Visiting An Aa Meeting: A Reflection

I have attended an AA meeting at 2434 Sylvania Ave on Wednesday, October 30th. The meeting lasted for an hour, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm. The meeting is every Wednesday, which starts at non and ends at 1:00 pm.

I have never attended an actual AA meeting. I don’t have any family members or long relatives that have experienced AA meetings or have told me what AA meetings are like. The only portrayal I have of AA meeting are what I see on the television and TV shows. TV shows often portray AA meetings as a dark place. Usually, the characters are portrayed as being in a rough time in their life and struggling with addiction. Based off this portrayal, I expected the AA meeting to be somewhat like this. My expectations were that we will be in a room with other alcoholics and they will engage in friendly conversation. The conversations that they have is portrayed in the TV shows as just conversations that ask about how their daily life is going. For example, in TV shows they will have the characters asking each other about how their week has been. They usually don’t bring up the topic of alcohol too much in the TV shows. Instead, they try to sway away from the topic of alcohol and instead talk about experiences they have had with family members, or just sharing random stories they had. This is the expectation that I had in mind. In TV shows, they usually engage in a prayer prior to starting the meeting. Also, the group is usually positive towards one another. They try to bring each other up and try to be as positive as they can towards one another.

When I attended the AA meeting, I had these expectations in minds. I knew that there will be some differences as TV shows portrayal of these sorts of things are sometimes not the same, but I thought it would be an accurate representation. Before the meeting started, everyone was going around the room talking to each other. I felt like everyone in the room knew each other from before and I was the only new one. The meeting chairperson then came up to me and introduced herself to me. We all then sat down, and the chairperson introduced herself again in front of everyone. He led a group prayer. Nearly everyone in the room knew the words to the prayer, but I didn’t so I didn’t know what to do. I just sat in silence and observed. After the prayer, multiple group members started talking about their own stories with addiction and their experiences with addiction. When one ember was saying their story, the other group members would support the person as much as they can. They would say positive comments and smile with each other. Most of the group members took turns with their stories. Al of the group members were being extremely honest and upright with their stories. I had a feeling that the group members felt a personal connection with each other.

After attending the meeting, I thought it was a good experience. It was nice to see how the meeting that I attended compared to what I would see on TV shows. Like I said before, TV shows usually portrayed it as a negative pace and the group members were in a negative time in their lives. Although this may be true, the members were still being as positive as possible during the meeting. They all shared their stores with all honesty, and they all supported each other with comments. The members were all going along with each other and looked like they were happy to attend the meeting. None of the members looked like they were forced to attend. Also, the chairperson for the meeting was very nice in how he communicated and interacted with the group members. He was a former addict herself, so he knows what it’s like for all the group members that are currently battling addiction. My reflection for this meeting is that its really nice to have a group with you battling the same thing as you are, and you guys can support each other through the whole process. I have never battled addiction before, but I know if I do battle it would be really nice a helpful to have a group with me that can help me through my ups and downs and stay with me through the whole process. It would also be really nice to share stories with other members that have had similar experiences as me.