I currently work at a hospital and am only exposed to the start or relapse and want to seek help. Originally thought that AAA meeting were designated to tell those in need of help how to not relapse. However gained the knowledge that they are not there for themselves but for those who need and in turn those in need help them. They allowed people who were new or if it was their first meeting to introduce themselves and tell their story of the fight of addiction related to alcohol, they then opened with a prayer.
They then proceeded to go over the twelve steps and twelve traditions of alcoholic’s anonymous. The meeting began with a man named Joe, who offered to read a book related to withdrawing from alcohol. Frank was in his late ass’s and shared that he was hooked on alcohol for 30 years, and had been sober for almost 4 years, thanks to the constant AAA meetings like this one. He shared about the effects of alcohol in his life and how it took his wife, children and money away from him. Franks experience was a good start to the sharing session, the others then like him followed on with their stories.
I was taken back and impressed with the fact that the groups had an awards yester for reaching sobriety for a certain period of time whether it was 30 days or 30 years. After the awards were given out for those who had reached a certain amount of sobriety the chapter meeting moved on to the struggles that those people in attendance were having throughout the week or weeks and concluded with a closing prayer. The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous 1 . We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. . Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over o the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Make a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought wrought prayer and meditations to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. The Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous – Short Form 1 . Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon AAA unity. 2.
