I attended an open Overeaters Anonymous meeting on Wednesday, September 2, 2015. Members gathered in the basement of Overbrook Presbyterian Church on N. High St. in Columbus, Ohio at 7:00 p.m. The meeting lasted a little over an hour. Upon entering the room, everyone sat around a large, rectangular table that was sparsely populated for the size of the group. The number of members fluctuated between twelve and fifteen, as some individuals came in late and others came and left before the conclusion of the meeting. By way of demographics, all group participants were middle-age. The ratio of females to males in attendance was approximately 4:1 and the perceived leader of the group was female. Similarly to the members of the group, the female …show more content…
She read a part of the passage, and when she chose to stop reading, had the choice to either “pass” or elaborate on the section she had just finished reading and what may have resonated with her in regards to her personal struggle with overeating. The person sitting next to her then continued reading the passage from where she stopped. The above described process continued for each member until someone completed the chapter. Before reading began, the leader informed the members that “in the interest of time” each member, if he or she chose to comment on the passage after reading, needed to limit him or herself to three minutes. A member set a timer to ensure adherence to this policy. At the conclusion of each chapter, the leader encouraged a general discussion of the piece, as each appeared to have a theme to the writing. Following the dialogue, a new member picked another passage at random, and the reading continued in an identical manner. During the span of the hour long meeting, members read and commented on four passages from the book, leaving ten minutes at the end of the meeting for any member to start a conversation about any topic not addressed in the readings. At the very end of the meeting, all the members stood in a circle, and joining hands, recited the “serenity prayer”
Each one in the group had different interpretation of the readings that challenged and helped me to grow. I learned that the world is very diverse. A poem written by Jan Beatty "Saving the Crippled Boy", was a challenging poem for me and my colleagues. It helped me to learn to be non judgmental. It portrayed the word "saving" in unfamiliar way to me. I questioned about the appropriate way of charity. According to my values and belief, giving my body to someone is not charity or service. However, as a social worker, it made me conscious about the differences in the World. Also, the class reading helped me to connect my personal experiences, values, and Ethics with the society I am living, Understand the cultural differences and oppression systems in the
On February 27, 2014, I visited an Alcohol Anonymous (A.A) therapeutic group meeting called Another Chance. Another Chance is an intergroup meeting located inside the Concord Baptist Church of Christ, at 833 Gardner C. Taylor Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11216. Another Chance has been in operation for over thirty years, and holds open discussion meetings on alcohol use and prevention, every Thursday from six in the evening until seven o’clock. This group interaction with alcohol substance use and abuse focuses on helping all members regardless of race, ethnicity or culture, to abstain from drinking one day at a time; and encourages them to maintain healthy thoughts and emotions through the use of the “Twelve Steps and Traditions” of recovery and intervention approaches.
Their goal was to be cast against public health officials and they wanted to be “represented as the voices denying the health risks of obesity” (Johnston & Taylor, 2008) and for them to recognize “the gender and class implications of fat
Sullivan, Barbara. "Introduction to The Awakening." In The Awakening, ed. Barbara Sullivan. New York: Signet, 1976.
I attended the Alcohol Anonymous (AA) twelve step meeting on Friday December fourth at 8:00 p.m. at the community center at Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills. The people were middle aged men and women of different ethnic backgrounds. The meeting started in an arranged fashion. I sat in the back and was addressed by an elderly man who wanted to know who I was to and I replied that I was a student writing a paper for school. He was fine with my answer and departed. The meeting started with people presenting themselves. First, there was an open conversation that started was with the storytelling of one member’s endeavors with alcoholism. After this heartwarming account, other people in the group provided how the
For this assignment I decided to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in Forest Park, Georgia. Jones Memorial United Methodist Church hosts two Alcohol Anonymous meetings on Tuesdays and Fridays. I decided to attend the meeting on Friday, September 16, 2016. The meeting started promptly at 7pm and lasted until 8pm. There were approximately 11 attendees including myself.
