Alcoholics Anonymous - Twelve Step Recovery Program

Alcoholics Anonymous - Twelve Step Recovery Program

Introduction

Addiction is a curse. It not only affects the user but has many repercussions for the family of the user. The alcohol intake is very common in the United States of America where people consume it personally and even socially. This alcohol intake becomes an addiction when people cannot control the amount they are consuming. This becomes a habit and dependence for the alcoholic. This dependence and over consumption of alcohol destroys the mind and body of the person beyond repair. An alcoholic is generally seen as person with thick skull and vacant heart (VandenBos, 2009).

The open meeting that I have attended is of Alcoholics Anonymous. The membership criteria for these meetings is simple, the desire to quit drinking. The discussions in these meetings are limited to the problem of drinking and the problems that arise from it. These meetings take place on a weekly basis. I attended the meeting this last weekend. This meeting is attended not only by the alcoholics themselves but also by the Al-Anons or the people who are closely related to an alcoholic. Since, it was an open meeting; I was allowed to attend it as a listener though I did not reveal the purpose behind my attendance.

The open meeting

The open meetings are conducted in the form of a lecture. The speakers are invited to come over and share their experiences. These experiences are shared not only during the usage period but also during their time in the rehabilitation centers and their struggle afterward. These are people who have benefitted from the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step program and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The twelve step program is a guiding principle and is supposed to help the addicts recover from the substance misuse (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2002).

The meeting took place at the neighborhood restaurant for old people which have been reserved for the purpose on the weekends. The restaurant had a very plain ambiance. The seats on the round tables were arranged to face the small stage set up at the right. This is where the speakers share their experience and then give the audience a chance to share their (Angres, 2008).

The people who were attending the meeting all had their own stories. They were all very tragic to me. I was really touched by the story of a young man. He was 23 when he realized what a mess his life had become. When he came to, he found his parents driving him to the facility. It was at that time that life posed the catch 22 situation in front of him. He had a difficult choice to make. Either he had to give up seeing twenty four or he had to do the impossible of falling out of his smoking. The second one seems like an easy choice but for a person who has been there and done that, it means the exercise of a will power that is super human, ...