Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Experience Essay

Today I had my first experience attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. It is not exactly what I was anticipating, in regards to the people that I was expecting to see. The first person who started speaking after the group members state their names and problem, go true the silent prayer, the 12 Steps, and the 12 Traditions stated, “alcoholics don’t look like the typical movie alcoholic and/or the stereotype people have about us, we come from different backgrounds, colors, and shapes;” it was like he was reading my mind. I was expecting to see, for the most part, older people who were tired of struggling with their lives because of alcohol, but there were young adults, males and females, older people, and even a member with his young son. …show more content…
When someone is talking sharing his/her story, telling what has worked for them, or quoting from the book, you see other members nodding their heads yes as an approval. My impression was that they were saying yes, I understand what you are saying, or a yes and focusing on the person as they were having an epiphany. The group comes together like a family exchanging stories and learning from each other, but with a very important rule, do not judge your fellow members. We are all alcoholics and addicts, and we are no better than the other because ones you start thinking like that, you are on your way to relapsing because your mind is lying to you and eventually it will tell you that you are not an alcoholic and you can drink. As you can see in this example, how something as small as criticizing someone can knit a web that can take the person to believing that they can drink. For me, this example was so impressive and open my eyes to how strong this addiction is, and how something that it is so insignificant can cause a person who is struggling with an addiction to relapse; this is something you cannot learn reading a