AA Meeting

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Alcoholics Anonymous

Recently, I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Elizabethtown. Initially, I was pretty nervous to attend this meeting, because I did not really know what to expect from it. I went with a friend from the class, so that gave me a bit of confidence.

This AA group was actually somewhat small, with only nine members. The majority of the group members were male, with only three females. Mostly, the group members were middle-aged, however there was one or two younger individuals.

Before the meeting began, group members were milling around the room, sipping coffee. Once the meeting began, the members went around the room and introduced themselves to us. The regular members obviously noticed that we were new to the group, and asked us to give our name and reason for coming.

This interaction made me feel pretty uncomfortable. While the group members were welcoming for the most part, I almost felt as if I was intruding on their meeting because I am not an alcoholic. However, I simply stated my name, and that I am a student from Elizabethtown College participating in the meeting for a class on addictions. A couple of the members seemed to resent my presence because of this. Therefore, I limited my participation for the rest of the meeting, and simply tried to blend in.

After the introductions, an older gentleman led the group; beginning with the serenity prayer. This seemed to be an action that was repeated at every meeting. They then read passages from a book, and stated whether they were able to relate to the passages or not. Afterwards, some of the members shared their stories with each other, obviously gaining support from one another.

It is for this reason that I believe these meetings, and this meeting specifically, are extremely helpful to the participants. Alcoholics Anonymous offers a strong support system to these participants, and gives them people to answer to. Some of the members even voiced that this support system is what got them through to becoming sober, and staying sober.

This experience truly relates to information I have learned in class. For example, we discussed how alcohol withdrawal and addiction may almost be worse than any other drug. Throughout this meeting, I was able to see this first hand. In addition, we had learned in class about 12-step programs, and about the fact that these programs are usually very spiritual. This was also evident during the AA meeting I attended.