Alcoholics Anonymous is recovery group for those suffering with an alcohol addiction. Its program is mainly focused on abstaining from alcohol and achieving sobriety, but also puts emphasis on spirituality and comradery with other members as a form of a family and accountability partners. I attended an AA meeting on Friday, September 9th, and here’s what I saw and learned. The meeting I chose to go to was in my local church at eight pm. I took my dad with me because he had been to a few with his father, and I wanted someone to go with me so I would be more comfortable. Upon arriving, I found that the meeting was held in a large seminar room. Posters were hung on the wall with inspirational quotes on them, blue books were settled on every seat
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Even when my dad and I walked through the door, people started introducing themselves, asking how we were, and just mentioning how glad they were that we had come. I didn’t really have expectations or preconceived notions about the meeting, I didn’t know much about meetings, only what I read for this class, so I went into the meeting open-minded. Another thing that really caught my eye was that all genders, races, and ages were represented in the meeting. My dad said that every meeting he had went to with his dad, had been the same when it came to having a wide variety. My dad and I sat down at the conference table and continued to be greeted until the meeting started. When the leader introduced himself, I was taken aback by the fact he was an alcoholic. I know I should not have been, it would be a little arbitrary for the leader to not have experienced what the members were not experienced, but it was just caught me off guard. Another thing that surprised me was how responsive the members were. I have seen movies and television shows where they portray AA meetings. They always show a person introducing themselves and stating they are an alcoholic and then the group would respond, but in my meeting, after someone would read or share, the group would always thank them by name. It was something I had never experienced, and I really enjoyed it because I thought it created a sense of reassurance, that the person speaking was heard and
Even when my dad and I walked through the door, people started introducing themselves, asking how we were, and just mentioning how glad they were that we had come. I didn’t really have expectations or preconceived notions about the meeting, I didn’t know much about meetings, only what I read for this class, so I went into the meeting open-minded. Another thing that really caught my eye was that all genders, races, and ages were represented in the meeting. My dad said that every meeting he had went to with his dad, had been the same when it came to having a wide variety. My dad and I sat down at the conference table and continued to be greeted until the meeting started. When the leader introduced himself, I was taken aback by the fact he was an alcoholic. I know I should not have been, it would be a little arbitrary for the leader to not have experienced what the members were not experienced, but it was just caught me off guard. Another thing that surprised me was how responsive the members were. I have seen movies and television shows where they portray AA meetings. They always show a person introducing themselves and stating they are an alcoholic and then the group would respond, but in my meeting, after someone would read or share, the group would always thank them by name. It was something I had never experienced, and I really enjoyed it because I thought it created a sense of reassurance, that the person speaking was heard and