Running Head: AA MEETING PAPER 1

Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Paper

Savannah Turnage

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing

January 30, 2017

AA MEETING PAPER 2

Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Paper

The meeting that I went to consisted of a group size of about twenty people. Most of the

people there looked like they were in their fifties and sixties. There also seemed to be the same

about of females to males. When I first entered the meeting I felt very uncomfortable because I

didn’t know what to expect. I noticed that the group leader used the laissez-faire style of

leadership. He was very relaxed and pretty much just let the group members run the meeting.

The members of the group made me feel welcome. I even had a few come up and introduce

themselves to me. I just wish that I had known more of what to expect when attending a meeting.

During the duration of the meeting, I noticed that the group used some of Yalom’s

Curative factors. The first factor was altruism, which is where the members of the group share a

part of themselves with other members of the group. Basically, this was the whole point of the

meeting. Once the meeting started people introduced themselves and talked about what freedom

from alcohol meant to them, which was the topic of the day.

The second factor was universality, which allows group members to realize that they are

not the only ones to experience a problem. The group used this method too while telling stories

of their past about how they failed in recovery before, which let the other people in the group

know that they have been through similar situations and that they aren’t on their own. Both of

these factors will influence my care delivery in the future because I now see that sharing stories

of yourself lets others open up more and trust you.

Step One of Alcohol Anonymous is admitting that they are powerless to alcohol and that

their lives have become unmanageable (AA.org). A NANDA that could be used for this

population would be “Chronic Low Self-Esteem”. This correlates to Step One because if these

patients’ have low self-esteem, then it may be hard for them to admit that they have an alcohol
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problem. Many of these members shared stories about how they felt bad about themselves after

they drank alcohol and hurt their loved ones. Some interventions would be to: be accepting of

client and his or her negativism, help client to recognize and focus on strengths and

accomplishments, and help client identify areas he or she would like to change about self and

assist with problem solving toward this effort (Townsend, p96).

Alcohol Anonymous meetings have been proven to dramatically change the outcomes of

alcoholics who go to them. In the following article, they compare the outcomes of alcoholics

who consistently attended meetings and those who did not. At the end of the study, they found

evidence that consistent AA meeting attendance improves drinking outcomes (Magura et al.,

2013).

While many of the members talked about how hard it was for them to come to the

meetings at first, they also talked about how they never would have been able to get on the road

of recovery without them. Almost everyone said that they really appreciated the group and that

they never would be able to get through this alone. Most of the people at the meeting had been

alcohol free for years, which confirms to me that these meetings really help people and that they

are much more likely to succeed when they are apart of a group.

Overall I did enjoy the experience, even though I was very uncomfortable at first. I just

wasn’t sure what to expect, but the members turned out to be very nice and welcoming. I also

learned a lot about the process of recovery and what the different colored chips meant. It was

very insightful to hear their stories and made me thankful that I do not struggle with an addiction.
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References:

Alcoholics Anonymous. (n.d.). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.aa.org/

Magura, S., McKean, J., Kosten, S., & Tonigan, J. S. (2013). A novel application of propensity

score matching to estimate Alcoholics Anonymous’ effect on drinking outcomes. Drug &

Alcohol Dependence, 129(1/2), 54-59. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2012.09.011

Townsend, M. C. (2004). Nursing diagnoses in psychiatric nursing: care plans and psychotropic

medications. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.