So I'm not an addict myself, but I am currently taking a drugs and behavior course while I'm in my final semester at UNLV. For one of my assignments in this course and for educational purposes, I was required to observe an AA meeting and write a reflection paper about it. After doing a little research online, I found Green Valley Group, where most AA meetings take place. This review is for my own experience here.
The meeting I attended lasted about an hour, which began at 5:30pm and ended at 6:30pm. Prior to the meeting, we were all given a raffle ticket. The purpose of this raffle ticket was to tell your name and story when your number was called, but if you weren't comfortable with speaking, you could simply say pass. We also said an opening prayer together before getting started.
After the opening prayer, random numbers on our raffle tickets were called out. When a number was read, that person said their name and their story with a 3-4 minute time limit. However, if one person didn't want to speak and rather listen, they would say pass. Once all the raffle tickets were used up, people were open to speak freely during the last 15 minutes of the meeting. It was very interesting listening to other people's stories and now I know how real alcohol abuse can be and how it can affect your life in a negative way.
When the meeting concluded, we all joined together in a circle and said a closing prayer, followed by announcements of future AA and non-AA meetings from other attendees. This was more than likely a one time only thing for me, but I gained a positive experience from here. read more