Homework 4/15/15

I have a friend who had a court order to go to a month of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and I
attended them with him to see how these meetings were ran and to see how people in these
meetings helped each other with their addiction problems. Having been to 3 of these meetings, I
would say that theres no harm in going to them. These meetings might be more effective for
some over others, but there were people in various stages of their addiction and recovery which
is what I feel like made everyone feel comfortable. Every week there seemed to be one main
speaker who shared how alcoholism had affected his life, then there would be people who would
respond with their current addiction or recovery stories. I remember hearing about a man talk
about his addiction to alcohol and methamphetamine for over 30 years and how he overcame his
lifelong problem hes now in his early sixties but almost graduating from college. There was
another man who was in his 40s, distraught about how his life had turned out, and he talked
about ending it. Both of these people were in the same meeting which goes to show the
diversity there is in the group. The latter man got so much encouragement and support from
everyone in the room. It was an eye-opening experience because these were strangers who had
come from different places, whether far or close, to help each other out.