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
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