AAA

Alcoholics Anonymous Attendance Report

Eric Fournier

Liberty University Online

Introduction

    Attending an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group was a very interesting experience, especially since I’ve had difficulty with alcohol in my past.  It was fun to be able to experience a group setting as an observer and the participants of the group I attended were very welcoming to have someone who is training to be a counselor attend their group.  The group was an open group called The At Last Group, and they met in the local United Church of Milton’s basement.  The group itself lacked an official leader and the point of contact I used to gain knowledge about the group was the senior pastor Jeff Cornwell, though he did not have much knowledge of group interactions.  Two other groups met at the church at the same time as AA, the boy scouts and the church choir practice.  The second group meeting I attended the AA group actually experienced conflict with the boy scout group because of a church scheduling mishap.  It was interesting to see how the AA group handled the conflict, especially without a designated leader.  How conflict and group decision making was handled was also an interesting process to witness.  Even though my role was to observe, due to my past struggles with alcohol and the damage that alcohol had on my relationships, I was able to take part in some of the discussions and learned some interesting things about myself and was able to grow through this group experience.  I am even now still attending the AA group in order to keep learning about my past struggle and hope to keep growing through my experience, personally and as a budding counselor.  
Text Book Observations
    The topic of AA is discussed by Jacobs in chapter 17 of his text and the one point that really stands out to me is that AA leaders should be skilled in the cutting off technique.  What he says about it is this, (2012) “the leader needs to use cutting-off skills because addicts, especially alcoholics who often want to tell their story over and over again.  Many leaders who have worked with alcoholics have said that cutting-off the long winded stories has proven very valuable in allowing for more sharing and interaction… (Jacobs, pp 430, 431).”  What I observed was a lack of this in the group and I did experience a sensation of boredom as the same person shared the same story each week I attended, it wasn’t just one person that shared their story, but multiple.  A few weeks there were guests from other groups that shared that they had come to attend our group this week because they were growing tired of hearing the same stories from their normal group.  It appears that in my area there is a problem with nesting.  A lot of group members of the group I attended to have been attending AA for 30 plus years.  Therefore, I believe it is inevitable that the same story will be shared week after week, and for those members who are truly struggling with the boredom must venture out to other groups.  It is fortunate that I live in close proximity to a lot of groups, but this is a rural area and some people have to drive an hour, plus some time to get to the next nearest group.  Having a leader who is skilled in the cutting-off technique would be extremely helpful to these groups.
Leadership
    However, there did arise a group consensus on who the leader was for each group meeting.  How they decide this is by passing around a calendar and signing up to be the group leader.  It seems to be effective; however, there was one day where the leader forgot they were supposed to be leading and another member had to step in to take over the role of leading the group.  The leader’s job was to assign people to read the twelve steps and the twelve traditions and to either lead the group through the “Big Book” or to bring up a topic for discussion.  The topics they could discuss would either come from a pre-selected list or from something that they themselves had been struggling with.  The At Last Group meets on Wednesday and Friday, and those group leaders who sign up to lead Wednesday always pick a topic to discuss.  It was interesting to observe that the discussion meetings were also the largest.  I suppose this would be due to possible boredom from going over the “Big Book” almost every Friday.  
    Group decisions were handled very diplomatically.  It was interesting to watch this process during the conflict that happened with the boy scouts.  What had occurred was that the church had marked down the time of the AA group incorrectly on the church calendar as meeting at 7 PM instead of 8pm when AA is supposed to meet.  The boy scouts had planned a sleep over for 50 boys and they were supposed to be using the room where AA was meeting.  What was decided by the group was that we would move to an upstairs classroom.  It was interesting to watch the group process this diplomatically, each group member was given a chance to voice their opinion and express their anger over the situation.  Jacobs would call this style the group-directed approach (Jacobs, 2012, p 22).
Working Stage
    What brings me to the conclusion that the AA group I attended is in a constant working stage comes from what I read in both Jacob’s and Corey’s text.  Corey explains how group members interact with each other in the working stage and his text matches my observations.  Especially that there is a high trust level, members interact well, there was both sharing and feedback, and members were confronted to be honest with themselves and the group, and one that really stands out to me and matches well with my observations in AA is, (2014) “members feel hopeful that they can change if they are willing to take action; they do not feel hopeless (Corey, p 50).”  I observed each of these in the group and was impressed by how well the group naturally supported each other.  Perhaps it isn’t as surprising at it seems to me though because of the numerous years of experience of the people who attend the AA group.  I especially witnessed one night where the selected leader herself was struggling with not taking a drink because she was having a very stressful time with life and after she shared her struggles the room in turn went around in a circle and each person said something positive to her and some even shared how they were struggling with the same thing as her.  The benefit of thier sharing their struggles helped her more then their support I observed.
Conclusion
    It was very beneficial for me to attend the AA, At Last Group.  I learned a lot about the working stage and was able to experience the group through times of conflict.  What I noticed most though is that the group would highly benefit from having a leader who acts as a mediator.  I think that the group should remain as group-directed, but that the benefits of having a mediator would help diminish the long winded repeat stories from some members.  I learned that people who struggle with addiction have a hard road to travel, both during and after recovery.  I suppose recovery doesn’t really define their lives in the traditional sense that they will no longer struggle with the addiction, but instead it means that they have learned how to live with the struggles and symptoms their addiction brings on.