Alcohol Anonymous Meeting

Improved Essays
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 looks to be in his late 50s with 2 years’ sobriety that day. Then the group all joined in reciting the serenity prayer, before starting the meeting. The format of the meeting is two people speak for about 15 - 20 minutes each and tell their story with no comments from the group. There is a small break in between each speaker. The two speakers were talking about what their life was like while they were using alcohol, what caused them to come to AA, and what life is like now living sober. The room is silent while members are listening to the speakers. Although, there is a lot of head nodding and chuckles when people are relating to the stories. The person I interviewed is Jack, he is a 47-year-old man never married with no kids.
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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 year. The impact of abusing alcohol and drugs affected jack by his family and friends wanting nothing to do with him. He does not blame his family or friends for not wanting him around because he had become a liar, thief, and not dependable. He could not hold a job longer than 3 months and all his earnings went to using. Jack was 27 yrs. When he decided, he could not go on living like this. Specifically, it was a beautiful sunny day and jack was on a corner begging for

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