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Tips to Make AA Meetings Effective

Tips to Make AA Meetings Effective

With the pandemic raging and countries finding it hard to control numbers, physical Alcoholic Anonymous meetings are becoming hard to organize. But for recovering addicts, this can be a challenge. Local AA meetings are necessary to keep them on track with their recovery and encourage them to discuss their problems. How can you be sure that these AA meetings are indeed effective?

Ways to make AA meetings successful:

  • The best way to make AA meetings a success is to ensure that the environment is positive and friendly. Meetings should involve sober peers who have successfully battled and overcome addiction.
  • The meetings must encourage you to talk about your personal issues and struggles. It should make you feel supported and cared for so that you can freely discuss your worries and insecurities.
  • The meetings are meant for sharing those seeking help to deal with a drinking problem. So, an AA meeting is expected to provide “sponsorship” or person-to-person service to the alcoholic attending it.
  • It should offer the 12-step program which helps the recovering addict to adjust to a new life after being discharged from a rehab. Initial stages of recovery are the hardest and these meetings must give him the support and encouragement he needs to stay sober.
  • It may be an “open” meeting where anyone can attend and is free to speak. Most meetings however are “closed” wherein only members are allowed to attend. There should be a designated individual who will speak about a certain topic. After his speech, members should be allowed to share their experiences.
  • Meetings should be organized for specific purposes, like the 12-step beginners meetings. These are meant for educating newcomers about the program basics.
  • A meeting’s success also depends on how it can attract the right members. For instance, an intercity AA group made up of homeless members cannot be the right support for a young mother struggling with alcohol addiction. So, there should be different meetings to cater to different kinds of recovering addicts.
  • These meetings should celebrate individual achievements. Sobriety needs to be recognized and rewarded. AA rewards members with chips that stand for the number of days they have stayed sober. This is an excellent way to make them feel special and acknowledge their achievements. Small gestures such as these can make a lot of difference in their confidence and determination to beat the addiction.
  • AA meetings should be held on a regular basis because if members stay away for long periods, their sobriety may suffer. When recovering from addiction, the initial few days can be very difficult. Being able to reach out to others, who have faced a similar situation or are currently dealing with such a problem, is important. Physical interactions can help you feel cared for. But if meetings are irregular, then their effectiveness takes a hit. People often find it hard to avoid temptations and go back to abusing alcohol.

These are some things which AA meetings should look into in order to be able to achieve what they are meant to. You can consult an AA meeting directory to find meetings near you. Attend these regularly to accelerate your recovery.

About Marisa Lascala

Marisa Lascala is a admin of https://meregate.com/. She is a blogger, writer, managing director, and SEO executive. She loves to express her ideas and thoughts through her writings. She loves to get engaged with the readers who are seeking informative content on various niches over the internet. meregateofficial@gmail.com