Alcohol Anonymous Meeting

I attended Alcohol Anonymous open (AA) meeting at Resurrection Hospital located on the northwest side of Chicago. The meeting is on Sunday mornings at 9 am., in an average sized room which contained 25 members. There was a wide range of ages from people in their early 20’s up to senior citizens. There was coffee and doughnuts provided at no costs but they do accept donations. The person running the meeting who we will call “Saul” informed me that a different group from AA hosts this meeting each month. Hosting the meeting requires obtaining two speakers and setting up the room each week.
As the meeting began Saul asked if there is anyone new attending this meeting for the first time or are there any AA anniversaries, which there was a man who …show more content…
He invited me for breakfast after the meeting which most members attend at a nearby restaurant. We grabbed a booth away from the other members so we could have some privacy. I started to ask him some questions regarding his addiction to alcohol. Jack told me he always has trouble fitting in with people he described it as trying to put a square peg in a round whole. By 6th grade, Jack had already been asked to leave three different grade schools, for his behavior issues towards teachers and students. Before entering the 6th grade he remembers distinctly his mother explaining to him, this school is your last chance, otherwise your off to military school for boys. In his attempt to fit in he went to a party a someone’s house where the parents were gone for the evening. That’s where he had his first drink and got drunk and passed out underneath a bed. He awoke to a couple having sex on the bed he was under. He described that first drink as “magic”, which made his inhibitions and anxiety melt away. After that night, jack was chasing that feeling of not feeling that alcohol gave him for the next 12 yrs. He said in high school he added marijuana and cocaine to the mix by his senior