I’m an alcoholic and sober today thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous. Our Fellowship is called Alcoholics Anonymous that is who we are, we are alcoholics who help each other get and stay sober, one day at a time and we don’t tell anyone who we’ve met at meetings. If I tell someone outside AA that Maggie, who lives next door to them or Tam who’s in a TV programme come to meetings, I’m breaking their anonymity. That’s quite straight forward. What wasn’t clear to me for a while was that if I tell a fellow AA member that I saw someone at a meeting, I’m breaking their anonymity. Just because someone has come to a meeting doesn’t mean they want people they haven’t yet met in AA to know what there’s doing. This is of great importance, especially to the …show more content…
Tradition 11 reminds us that ‘we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films’. We do this to protect AA from our egos and also, though this is more the Programme’s job, to protect ourselves from our egos. In the long form of Tradition 11 it says ‘Our names and pictures as AA members ought not be broadcast, filmed or publicly printed.’ And this means social media sites too. My full name and my picture are there on a public site. If I post on a social media site that I go to AA meetings I’m going against Tradition 11. Social media sites don 't have to know about our Traditions but we do and the onus is on us to understand them and work them in our sobriety. If someone is thinking of coming to AA and they see AA members identified as such on social media sites they might not come to AA for fear that their anonymity will be broken – and if they are alcoholic and don’t get sober they can die a slow or maybe not-so-slow horrible death. I’m not an expert on the inner workings of social media/networking sites but I did find out that a ‘closed group’ is not as private as I thought it would be with full names and profile pictures available for me to view before I had joined the group. Although I’m careful about my privacy settings I am still unsure about how it all works. I found the card printed by AA GB called ‘Hints and Suggestions on Internet Safety’ very helpful. The leaflet ‘Understanding Anonymity’ also available from AA GB, is great
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international organization of individuals who have struggled with drinking at some point in their lives. The main purpose of AA is to maintain our sobriety and help other alcoholics achieve recovery. The organization offers meetings in all cities and members can attend multiple meetings if they want to. They also provide different schedules and easily accessible meeting places that can be reached by public transportations. For instance, the AA meeting I attended was located in midtown Manhattan. It took place at the St. Mary the Virgin Church and started at 12:30 PM and ended at 01:30 PM. I have observed that some members attended the meeting during their lunch break. There are two types of meeting; open and closed. Closed meetings are only for members, but open meetings allow families and other community people to attend to see how AA helps people stay sober.
I attended the Alcohol Anonymous (AA) twelve step meeting on Friday December fourth at 8:00 p.m. at the community center at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills. The people were middle aged men and women of different ethnic backgrounds. The meeting started in an arranged fashion. I sat in the back and was addressed by an elderly man who wanted to know who I was to and I replied that I was a student writing a paper for school. He was fine with my answer and departed. The meeting started with people presenting themselves. First, there was an open conversation that started was with the storytelling of one member’s endeavors with alcoholism. After this heartwarming account, other people in the group provided how the
I have never experienced what it would be like to be a part of an AA meeting. The only time I have had seen or heard someone mention meetings for alcoholics has been TV shows and movies, which would portray these meeting as a circle of strangers just deliberating stories of their life and how this disease has changed them forever. Therefore, I had no idea what to expect. I felt intimidated and had a sense of nervousness, so I decided I would not go alone and brought a friend. My expectation upon entering this meeting was to see beat up people with bad hygiene and a homeless appearance. As a matter of fact, the expectations I had upon walking towards this place was that I was going to get hit on and even get kidnapped. As crazy as it sounds, all these thoughts came through my mind particularly because of the type of environment I expected it to be. For the most part, I was wrong. I was actually surprised at what I witnessed and I came to realize that I was over-reacting. Upon arrival, there were people spread out; some talking together and some sitting alone. The room was nothing like I imagined. It wasn't an auditorium or a gym like they showed on TV. This place which I had imagined to be a dreadful enclosed surface with maniacal individuals turned out to be a small room with sofas and tables to make guests feel welcomed, with regular looking men and women appearing to be middle-aged. I thought "There has to be something wrong, I can’t be convinced that all these people who seem normal to me have an addiction problem with alcoholism". My friend and I took a seat by the door just in case we wanted to make a quick exit.
