12 Step Meeting
The meeting I attended took place in Bothell on a weeknight at 7:00 pm in the evening. The meeting was held in a local church and there were 17 people in attendance, excluding myself. Among the 17 people, there were 6 women and 11 men. The average attendee was approximately between the ages of 40-50, 4 people were under the age of 30, and two were somewhere around 60. Of the 17 people, 16 were white and one woman was of an Asian-American descent.
The focus of the meeting was Step #2 –humility. There were a few AA birthdays and in general the meeting consisted out of birthday-people reliving their stories and some talking about humility.
Prior to the meeting I was expecting to enter into a room filled with smoke and nervous, agitated people. My impression of AA and of alcoholics mostly came from movies and my own prior experience with population suffering from different psychiatric disorders. I was expecting a lot of smoking, coffee drinking, twitching and general nervous behaviors. To my surprise the meeting mostly was attended, by normal in appearance people, that I would never suspect of having any addiction problems. The people were not twitching (to my surprise), but instead were very calm, cool and collected. Many talked about God and holding AA as the higher power in their lives.
The meeting I attended best compares with the meetings I saw in the film 28 Days. While in rehabilitation center Gwen attends a series of inside the rehab meetings. As in the 28 Days meetings, the meeting I attended was held in a circle with people facing each other. There were no outbursts as in the movie, but there was an official “huger” who dispensed hugs as needed, be it a birthdays or a new attendee such as my self. Movie consisted of constant outbursts at therapy sessions, emotions of the film characters were all over the place, people were angry, happy or depressed. The people at the meeting I attended were mostly quiet and most seemed very depressed. I came away form the meeting, with enormous feeling of sadness, for all attending.
Many of the stories heard by me at the meeting coincided with different stories, from 28 days. Just like Gwen in the beginning of the movie crashed her car and was court ordered to go into rehab, many of the people at the meeting had similar fates.
...ethnicity or culture; it happens to anyone such as, doctors, lawyers, teacher, judges, students and many more. My observation of the meeting was that every member seemed to really listen to each other’s sharing, where each member shared an experience, and others could relate to that particular experience or had similar experiences, such as struggling with promiscuous behavior or relapses in attending meetings, but they still stuck with the program because they wanted change in their lives. No one was rushed in their sharing, and everyone was opened and friendly. It was a cohesive group. I felt a sense of that openness, when I was introduced to everyone, and included at close of the meeting, where everyone one formed a circle, held hands and recited the serenity prayer. Overall, it was a new and knowledgeable experience Another Chance gave me.
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
Alcoholism is as prevalent in my family, as blood is in our veins. When previously asked to observe 12-step groups, I ritualistically flocked to Alcoholics Anonymous, without consideration of the possibility that other groups had any potential to make an impact on me. I always pride myself in my ability to identify as an individual that is not ensnared in alcoholism, but unfortunately am an individual that was highly tormented by alcoholism. Through observation of the group and how it processed, as well as identifying how I felt as a new attendee, I was able to understand why self-help, support groups are so vital for individuals in recovery. I finally realized, I too am in recovery.
Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave narrates the author’s life story as a free Africa-American man from New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Northup was born and raised, lived, worked, married, and raised a family in New York as a free black male. Northup was a farmer, and a multi-task laborer and also a talented violin player. In the year of 1841, two scam men offered him profitable work playing violin in a circus, and then Northup think about the offer and traveled with them to Washington, D.C., where he was drugged, and sold as a slave into the Red River region of Louisiana.
...or a chivalric Knight embodies the battle of the righteous self against corruption. Gawain’s strength comes from his discovery of his own flaws. Beowulf’s ideals concerning honor and nobility exist only within the context of his society. Remove him from other people, and his life would be meaningless. This is the true flaw of Beowulf, which the character of Gawain, by the end of his story, comes to realize. The notion of "winning" can be applied at all times to the personality of the chivalric Knight. The battleground becomes the mind, which is separate from the realm of reality. Beowulf does not have the capability to win, without the recognition of his fellow warriors. Within the mind, all sorts of battles are waged. The true winner is the person who can learn from that struggle, and who is able to apply that knowledge within both solitary and societal venues.