It was on January 24, 1971, that Bill, a victim of pneumonia, died in Miami Beach, Florida, where he had delivered at the 35th Anniversary International Convention what proved to be his last words to fellow A.A.s: “God bless you and Alcoholics Anonymous forever” (Pitman 120). Since then, A.A. has become truly global. This has revealed that A.A.’s way of life can today transcend most barriers of race, creed and language (Wekesser 87). A World Service Meeting, started in 1969, has been held biennially since 1972. Its locations alternate between New York and overseas. It has met in London, England; Helsinki, Finland; San Juan del Rio, Mexico; Guatemala City, Guatemala; Munich, Germany and Cartagena, Colombia. These meetings and their locations have gone to show the global impact A.A. has achieved. The Akron A.A. team of Dr. Bob, Bill, and Anne has never been equaled in personal, spiritual recovery outreach. It was truly the heart of A.A.’s spiritual beginnings (Pitman 124).
I attended an AA meeting at a local church, located in the church basement. When I arrived, I noticed there were only 6 people in attendance. As I sat down, I looked around and could tell that the after affects of alcohol made some of the members look older and some looked tired. I observed the interaction between the members and I noticed that most of the members shook hands or even hugged when they greeted each other. They carried on conversations, mainly asking questions about how they were doing. I noticed that the seats were positioned in a circle with one seat in the middle. I learned that the person leading the group meeting was referred to as the meeting chairperson (Sherry) and her seat was located in the middle of the circle.
Haynes, Diane, and Catherine E. Ross. "Concern with Appearance, Health Beliefs, and Eating Habits." Health and Social Behavior 28.2 (1987): 120-30. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. .
Sullivan, Barbara. "Introduction to The Awakening." In The Awakening, ed. Barbara Sullivan. New York: Signet, 1976.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been around for more than 75 years. The biggest controversy about AA is if it is effective or not. Some people find AA to be an effective aid to sobriety; others find AA to be damaging and can lead to increased drinking. AA meetings are groups of people with the desire to quit drinking that help one another achieve and maintain sobriety. These meetings may include readings from the Big Book, sharing stories, discussing the traditions and 12 steps, and celebrating members’ sobriety. Because AA is anonymous, many people feel that participating in a study would be a breach
The group consists of about 20 members of all race and gender. The atmosphere of this group is welcoming and peaceful. Each meeting starts out by going around the room to introduce one’s self as “hello my name is _____and I’m an addict”. The first 5 steps of tradition are read next, which are, who is an addict, what is the NA program, why are we here, how it works, and the twelve traditions of NA. This group does a literature meeting on Monday nights. After the first five traditions are read, the chairperson opens the floor for anyone who wants to share. Everyone who is listening to the person sharing does not interrupt or chime in and when they are done talking everyone thanks them for sharing. Everyone just sits there and waits for anyone who wants to share. The chairperson stops the open floor share 10 minutes before meeting ends. At that time the member passes around the 7th tradition basket and reads the tradition. The chairperson finishes by reading the 12th tradition. When this is done, a member from the group stands up to hand out the key tags. There are 9 different key tags, with one that is offered twice. The white tag represents surrendering, this white key tag is offered first and last, the orange tag represents 30 days clean, green represents 60 days clean, Red represents 90 days clean, blue represents 6 months clean, yellow represents 9 months clean, glow in the dark tag
It is a serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seem subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of importance to take place.... ... middle of paper ...
Getting a response from AOII truly felt like my first accomplishment, however that was just the beginning. In the past, the Body Project has done short presentations as well as panel discussions, so I was not exactly starting from scratch. However, as an Advocate at the VOICE Center, I have learned that it’s important to meet people where they are at, so I took that into great consideration when making a new presentation (Body Project, 2016). In the past, Body Project presentations have been delivered in nutrition classes, and often those students have an understanding of the challenges that come with body acceptance and healthy eating. Fundamentally, I knew that there should be some different points included on this presentation because
In week 7 our seminar leader allocated us into smaller groups of six to work together, get together and to start preparing for the mock debate in week 9 and the debate in week 10. When we started to get alone with each other, it was seen that it is not going to be easy to achieve our goals, not just because in our group had a strong activist, reflector, theorist and pragmatist, but we also needed to face some solvable difficulties as our first meeting of the week was cancelled by problem like the lack of communication, miscommunication and the ability to listen to another.