For my group experiential activity, I chose to attend an open self-help group, Narcotics Anonymous, which is a support group that focuses on the healing and recovery process of people with addiction. The Narcotics Anonymous group was a very informal, open group in which members could come and go at their own free will and were not coerced to disclose any information that he or she did not feel comfortable sharing with the larger group. In addition, new members were welcome to attend. The group was comprised of approximately 19 group members and one group leader. I found it interesting that there were also children of recovering addicts present at the meeting because I was not aware that children could attend these meetings. Nonetheless, I found it very compelling to witness so many families present with their families because it showed that there was still a sense of social support present despite turmoil that the addiction may have caused. The purpose of the group was to engage in the recovery process with other group members but also to adhere to the group’s mission of providing an environment of recovery to those individuals who are still suffering with his or her addiction. The purpose of the group was clearly stated by the group leader during his introductory speech about welcoming new members who would like to share in the recovery process with other group members. Just from observing, there appeared to be a group leader, referred to as the “chairperson,” who provided a brief overview of the group and voluntarily asked members to participate with the reading of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of the Narcotics Anonymous program. In addition, the group leader facilitated the flow of the group members’ conversations and ...
Prior to attending Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, my expectation was a room fill with a bunch of unhappy used-to-be drunks to fulfill his or her court orders. I had no concept or no idea about an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. More likely, I did not want people to assume that I am an alcoholic because I was in the AA meeting. The only experience I ever had with an AA meeting is the one I have seen in the movies.
I attended an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in my neighborhood; officially called the Olive Branch Meeting. The meeting was offered as having a speaker and discussion, it lasted ninety minutes. The Big Book was referenced but it appeared that the speaker was the only one in possession of the Book. To my surprise a fellow Liberty University Student was there in the same capacity as I was, however she was enrolled in a different course. We sat together.
However, I knew someone who is currently a member of AA. His name is "PB". "PB" is the husband of my supervisor and he was more than willing to take me to a meeting and show me what Alcoholics Anonymous was all about. Before leaving for the meeting, I asked "PB" several questions. They ranged from the length of the meeting to specific problems some of the members. He told me not to be surprised if there were some members who were admitted alcoholics and narcotic addicts. As I questioned him further, he said that many of the people in that predicament were also former criminals. One person in particular was so involved with both drugs and alcohol that he nearly died at the emergency room from an alcohol overdose. Now that my questions were answered, I felt much more at ease and ready to go to the meeting.
Security versus privacy is becoming a major issue in today’s society. Recently, the National Security Agency has been the victim of scrutiny due to allegations of espionage. Similar claims not only stem from the authority, but also come from the public as well. For example, one is enjoying a night out in a restaurant when a group of teenagers arrives. Before it is noticed, some of the teenagers take photos with a cell phone. The picture encompasses most of the area occupied; therefore, every person in that general area is included in it. A few moments later, one teen uploads that picture to various social media websites to share along with captions stating the current location. Although not a single person gave consent, pictures are being circulated with thousands of strangers in the innumerable realms of the internet. Not only are these pictures all over the web and an invasion of privacy, but people viewing those pictures are able to discover recent whereabouts with the simple click of a button. Due to technology’s rapid advancements, similar acts such as these are becoming nearly inevitable. But, these are the very same advancements that help us live in a free and open society. In order to avoid intrusions yet maintain safety, restrictions should be put upon consumer devices, capabilities of security devices, and government abilities.
If a stranger would approach someone on the street, would one casually offer personal information to him? Would one allow him to follow and record one’s activities? Although it may be obvious in the concrete world that one would not allow it, the behavior of the general population on the Internet is strikingly different. While surfing websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google, many people provide personal details to enhance their online profile? These websites retain vast amounts of personal information from their users. Although this practice benefits the user as well, unrestricted profiling can become an alarming catastrophe. Unless the threat to internet users privacy are shown to exceed the benefits, we should not regulate the internet, rather we should educate the public how to be more responsible about their identities.
