems, cravings they have, etc. It was very interactive, everyone would participate and give feedback and input to each…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aa Meeting Reflection

    • 1509 Words
    • 7 Pages

    They use their past and present situation to help others that are still struggling with addiction to overcome. I want to believe that many would hear their “testimony” and be encouraged to make a change just a little at a time. This makes me think of how our heavenly father patiently waits for His children to come home and be adopted into His family. Towards the end of the session, points were given to participants depending on how long you have been sober for.…

    • 1509 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I seem to have been going to alcoholic anonymous a group meeting that overcomes alcoholic addiction. I do tend to indulge in alcoholic tendencies to become more aware of my emotions and the stress of life. The meeting in these groups starts out when one or two members tell their stories, while discussion meetings allocate most of the time for general discussion. Some meetings are devoted to studying and discussing the AA literature. So every day of the week I would go to these seminars and group studies so that I can better my self-everyday. The Instructor did inform us that in this condition, would interfere with normal everyday functioning as it worsens. I found out during a couple of months that I might have Delirium Tremens, which is an…

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "hi everybody, welcome to the wednesday meeting, yep yep.um everybody give it up for eli, first of all, who's been offthe meth for a whole month now, and his wife's getting outof jail next thursday, is that right? anyway we've got a new speakertoday so big round of applause for this young man here."it's been about a week nowI'm startin' to get weak nowI wake up at 11:30 that's when I start getting thirsty andI don't know what it isall I know there's a bottle in the fridgewith my name on itif I want it'cause I'm an alcoholic and I knowyeah hi my name is Tom I'm an addictcan't really remember just how long I been at itI'm guessin that this happened like a pattern and a problemcause my father's a fiend andso was mum so its somethin' like part of my genesbut it's hard to get clean but its hard to sustainbut at the end of it I really can only answer to meand it's the way it is I truly learned thatso don't give me all that "Channeling the universe" crapthats a load of s**t I ain't tryna' to pass the blamelike it's just a part of fateand I ain't got a part to playcause if that's the case then I really can't escapemight as well just start the day with a glass of chardonnaylike my dad does thinking that time can never catch usfollowing my nose kinda like my bro Haz doesbut I'm scared I'll end up in a home like daz wasthat dude went mad once,but na f**k that buzzI'm looking for a little morebut s**t is rawcause its just a little short walk to the liquor store,a little more to middlemoremy mind keeps saying "this is what I'm living for" but my liver isn't sureit's 6 In the mornin' we're about to close the clubbut we know the owner so we're there until they open upand that's why I'm broke as f**k bank account Golden Duckblowing bucks on these drugs going nuts tryna' sober upI woke up Friday morninglying on the floor in a one man cellhe said I punched that C**Tstablehow many lies can one man telland now I'm on probationI'm getting…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays