Narcotics Anonymous: A self-help Group

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I attended a narcotics anonymous (NA) group. The NA group took place in Bayonne New Jersey in a room in the back of church. Having the meeting in a church is fitting considering the 12-step principles have a lot to do with spirituality, faith, and divine intervention. The session that I attended was on a Monday night from 7:30pm to approximately 9:30pm. In my opinion, the duration of the group was too long. Nevertheless, I felt a great deal of anxiety when I entered the group. Although feeling anxious is a common trait that I experience, on the night of the NA meeting it was overwhelming. The reason why I was overwhelmed emotionally was that I was attending the meeting with a close relative who is in recovery. Naturally, my anxiety transitioned to ambivalence. Yet, I attended the meeting with my relative and just dealt with my feelings afterwards. When I first entered the NA group, I realized that I might encounter an acquaintance from the neighborhood. Although I would never disclose who he or she was in recovery, the possibility of them being uncomfortable with me knowing that he or she is in recovery was a concern of mine. When I entered the group, I noticed a mutual friend of my relative and mine. They met each other from attending other NA meetings and had be friends for quite some time. I was informed of their friendship when I sat down between them and my family member informed me of how they met and that they did not tell me out of respect of each other’s confidentiality. Nevertheless, the other members were very cordial. My family member introduced me to the other group members. I was introduced a relative who was there as a support figure. Again, appeared to not have any issue with my presence, they were ple... ... middle of paper ... ...her use of foul language by other members. It was as if they were feeding off each other’s pattern of speech. In addition, the first church did match-up both internally or externally to the second church that was located at the lower section of Bayonne. The second NA meeting was in a Catholic Church that is at the lower section of Bayonne. The meeting consisted of a large number of White Americans, few African Americans and Latinos. The members did not curse as frequent as the members at the first NA meeting did. In addition, they did hug me as I entered the room. I guess I missed the hugs from the meeting because I was ten minutes late due to me not being able to find the entrance door. Works Cited Teyber, E., & McClure, F. H. (2011). Interpersonal process in therapy: An integrative model (6th ed.). California State University, San bernardino: Brooks/Cole.

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