An AA Meetings Self-Reflection

For a very long time, I was interested in joining and understanding how the AA program works. In the past, I have had stories of the anonymous alcoholism meeting, and I have also met few people who give testimonies of how the AA meeting was a success for them. The first AA meeting I attended was at St Peters Anglican Church. Every Saturday afternoon, the church hosts a group of people who have had alcohol addiction problem in the past. Being my first meeting, I arrived on time, and this is because I did not want too much attention on me by coming late nor did I want to disrupt the meeting proceedings. I arrived at the church at 3.30pm, and the meeting was scheduled to begin at 4.00pm. When I arrived, I found four people already reached. The four sat outside the church chatting and from the look of things they seemed very close. I was impressed, however, with how fast they walked towards me, said hello, and welcomed me as they acknowledged having not seen me before. They were friendly, and as soon as they introduced themselves we began making conversations, and I immediately felt like a member of the group.

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As we sat and made conversations, more people joined. At first, when I arrived, the four people I met were young adult people of age 30-40 years. In my mind, I thought the meeting was only for young adults, however as time passed more people of different ages joined. The group was mixed up since there were people of all ages, ethnicity, and gender. Every person seemed to know each other however, few kept a distance. As the time for the meeting neared, we were directed to a room behind the church with many chairs. Quietly people took their seats, and I realized by the time the meeting begun more than 15 people were present and more were coming.

The meeting was adjourned by the group patron who introduced himself as revered Dr. Mccloud, and he proceeded to explain his role in the group. Based on his explanation, he was just there to keep order and offer insight when the need arose but not as the leader. The group was autonomous, and every person was a leader. The group had formed rotational leadership calendar that gave every person a role and an opportunity to serve others. The group had a protocol which was followed. First was prayers followed by acknowledging and welcoming visitors. The meeting was commenced with a prayer from one of the group members. Every visitor was to introduce him or herself and tell the people what brought him or her to the meeting. In this day, the group had five visitors I included. We all had our time for introduction, and as soon as we finished, others in the meeting introduced themselves. I would say by the time I left the meeting I knew every person and reasons why they were in the group.

An AA meeting has 12 steps, and since the group was open for visitors at any time, the group had divisions after the introduction people regrouped themselves into two groups. All the newcomers were placed in one group, while the others formed one group and the patron joined our group. Being first timers, we were all curious as to the newcomers were placed in a different group. According to the patron explanation, an AA meeting has 12 stages, and it was best for newcomers to cover the first four steps together as first timers and later join the more significant group. I did not like the idea much since I do not want attention on me. Being in a group where all of us were new, we had to open up amongst ourselves and tell our story, and much focus would be placed on every person. Since I brought myself to the program, I had no choice but to fit in, after all, everyone was uncomfortable as I was.

The newcomers meeting started by doing another introduction and later the patron took use through the first four steps of the AA meeting. The first step was to admit of our substance use and powerlessness over alcohol use. The second step was to learn there was a higher power to restore every person to sanity. The third step was to acknowledge the divine power of God and accept to turn lives to God, and the last and fourth step was to search for a moral inventory. Although many including myself seemed unconformable at first with the regrouping, I now understand better the program which would not have to happen if we all remained as a group.

The second meeting and the other three that followed I was no longer in the newcomer's group. We were placed in the larger group but with a deep understanding of the program. I had no objective for the meeting, but after the newcomer meeting, I knew what I wanted to achieve by the end of the program. In the big group, I realized in each session; people gave stories randomly of their past experiences and others would give testimonies of their progress. Also on two of the meetings, there were motivational speakers present. Through people's testimonies and stories, I learned different things. For example, I discovered that it was easy to relapse even after doing in the program and alcoholism could result in depression and suicide. So many people shared such experiences, and it is obvious quitting alcohol is not an easy path. Apart from the learning, I realized that AA meetings very religious. I always thought AA meetings are good examples of a psychological healing plan rather than spiritual healing. However, I would associate this observation with the fact that AA meeting is founded on ideas of divine power.

After analyzing the experience, I would say AA meeting give people a chance to meet people who share similar struggles, and together they work together towards achieving one's objectives. The AA meeting also provides a lot of teaching and learning. Learning was all round as people of different ages, genders, and ethnicity gave different experiences and although stories were almost similar some had new insight to offer. The speakers and the patron were also quite useful in giving people hope and guiding people throughout the program. I feel that the group strategy to first welcome newcomers, then enlighten them of the task and later let them free to mingle and hear other peoples stories is a great and practical approach that makes people comfortable and give them a goal. Any person who visits this group is likely to feel welcome and at homes since the people are all friendly and welcoming too.