Reflection On Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting

For fieldwork two I went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with Jaycie Haley. We attended a meeting on November 6th, 2016. It started at 5:30pm and we stayed the entire duration of the meeting which was an hour. Instead of interviewing a specific person we listened to what the meeting’s participants had to say. What they had to say covered everything I had thought to ask about the program. My very first impression of the site was that it fit my preconceptions of what Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were like. I formed this impression while Jaycie and I were still outside of the decently nice community center where the meeting would take place. Once we walked in, my impression changed. Beforehand, I subconsciously assumed that the meeting room would be somewhat small but instead it was huge with an abundant amount of chairs as well. There were chairs up against the walls, in an inner circle, and placed in two rows in front of the back. Soon the chairs started filling up and some people had to stand. This made me realize that the program was much larger than I initially thought, especially since there were so many meeting options. Once the meeting began, we went around stating whether we were a recovering alcoholic or there for support. This led me to start to see the helper/helpee relationship at the …show more content…
One way is that it connects to our reading on sense of belonging. In The Power of Kindness, Furrucci (2007) says, “Be united with one another. This oneness will give you great strength, which alone you would never be able to attain”(page 73). In my observation, I experience a real life example of what they are saying. I learned that many people were not able to stay sober alone but after finding this Alcoholics Anonymous they were able to stay away from drinking. This shows that the togetherness in this support group gave members strength to not