The different therapies throughout treatment allow for a variety of ways to break the addiction and focus on other aspects of life. One of the treatments featured a health class in which Gwen learned about liver cirrhosis and was able to see what would happen to her body if her addictions continued. This class allowed the participants to get a view on what the drugs and alcohol or other addictions really did to the body and why stopping is crucial. Another type of therapy is group therapy. This type of therapy consists of everyone sitting in a circle, admitting their wrong-doings and using “feeling words” to describe emotions that may be occurring. This type of therapy shows that treatment programs rely on the personal experience of everyone in order to help others. The teamwork and interconnectedness between participants made each individual feel like there was someone on their side. Some other therapies involved in the treatment program included character feeling done with the horses, emotional expression when Gwen blew off her anger, different therapeutic tools such as the signs around the neck and connected therapy with family members or children. The variety of therapies portrayed throughout the film allow treatment programs to be open to anyone that learns and changes differently from
The majority of the information in this novel has to do with Solomon’s own experiences. As a slave, Northup was cut off from sources of other news of the nation. The ...
One thing I admired about each of the individuals at the meeting was that all of them held their selves accountable to fight their addiction. Each one of these people could have been consumed with something else on that Wednesday night, but instead, they all choose to come together to become a better version of themselves. They stated that if they didn’t attend the meeting that night they would all feel more likely to fall back into their addictions. Many of them reported attending a meeting multiple times a week. Thus, I was impressed when learning how frequent NA meetings are held. One of the members had informed me that some groups will run every night of the week. Therefore, making it hard for someone to come up with an excuse to miss a
While the group therapy sessions are supposed to bring the patients problems out in the open
. Slavery was ongoing for many years, which ruined many people’s lives. White people believed that African-Americans were inferior. The slaves were forced into labor, punished, and treated poorly. Slaves involvement took away the most important thing in human life, freedom. During this time there were many influential slaves. Solomon Northup, an African-American slave who was kidnapped and sold into slavery was one of them. He is one of the world’s most important historical figures. Northup is known world wide for the movie and book based on his biography, 12 years a slave. By publishing the unbearable aspects of his life in captivity as a slave, Northup brought to light the sadism of American slavery. He raised awareness in audiences, and brought national attention to the injustices.
However, rather than treating an addiction like a disease, society treats addiction by stigmatizing the person like a failure, and criminal. Those who suffer with this disease, both the addict, and their friends and family, are usually isolated by judgment and embarrassment from others, who are unaware and ignorant to the issue. As a result, the disease sadly often goes unrecognized and untreated, especially among the poor, and those who are unable to get proper treatment. Once again, I am very happy after attending my second meeting, and it has an overall great experience. I wish more people were open to meetings to see how great and beneficial they are to all kinds of people, and this summer that is my goal to open others up to attending meetings that could help benefit
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
Coming into the substance abuse meeting the student nurse was scared and nervous. She was scared of the reaction of the consumers and feared all the stereotypes she heard about typical alcoholics. Innervison gave the student nurse a new outlook on these types of consumers. She no longer looked at them as people who were just drunks and wanted to use AA as an excuse to make it seem like they are getting help. She never really looked at alcoholism as a true addiction; it seemed like more of an excuse to escape life’s problems. Sitting in and listening to these consumers gave the student nurse a dose of reality. The student nurse now understands alcoholism better and AA helped her realize recovery is truly a process that takes one day and one step at a time.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been around for more than 75 years. The biggest controversy about AA is if it is effective or not. Some people find AA to be an effective aid to sobriety; others find AA to be damaging and can lead to increased drinking. AA meetings are groups of people with the desire to quit drinking that help one another achieve and maintain sobriety. These meetings may include readings from the Big Book, sharing stories, discussing the traditions and 12 steps, and celebrating members’ sobriety. Because AA is anonymous, many people feel that participating in a study would be a breach
The group members chosen was an African-American male, Caucasian female, and an African-American/Puerto Rican lesbian. Their ages eighty, sixty-one, and forty-three respectively. Each participant was chosen as a representation of diversity across age, gender, ethic, and social backgrounds. The African-American male is a retired labor movement organizer and has a daughter who has been clean now for several years. The Caucasian female is a therapist in the field of addiction and has twenty-two years clean. The African-American/Puerto Rican lesbian is a dog groomer who has struggled with staying clean for the past twenty-three years. Each person chosen has a personal connection my father, my sponsor, and my ex-partner of three years. Although the group appears to be diverse they all have a common denominator each on...