Introduction
Peer influence and support are effective ways of inspiring different actions, desired and undesired. People tend to trust their friends to the extent of copying behaviors. Group acceptance plays a significant role in influencing thoughts and behavior change through social roles of care and support amongst community members. Among the benefits of such groups is to impart emotional strength to realize addiction and seek help. This paper reports one such meeting and peer support, Alcoholic Anonymous [AA], including its process, member’s support, and impact on the treatment of substance-related disorders.
Type of Meeting and Demographics
I attended an open 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous [AA] meeting that lasted for about an hour. The meeting involved recovered alcohol addicts describing their stories through alcoholism and the recovery process. There were also a few professionals, including doctors and counselors, who addressed the audience. As the name suggests, the meeting was open to alcohol addicts and those who have recovered, members of the public, media, and professionals in different fields. There was large demographic diversity in age from children to older adults, males and females, different ethnicities, religions, educational backgrounds, and social statuses.
Reaction to Welcome, Introductions, and Content
The meeting hand an accommodating and attractive welcome, introductions, and content to the diverse audience. In the welcome note, the leader informed people of the significance of the meeting and every participant’s role. Such an introduction was essential to first-time attendants and alcohol addicts who had myths about the meeting following negative treatment from the community. The welcome, which includes guidance and recognition of all participants, is a proper way to negotiate trust with people who feel isolated due to their social issues. Such a welcome with trust towards all audiences motivates active listening and participation while influencing change in substance addicts.
Introductions were also encouraging to participate and raise members’ comfort during and after the meeting. Participants and those who made presentations were not supposed to mention identifiable details like name and location. Such anonymity is vital to make newcomers who do not want to expose their status comfortable. Being anonymous in social support meetings also protects members from discrimination and stigmatization from the community to motivates active participation. Further, anonymity encourages a feeling of equality regardless of members’ status and demographics making the program effective.
On the other hand, the meeting content was specific to the goal of managing alcoholism, including cases with direct facts from previous addicts and professional guidance. Such straightforward facts about previous addiction and recovery processes provide hope to newcomers and other addicts. People with social issues want to hear success stories and the journey towards recovery. They need assurance that all is not gone and the destiny to recovery is time away.
Thoughts and feelings while Attending the Meeting
My thoughts were that the meeting would involve rebuking alcohol addicts while showing the level of their immoral and damaging behaviors. I expected that non-addicts and recovered persons would lecture the addicted persons and expose their rejection from the larger society. Such thoughts are common towards people with anti-social behaviors like drug abuse due to their treatment by society. The community treats anti-social and culturally unaccepted practices as deliberate actions which people would stop abruptly if willing. Victims experience isolation and lack of support from families, friends, and neighbors, making them fear people. The thoughts of rebuke are common when called in such meetings reducing participation in recovery processes.
The rebuke thoughts made me feel upset and embarrassed by how leaders and speakers would speak to addicts. People who understand addiction know that victims need to feel embraced and supported. Whenever addicts face lectures due to their habits, human service professionals feel embarrassed by the mishandled severe medical and mental issues. However, my feeling changed to warmth and affection following the accommodative members and speakers. Accommodation of people with social problems shows empathy, and any social service worker understands the joy in victims. The feeling was a share of happiness and comfort with the alcohol addicts.
Role of Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings
The role of AA and related meetings in treating a substance-related or addictive disorder is to provide support to overcome emotional difficulties. Emotions are risk factors for starting and continuing with drug abuse. People begin to consume alcohol to overcome different stressful events where they lack other coping mechanisms. However, addiction leads to various emotional difficulties such as fear of seeking help and accepting lost control over individual life and the pressure of confessing the reason for alcohol use. Personal rejection and isolation from the community are all barriers to seeking, committing, and adhering to treatment. AA meetings help overcome emotional difficulties to make victims commit to the recovery journey, including counseling and medical interventions. The sessions provide the feeling of acceptance and warmth to addicts, following anonymity and the absence of rebuke, leading to self-acceptance. Members make victims feel welcome in society and trust people. Further, the various testimonies and expert expositions provide hope that alcohol addicts will recover if they take the recovery process like their friends. Thus, AA and other similar meetings set the stage for starting treatment for a substance-related disorder by overcoming emotional barriers.
Conclusion
An AA meeting experience shows that peer groups provide the emotional support needed to initiate substance-related disorders. Peers influence community members toward self-realization and acceptance to provide the required emotional status towards healing. The meetings make drug and substance addicts feel appreciated, realize their situation, and develop hope of overcoming the conditions. However, such groups must show impartiality, maintain comfort and security through anonymity and provide autonomy among members.