On Wednesday March 15 and 22 I attended meetings of the Serentiy Group, a localmeeting group of Alcoholics Anonymous that were held at the CongregationalChurch in East Bridgewater. The meetings started around 8:00 pm and went untileach member was given the opportunity to speak, or to share their feelings in someway.
There was a total of 15 people present, including myself and my companion. The group was primarily made up of males, there was one female aside from mycompanion and I. The age of the group members was pretty much middle age (late30s to 50s). Before attending the meeting I was very apprehensive about going, for manyreasons. The main one was that I did not know what to expect. I was unsure ofwho was going to be there, if I would know anyone, or if anyone would know me.
Ifelt as though I was going to be invading the privacy of those in attendance. Uponarrival at I felt very extremely uncomfortable for two reasons, the obvious agedifference, and the male to female ratio. The uneasiness passed quickly as themembers of the group welcomed us in, and made us feel as if we were a part of thegroup. I think that part of my initial nervousness was due to the fact that I did notknow what to expect, I was unsure as to what a drunk would look like.
Once Iarrived I realized that they do not look any different than anyone else. My initial impression was that the meeting would be very depressing, a bunch of drunks sittingaround telling stories about how alcohol ruined their lives feeling sorry forthemselves. Once I met these people and began conversing with them I knew I waswrong. I think that I felt this way because of the negative stereotypes that areattached to being a drunk, and not what the positive effects of a group such asAlcoholics Anonymous could be. In this small group of individuals I found somewhat of a family structure. These people cared not only about themselves, but each other as well.
They allshared their addiction to alcohol, which brought them together. The outlook andattitude of these people was very optimistic. This surprised me considerably becauseI had expected the meeting to be full of negativity and pessimism. The warmwelcome that this group gave me showed me how much that they do care and howwilling they are to help others afflicted with alcoholism. The one thing about thisgroup that surprised me the most was how openly they referred to themselves asdrunks.
I had always thought that it would be an insult or degrading to a recoveringalcoholic to call them a drunk. I realized that I was wrong. Being a drunk is whateach and everyone of these people is, and in order for them to begin the recoveryprocess they need to first admit to themselves that they are indeed a drunk. One belief that seemed to be held universally among all of the members of thegroup was that AA has one purpose. That purpose is to help alcoholics deal withtheir addiction to alcohol. An AA meeting is where you go to discuss the effects ofalcohol on you, it is not time to air your dirty laundry about problems with othersubstances.
If you want or need help coping with your addiction to alcohol, AA is asolution, if you want help with other addictions, AA is not a solution. Each memberof the group wanted to help themselves and anyone else who needed or desired it. The group strongly believed in the 12 steps, focusing heavily on the fourth and fifthsteps as being the bridge to true recovery, saying that the recovery process beganonce you crossed the bridge. It seemed as though each person in the group gained astrong sense of who they were and what was important to them to survive. I wasgiven the impression that they had an idea of how important they are to themselvesand their family and how important alcohol was to them. One major concept that came up throughout both meetings was the idea ofone day at a time.
It was this idea that helped each of them to become sober andhow they hoped to remain sober. Alcoholism is not like a cold or the flu, its notgone when you wake up in the morning, it will always be there. When alcoholism islooked at on the short term basis, one day at a time, rather than on the long term, aweek, month, or year, it makes sobriety more realistic and more manageable. Sobriety was not a term that was used a lot throughout the meetings, instead theterm not drinking came up quite a bit. I was given the impression that this wasbecause of the pressure that is implied by the word sober. Both the 12 steps and the 12 traditions are major players in the lives of thosein the group.
The meetings and their lives seemed to revolve around them. At eachmeeting they read about the fifth step and the fifth tradition. They discussed boththe step and the tradition ate great length, and what each meant on a personal level. They took the idea of taking inventory on themselves very seriously. It was asthough they felt once they completed this process they were truly on their way torecovery.
Although I only attended two meetings with this small group of people, theytaught me a great deal about helping myself. They let me know that to get throughit you need to be brutally honest with yourself. They showed me that alcoholics areordinary people just like you and me, and what they need most of all is support andunderstanding. I found this group extremely informative and helpful and I would highlyrecommend any type of self help organization to anyone who feels they need helpdealing with the problems in their everyday lives.
I believe that a group such as TheSerenity Group, would be extremely beneficial to those who had a problem withalcohol. Their positive attitude and outlook that they posses makes the road torecovery achievable.
