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The three groups per the instructions that must be compared and contrasted are Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon (for family member/friends of alcoholics). I have attached my observations and findings for the meetings below for some additional clarification. Please let me know if you are confused and need further instructions.
For my first meeting, I chose to attend a Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting via the online support community In the Rooms. NA is a self-help group where the focus is usually on the common disease of addiction rather than the particular substance/chemical that is being used (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020).
I chose this platform because they had numerous meetings a day that were easily accessible. In this online format there was one group leader/moderator with varying amounts of individuals in the audience. If an audience member wanted to share something, they would request to share, the group moderator would select the members and place them in a waiting queue. When it was an individuals opportunity to speak, the group moderator allotted a specific amount of time, three minutes, for each individual to share their stories and experiences with the room.
I attended a NA meeting where the meeting name was Spiritual Practices and the topic of the meeting was “Just for Today”. At the beginning of the meeting the group moderator shared a non denominational spiritual message regarding grace and dealing with the difficulties of life in a day by day approach. He also went over the rules of the room regarding respect, being considerate of sharing time and also the confidentiality of the group members and the type of behavior that would not be accepted (identifying individuals outside of their chosen screennames, sharing any identifying or personal information about oneself or anyone else and not giving any negative or judgmental advice).
Once the meeting got started, various individuals came up and shared their name and that they were an addict. Some people shared the amount of time that they had been free of substance use while some members shared their experience regarding relapse. Each member who shared attempted to encourage the members in the room to trust themselves, strive to make positive choices and to take recovery one day at a time. While I did find this room and the people sharing to be motivational and transparent, I felt myself getting uncomfortable with members of the group who shared their difficulties with recurrent relapses, getting into substance abuse facilities to only get out and do the same thing. For instance, a young man who was 28 years old shared that he had just gotten out of a detox program, and he was at the meeting based on court orders. He has overdosed and spent 5 days in the hospital and was released. He was transparent but related his purpose for recovery for not wanting to go to prison. I found it hard to empathize because he wasn’t really interested in true recovery but only meeting a sentence requirement. NA promotes a radical change in one’s behavior and does not focus on abstinence to maintain longevity in recovery (Dekkers et. al, 2020). The gentleman who was there by court order did not sound as if he wanted to change his behavior and I therefore questioned if he would really receive anything helpful from being in this meeting. Overall, the meeting appeared to be helpful to those who truly were receptive to the message and shared their positive stories.
References:
Capuzzi, D., Stauffer, M. (202)0) Foundations of addiction counseling, Fourth Edition (4th Edition)., Pearson Education, Inc.
Dekkers, A., Vos, S. & Vanderplasschen, W. “Personal recovery depends on NA unity”: an exploratory study on recovery-supportive elements in Narcotics Anonymous Flanders. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 15, 53 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-020-00296-0
For my second meeting, I chose to attend an Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) meeting via the online support community In the Rooms. NA is a self-help group that aims to offer support for sobriety for alcoholics and recovering alcoholics while using the 12-step approach (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020). Also in the United States, AA is the most sougth after form of treatment for alcoholism (Kelly et. al, 2020).
I chose this platform because they had numerous meetings a day that were easily accessible. In this online format there was one group leader/moderator with varying amounts of individuals in the audience. If an audience member wanted to share something, they would request to share, the group moderator would select the members and place them in a waiting queue. When it was an individuals opportunity to speak, the group moderator allotted a specific amount of time, three minutes and 30 seconds, for each individual to share their stories and experiences with the room.
I attended an AA meeting where the meeting topic was Self Confidence and Will Power. There were about 350 people in this meeting. At the beginning of the meeting the group moderator did a brief overview of the meeting topic, shared some personal information about himself such as how long he had been sober, his purpose for being the group moderator and how the online community is a safe space for alcoholics to express their triumphs and tribulations in recovery.
In this meeting, most of the individuals sharing had already made it through the 12 step program and were there sharing how they had been operating in the realm of will power and self confidence in order to maintain sobriety and a positive way of life. One of the audience members who really left a lasting impression was an older gentleman who had shared that he had been sober for over 14 years. He shared t that the largest part of his sobriety was realizing his own thoughts and problems with regards to his past relapses. He admitted that he was drinking excessively not to feel because navigating his feelings caused turmoil for him. He then added that once he stopped drinking his feelings seem not to be so difficulty for him because he could actually feel. I was actually able to empathize and sympathize with this gentleman because he took accountability for his behavior and shared meaningful advise that I felt could really help someone else.
References:
Capuzzi, D., Stauffer, M. (202)0) Foundations of addiction counseling, Fourth Edition (4th Edition)., Pearson Education, Inc.
John F Kelly, Alexandra Abry, Marica Ferri, Keith Humphreys, Alcoholics Anonymous and 12-Step Facilitation Treatments for Alcohol Use Disorder: A Distillation of a 2020 Cochrane Review for Clinicians and Policy Makers, Alcohol and Alcoholism, Volume 55, Issue 6, November 2020, Pages 641–651, https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agaa050
For my second meeting, I chose to attend an Al-ANON meeting via the online support community In the Rooms. AL-ANON is a self-help group that aims to offer support for for family members, friends and other individuals whose lives have been impacted by an individual who is an alcoholic or recovering alcoholic who is working towards sobriety (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2020). Al-Anon also implements a 12-step model that is followed to increase positive social outcomes, increased quality of life and decrease of negative symptoms that are associated with alcoholism (Timko et. al, 2015).
In this online format there was one group leader/moderator with varying amounts of individuals in the audience. If an audience member wanted to share something, they would request to share, the group moderator would select the members and place them in a waiting queue. When it was an individuals’ opportunity to speak, the group moderator allotted a specific amount of time, two minutes and 30 seconds, for each individual to share their stories and experiences with the room.
There were about 414 people in this meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, the group moderator welcomed the audience and gave the reason for the meeting and encouraged individuals who wished to share to be feel safe in the online space and to share within the time limits that had been established.
Out of all of the meeting that I attended, I felt as if this one was the most beneficial to me. Maybe because I have an alcoholic father whose behavior and life choices, to this day affects my quality of life. The members of this group encouraged the audience to set boundaries, practice in good self care and to remind themselves that we could not save or change a person or their behavior. This related to me because understanding the things that I could not change in relation to my father and how they affect me felt like I was lifting a weight off of my shoulders to be responsible for him. Prior to my mother dying in 2018, she shared with me to look after him and make sure that he was ok but in reality, this group helped me to realize that I could not force him to change and that change would only be a result of the family member’s own will power. I felt encouraged and empowered after attending this meeting.
References:
Capuzzi, D., Stauffer, M. (202)0) Foundations of addiction counseling, Fourth Edition (4th Edition)., Pearson Education, Inc.
Timko, C., Halvorson, M., Kong, C., & Moos, R. H. (2015). Social processes explaining the benefits of Al-Anon participation. Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 29(4), 856–863. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000067
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