Alcoholics Anonymous offers a sense of friendliness, community to Columbia

Walking into the room, I was unsure if I was in the right building. I had never been to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, so I didn’t know what to expect.

But, the room was adorned with signs pointing to the fact that it was a room for Columbia AA meetings. This was the 7:30 p.m. Young People’s Group at the United Methodist Church.

Two large posters lined the wall. There was one with the 12 steps to sobriety and one with the 12 traditions of AA. Near the posters were other signs to encourage sobriety.

“I am responsible when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help. I want the hand of AA always to be there. And for that: I am responsible,” a sign on the wall read.

“Recover is a journey, not a destination,” another inspirational sign stated.

Four rows of seats were lined up facing each other. Twenty-two members filtered in to take their seats. Everyone walked in happy, shaking others’ hands and making small talk with neighboring members.

The atmosphere was incredibly friendly and welcoming. Members chatted with each other, and they even tried to include me in their conversations. The setup of the room made it even easier to converse and get to know everyone in the group, though they were all clearly very much acquainted with each other already.

The meeting began with a prayer. Members bowed their heads for a moment of silence and reflection and the leader of the group introduced the prayer. A lot of the beliefs and foundations of the AA group was a devotion to religion, or at least a higher power, to help members in their journey through sobriety.

Everyone then took turns stating their name and whether they were an alcoholic, addict or visitor. The majority of people were alcoholics and a few were both an alcoholic and addict. There were only a couple of visitors, including myself.

There was a strong sense of community and friendship in the room. Once someone said their name, the entire room would responds, “Hi,” followed by that person’s name. Through the duration of the meeting, everyone was even referred to as a friend.

“Step two: came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity,” the leader of the group said to set the discussion for the evening.

Members then took turns reading about step two of the twelve steps to sobriety from the book, “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.” Following the reading, the members of the group moved into a discussion period. A long pause of silence during the transition made the room feel a little uncomfortable and awkward, but one woman broke that silence and kicked off the conversation by talking about the stresses of the upcoming holiday.

“My ADD is kicking in tonight, and I didn’t really pay attention to that reading. But, one of the things that’s been on my mind lately has been the upcoming events of Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that good jazz. I’ve just been kind of nervous,” the woman said.

Members listened to her concerns as she considered the heavy factors that weigh on a recovering alcoholic. One man responded with some advice for her.

“Just say fuck it. Just worry about the food. That’s all that matters. That’s all I got, thank you,” the man said.

Amongst all of the serious concerns that many members were speaking about, there was still room for humor in the discussion. The members all laughed at the jokes that were tossed around, but the conversation was still able to maintain a level of seriousness amongst the humor.

The members of the group took turns voicing their opinions, keeping any commentary to less than three minutes in order to give everyone a chance to talk. No one was forced to participate, and comments were made voluntarily. Many shared similar sentiments to being nervous and anxious about dealing with family during the holiday season.

“The holidays, man, they’re just a bitch. That’s all there is to it,” another man said.

And every speaker was greeted with a, “Hi,” and ended with a, “Thank you,” from the group. This really reinforced how welcome everyone’s differing opinions were as it contributed to the overall group discussion.

Looking around at the group members, they all displayed similar quirks. Many of them were drinking coffee or water, and it was as if they seemed to need something to hold on to as a sense of comfort. They were continuously getting up and taking turns using the single bathroom for the entirety of the meeting. Most of them were fidgeting or shaking their feet and couldn’t really sit still.

The discussion portion of the meeting then moved in to handing out sobriety coins. These are tokens given to AA members representing the amount of time a person has been sober.

The first chip offered up to group members was a white chip, signifying 24 hours of sobriety for a person. One girl in the corner reluctantly raised her hand and walked across the room to receive her coin, holding back the tears that were gathering in her eyes. The room boomed with applause from fellow group members to celebrate the woman’s triumph in her journey to sobriety. Sobriety coins were then handed out in month increments to a few other members, up to one year of sobriety.

Despite all of the concerns each of the group members were dealing with in their lives, they all were joyful and smiling after getting the opportunity to bond with other struggling members. It was eye-opening to see the happiness and friendliness that they all portrayed after knowing their individual hardships in their lives, and it bonded me with them in a way that I hadn’t expected.

“Keep coming back, it works if you work it,” the group members chanted to conclude the meeting. Schedule

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