Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meeting Experience: The 12 Steps to Attain and Maintain Sobriety

Philosophy of the Meeting

Task:

1.Anonymous (AA) is best known for the 12-step programs. The 12-step model has been adopted worldwide. Anyone with the desire to quit drinking or using substances is welcome to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Individuals learn how to be sober through the support of other members who have achieved sobriety through 12 steps. (Varcarolis, 2020, p.427). The 12 steps that embody the philosophy of AA Provide specific guidelines on how to attain and maintain sobriety.

2.Philosophy of the meeting: Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) emphasizes personal accountability, abstinence, humility, honesty, powerlessness over addiction and connection with a greater Power. In the AA meetings, participants walk through the 12 steps with a sponsor who is more experienced in recovery to support them. Members do

3.The meeting held at and sponsored by: - The meeting was held at Katy 12 and 12 AA groups. The address is 5108 East 5th street, Katy TX 77493. The meeting was an open meeting (OM), which meant that most of the time was spent listening to members give their testimony of their journey with alcohol. It was sponsored by the members.

4.The demographic make-up of the group: There were 18 people in attendance, 10 males and 8 females, excluding myself. The attendees were between the ages of approximately 25-65, with the average age being approximately 30-40. The attendees were predominantly of Caucasians, Hispanic, and African American races.

5.The ground rules for the meetings: Keep confidentiality - The meeting opened with the meeting leader stating the AA preamble and ground rules for the meeting. It was followed by a member called Cundi who reminded the members of the 12 Steps and read from a book they called big book, I think this was their tradition. The big book consists of all they believe in and experiences of people who have successfully quit alcohol because they joined the AA group and they read this because it reminds them of what the group is all about. Afterwards, she shared a personal experience and her feelings on the passage. Each shared experiences while relating it to the book.  They would begin by first saying “I am Bob, I am an alcoholic". The group would respond by saying "Hi Bob". After someone finished sharing, the group responded with "Thanks, Bob". At about 40 minutes, the leader stated that in keeping with the 7th Tradition of Self-support they would “pass the basket” for contributions. Following this, sobriety tokens and “24 hour promise” coins were distributed. At the end of the meeting the leader asked all to stand, hold hands, and recite the “Lord’s Prayer” and the "Serenity Prayer”. At the end of the prayers, the group shouted "keep coming back; it works if you work it.”

Meeting Location and Sponsor

6. The interaction that took place while the meeting was in session: The interaction in this AA meeting was warm and cordial. The meeting started with a man introducing himself and another followed, I later understood that the man was the meeting chairperson for that day. The chairperson then read the AA Preamble and led the group’s opening prayer which most of them also recited. As the meeting progressed, the chair asked if anyone was attending AA for the first time. Three people raised their hands; which I was one of them. The new members were welcome and asked to introduce themselves. After which another member read from the Big Book: The big book consists of all they believe in and experiences of people who has successful quit alcohol because they joined the AA group and they read this often in each meetings because it reminds them of all the group is all about Alcoholics Anonymous to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered “from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body”. The chairperson recounted his own personal story with addiction. I was surprised how the group handled his story in a positive way. I noticed at times members laughed and even smiled and others made brief supporting comments. Rather than judge the events of her life, the group members seemed to connect in a personal way. Then after the chair had finished her friend took over and told the group about her struggle with alcohol. Several other women shared their testimonies on how they lived in denial of the alcoholic problem and up till they got a DWI and knew they needed the support group to help them pull through the walls of alcohol.

Another story that I was really intrigued about was the story of a lady whom I will call Lady S; she was married for 20 years and was abused for 16 years by her husband and before he was sent to jail. She recounted how she stayed in the marriage and her mental state of health was down. She was drinking to not remember how or what the husband did to her and after he was in prison, she could not stop. She was addicted to it. She tries to quit, but she could only be away for 9 days in the year before she joins the AA group and she has been sober for 3 years now. {And had a little child of about 2 years old and every night after work she would drink and end up on the bathroom floor, the next day she will go to work and in her drawer were medications and other things she used for her hangovers. One day Lady S saw how her addiction to alcohol was affecting her job, her son and husband,} at that point she knew she needed help in dealing with the helplessness of using alcohol. She attended an AA meeting and started the recovery journey; right now she's been five years sober and in today’s meeting was given a coin medal of achievement. On the Medal of Honor for her five year victory over alcohol was this inscription “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.” And on the other side of the coin is “To thine own self be true.” She had the motivation to carry on by having the coins on her always. We had other participants who were given medals for the different number of years they have stayed sober and are sponsors to new participants.

One thing I noticed was once the member sharing her personal experience finishes, he/she calls another member to share his/her own story to sobriety too until almost every member shared their personal story. The new member was encouraged to take a challenge to stop drinking that day and also start their journey to sobriety. They also gave couples pamphlets to study and copies of summarized big books.
Excellent piece of work—very detailed!

7. The primary theme or themes: The theme that seemed to dominate the group process is the 12 steps and 12 traditions. The steps are directly related to the stated reason for the group meetings. In the meeting I attended step 1 which states that “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol- that our lives had become unmanageable”. This was the step that allowed participants to share their testimony about alcohol struggle openly and how they were able to get great support from their sponsors to stay sober. One of the traditions that was continually emphasized during the meeting was tradition number one which states that “Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A unity”. This tradition creates room for bonding of the participants and that recovery of any participant is possible if we all do it together by supporting one another.

Sometimes the group do have specific daily topic of the day for discussions.

8. The major functional problem areas of the group members are: Alcoholism, manipulative reactions to stress, living in denial about the situation of alcohol use, displacement of responsibilities, loss of job, DWI tickets leading to jail terms, anxiety, fear of failure, ill health and inability to cope on their own. Alcohol abuse has an adverse effect on the life of the user. Some health issues have been connected to the use of alcohol such as: alcoholic (-hepatitis, gastritis, liver disease, hepatic failure, cardiomyopathy, fibrosis and sclerosis of the liver), alcohol induced acute pancreatitis, Fetal alcohol syndrome, and cancer. The effect of alcohol on an individual cannot be underestimated, so for individuals who have the intention to quit the AA program is a group to join and get the support system needed to make the changes.