The first meeting was large with approximately 12 members, including the facilitator. My initial emotion internalized was amazement in the structure of the group. The structure of the group provides structure for the members which is crucial for those struggling with alcoholism. The initial sharing was from a young member of 26 who was struggling with sobriety and shared that he recently lost a child through miscarriage. I immediately became overwhelmed in the rawness of his visible emotions (crying). As I observed other members while he was sharing his story, they were intently listening to him. When the sharer finished, the group acknowledged him and another sharer started with his name and “I am an alcoholic”. I appreciated the structure of this transition. The emotion seemed to fill the room and it impacted how everyone addressed their next sharing. The following members shared in the direction of the first sharer and related to the difficulties and provided advise. During the exchange of emotion between members, I continued to be overwhelmed with the emotions internally. The second meeting that I attended was smaller but still provided that set structure and “family” feel of group members. Emotion and exchange of emotion was present as well. I chose to attend this meeting twice because I was impressed and overwhelmed by the first meeting, I had to attend again to gain more
Attending an A.A meeting for anyone may be hard. According to, “Psychiatry and Wellness”, “Practically nobody looks forward to going to their first AA meeting.” Alcoholics or recovering addicts may feel the same way I felt when attending their first A.A meeting. Some alcoholics may feel worse than I did. Some alcoholics may feel ashamed to attend an A.A meetings. Some alcoholics may be scared or have fear to go to an A.A meeting because they do not know what to expect. The thought of attending an A.A meeting may be worse than actually attending an A.A
The rapid growth in technology has been impressive over the past 20 years from television graphics and multi-purpose phones to world-wide connections. Unfortunately, the government is having trouble with this growth to protect the people from having their privacy violated due to the information being stored electronically. In “The Anonymity Experiment”, by Catherine Price, states how easily a person can be track and how personal can be lost. Also, in “Social Security and ID theft”, by Felipe Sorrells, states how social security numbers and personal identities can be stolen and how the government is trying to stop that theft. They both intertwine with technology and privacy though Price's article has a broad overview of that, while Sorrells's focus is mainly on social security number and identity thief part. Price and Sorrells shows that companies are taking too much advantage from the customer, the government, even though their trying, needs to start helping the people protect their privacy, and a balance between the amount of trust people should have giving out their sensitive records to which information is protected.
When we mention the word ‘privacy’, we mean that there is something very personal about ourselves. Something that we think others are not supposed to know, or, we do not want them to. Nevertheless, why is it so? Why are people so reluctant to let others know about them entirely? This is because either they are afraid of people doing them harm or they are scared that people may treat them differently after their secrets are known. Without privacy, the democratic system that we know would not exist. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which our country was established. Moreover, with the internet gaining such popularity, privacy has become a thing of the past. People have come to accept that strangers can view personal information about them on social networking sites such as Facebook, and companies and the government are constantly viewing a person’s activity online for a variety of reasons. From sending email, applying for a job, or even using the telephone, Americans right to privacy is in danger. Personal and professional information is being stored, link, transferred, shared, and even sold. Various websites, the government and its agencies, and hospitals are infringing our privacy without our permission or knowledge.
At the meeting it was clear that there was a specific agenda to follow from the second you walked in the door to the second you left. The meeting took place in the basement of the church. When arriving, a women stood welcoming everyone who walked into the door. The individuals knew immediately that I was a college student there to write a paper and instantly brought it to everyone’s attention by asking jokingly to not talk bad about them. Looking back I am a little bothered by them immediately assuming this. Although I was a college student there to write a paper, what if I was actually there to participate in the AA meeting? It made me wonder what happens to younger individuals looking for help and if they are turned off from meetings because of situations like this. They were still very welcoming but that initial impression...
The question relates to Anonymity, this is when a person is unknown and unacknowledged, so others cannot know their identity. In the old law in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 it stated that a victim and defendant of an alleged sexual offence were both granted anonymity. So, with regarding to the media it destined that the victims and defendants of rape and other sexual offences could not be identified or published in the media, including photos or any other details that could lead to their identification. However, the anonymity protection for defendants was removed by the Criminal Justice Act 1988 S.158(5) and remains the same today, with much debate due to unfairness seen as victims still hold their lifelong anonymity protection.