I decided to attend an open Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting that is held every Friday of the week at 8:00 pm at the Presbyterian church. This AA group was a fairly large group with around fifty people showing up, individuals would get into three small groups and decide on a “table leader” and then go about their business. This offers clients the opportunity to talk and express any hardships on their minds, things that went on throughout the week and how it made them feel, discuss backgrounds, along with make a supporting friend and potential sponsors to help in their recovery process. I did not just attend the AA meeting, about half way through the meeting I learned about an Al-Anon group meeting that was going on in another room and decided
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I did not expect to stumble upon an Al-Anon meeting, I didn’t even know what that was, I had never heard of one before. The AA meeting was great, everyone was so friendly, talked very openly about their experiences with alcohol, how it has affected their lives and what they are doing about it. It was refreshing to hear these people being so positive about a dire situation. My father is a recovered alcoholic but he never talked like these people did, he hasn’t had to go to an AA meeting in years. My mother is an alcoholic but denies it to the end, so this was refreshing. My favorite of the night was the Al-Anon meeting, mostly because it was something new entirely that I had no prior expectations or assumptions like the AA meeting. One thing I was very surprised about was how religious this all was, praying was done a lot, readings out of the bible, talk about “The Lords plan”. I was a bit uncomfortable at first because I am not religious, never have been so I didn’t know many general prayers that everyone else did which really made me feel awkward for a bit. I am very open and understanding to others views and religious beliefs so I quickly adapted and got more and more used to it throughout the night. I didn’t know any of these people personally but I am beyond proud of them all for their optimism and hard
I did not expect to stumble upon an Al-Anon meeting, I didn’t even know what that was, I had never heard of one before. The AA meeting was great, everyone was so friendly, talked very openly about their experiences with alcohol, how it has affected their lives and what they are doing about it. It was refreshing to hear these people being so positive about a dire situation. My father is a recovered alcoholic but he never talked like these people did, he hasn’t had to go to an AA meeting in years. My mother is an alcoholic but denies it to the end, so this was refreshing. My favorite of the night was the Al-Anon meeting, mostly because it was something new entirely that I had no prior expectations or assumptions like the AA meeting. One thing I was very surprised about was how religious this all was, praying was done a lot, readings out of the bible, talk about “The Lords plan”. I was a bit uncomfortable at first because I am not religious, never have been so I didn’t know many general prayers that everyone else did which really made me feel awkward for a bit. I am very open and understanding to others views and religious beliefs so I quickly adapted and got more and more used to it throughout the night. I didn’t know any of these people personally but I am beyond proud of them all for their optimism and hard