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…
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:…
Wilson became a stock speculator and traveled the country to find potential investors. Wilson was making good money on Wall Street until the stock market crashed. Bill Wilson got a second change on life, and decided to start a therapy session. In May of 1935, he co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A) after he was released from the hospital with Bob Smith. At first, A.A was a small organization and then became worldwide. Wilson wrote a book titled “Alcoholics Anonymous,” which is about a Twelve Step program. Now the Twelve Step program is not only for the alcohol addiction it is also for a variety of recovery groups.…
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,…
1. I did not really know what exactly to expect before the meeting, because I never been to a AA meeting and I was kind of excited to go and hear peoples stories about their addictions and dependency.…
During the meeting one of the things that they discussed was the success rate of Overeaters Anonymous: “RARELY HAVE we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are those who cannot or will not give themselves completely to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way.” A.A. Big Book, 3rd & 4th Editions, William G. Wilson, page 58. But according to the Harvard Mental Health Letter, from The Harvard Medical School, stated quite plainly: “On their own There is a high rate of recovery among alcoholics and addicts, treated and untreated. According to one estimate, heroin addicts break the habit in an average of 11 years. Another estimate is that at least 50% of alcoholics eventually…
I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A) meeting, I felt in love with those meeting. I attended a meeting on April 23 at 6 pm. Location 1773 Griffith Park Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. A.A membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence the may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. Membership to ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an AA group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. This particular AA group was mix, men, women, young people, doctors, gays and others. They were all alcoholics, seek help, have different profession.…
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.…
I went to an early morning meeting and was welcomed with open arms by every person there. Several people came up and introduced themselves and offered me coffee and doughnuts. As the meeting started, a few of the members came up to the podium to read the introduction, and preamble before the guest speaker came up to speak. As each person came up to the podium, they stated not only their name, but also that they were an alcoholic. After the…
Walking into the AA meeting made me feel very awkward and out of place, but as the meeting began and everyone started sharing their stories I began to feel comfortable about being there. When I first went in the room the chairs were set up in a circle with some on the outside of it. I decided to take a seat on the outside so I wouldn’t be of focus during the meeting. They started the meeting off with reading some inspirational words and then reading the 12 steps. Their focus tonight was on a higher power and how believing in that higher power helps you stay sober. After brief introductions and stating their names, they began discussion and whoever wanted to speak had the opportunity to do so. Listening to all of their stories was really interesting. Almost all of the members have been sober for at least 30 days and more and about four people were just recently sober, with one being sober only three days now. One of the member’s stories really stood out to me. He said that he has been an alcoholic for years now, but always believed he can cure himself and control how many drinks he has. He mentioned that he went out last week with his buddies and wasn’t able to stop himself from going overboard with the drinking. He said he was in a blackout for four days and lost his job. That’s why he ended up at the treatment center; he said he realized that it isn’t possible to be a social drinker when you are an alcoholic. During his story he explained how he had the shakes and the classic withdrawal symptoms and I began to think about what I had learned in class and related it. Another member’s story was about social drinking. She said that her friend was coming home that she knew from college and wanted to get together. She thought about the friendship and realized that she wasn’t a friend and that she was just an old party buddy. She explained that she has a whole new group of sober friends that she hangs out with and that she can’t hang out with her old friends of whom she…
Hello everyone, I went to my first NA/ AA meeting tonight and could not wait to discuss the outcome. The main thing I found interesting is many people was in recovery for years. At least 10 people was clean over 5 years, but continue to attend meetings as part of their recovery process or to maintain clean. Also, many people became addicted to drugs due pain management. Speaking about knee pain, back pain, several people was in car accidents or hurt at work. Regular pain medication was not working and they wanted something stronger that turns into an addiction. Or they did not want to feel severe pain and kept taking pain medicine to prevent being in pain. Then emotional pain was also a discussion, causing people to abuse alcohol and drugs…
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.…
There comes a time in most people’s lives when they develop an idea of what alcoholism is. They have observed enough movies to know that each person states their name, followed by “I am an alcoholic” and those, that miserably sit around them, greet them with a harmonious “welcome” as they sip on their anonymously supported coffee. As humans, we have a habit of assuming that misfortunes in life, are exactly like the movies. From experience, over the past two and a half years, it turns out this is not the case. The truth in Alcoholics Anonymous is found only by familiarity. The description of the program, its purpose, mission, target population, and my own personal observations give a closer look in to the life of an…
I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting on 7/11 in Elizabeth NJ at the immaculate Conception School on Prince Street. It was an open-discussion meeting. It reminded me of any therapeutic group; although it did seam more structured and ritualistic, almost like a religious group. Before the meeting, everyone was socializing gathered around coffee and cookies. Most people seemed to be very close to each other. There was a stand with many pamphlets containing information about alcoholism, the program, their beliefs and values, statistics regarding alcoholism and the movement of Alcoholics anonymous. According to their data, 64% of participants drop out in their first year, but many alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety. Currently, the American Psychiatric Association recommends sustained treatment in conjunction with AA’s program for chronic alcoholics. The overall tone in the church was friendly and inviting. I introduced myself to a friendly looking man, who I will call S.T., and explained to him who I was and why I was there. He was very helpful to me throughout the meeting, explaining to me the various intricacies of their “traditions.” I asked S.T. whose responsibility it was to bring the refreshments. He explained to me that people volunteer for the job. During every meeting, money is collected (but not required) for this purpose and to pay the rent for the facility being used. Generally, newcomers are expected to take this responsibility to show commitment to their sobriety and the program.…
The meeting was assigned an open meeting designation with the format being a discussion group. Other formats include Big Book study, newcomers, candlelight, meditation, literature study, closed and gender specific meetings. Closed meetings are for A.A. members only, or for those who have a drinking problem and "have a desire to stop drinking”. Open meetings are available to anyone interested in Alcoholics Anonymous’ program of recovery from alcoholism. Nonalcoholics may attend open meetings as observers. People who attend meetings are free to attend at any location internationally.…