The sobriety rate for people who attend AA meetings after completing treatment is twice that of those who don’t attend any NA meetings. If you’re looking into alcohol abuse or al-anon meetings, we’ll help you by explaining the things you need to know below.
In this guide, you’ll find information about the various types of drug abuse meetings. These are meetings that can be influential in helping you to remain steadfast in your sobriety journey. Read on now and get ready to start searching for the right AA meetings online.
Al-Anon Meetings
Al-Anon meetings are meetings that aren’t meant for the alcoholic themselves but for their friends and families. In the case of drug or alcohol abuse, to ensure that the person receiving treatment returns to a healthy environment, everyone has to receive treatment.
In Al-Anon, family and friends will be able to connect with other people that have a loved one affected by addiction. They will then learn ways to cope and tips to stop them from enabling their loved one’s addiction.
In this meeting, it will also teach you how to provide your loved ones with the support they need to continue their recovery with the proper structure.
Al-Anon is perfect for people that feel hopeless.
It’s also meant for those that don’t know whom to turn to when living with someone whose life has been turned upside down by their addiction.
Discussion Meetings
When you think of discussion meetings, it mirrors what you would think of when a person is still in treatment.
During the meeting, there will be someone designated to lead the meeting discussion. Which means they present the topic for the meeting. Next, the host will ensure that everyone speaking and participating in the discussion stays on topic the entire time.
The topic will center around a piece of AA literature, and in some meetings, it is read for everyone to understand. From there, the floor becomes open to those attending the meeting.
They are able to share their thoughts and feelings about the literature that has been shared.
Remember that while this is one format that a meeting can follow, it doesn’t mean that each discussion meeting will follow the same plan. Some meeting hosts introduce themselves to the attendees and then walk everyone through the AA preamble and prayers.
While others will introduce themselves and jump straight into the topic for the meetings. If new people attend the meeting, they will likely be given a chance at the beginning or end of the meeting to introduce themselves to the other meeting attendees.
Speaker-Lead Meetings
The next type of AA meeting people might find useful to participate in is speaker-led meetings. In this type of meeting, one person is designated to speak to the attendees.
They will share more about their experiences during their time in active alcohol addiction.
There are several ways that a person can structure the speech they provide. They can talk about their lives after they joined AA and how it’s helped them stay focused on their recovery journey.
They can also spend some time talking about their life before addiction and how their time in addiction led them to seek help to stop using. When a person has finished speaking, the group can constructively discuss what has been heard.
Depending on the amount of time left in the meeting, others can speak and share their personal stories about addiction. There are occasions in speaker-led meetings when an outside speaker will attend the meeting to speak.
However, the majority of the time, it will be the members of that specific AA chapter that speak during each meeting.
Literature-Focused Meeting
A literature-focused AA meeting is nearly the same as a discussion AA meeting. The main difference between the two is that in literature meetings, the information read is being read for the first time.
In a discussion meeting, the literature read may have been read several times by those attending the meeting.
When the literature meeting begins, the host of the meeting will let everyone know the piece of literature that is the topic for that meeting. The members of the meeting will take turns reading the passages until they’ve finished reading the literature.
After members have finished reading the passage, they will then begin to discuss what they’ve read. Before attending these types of AA Zoom meetings, you must check the guidelines for the meeting online.
During in-person and virtual AA meetings, there are times when the meeting is open to anyone to join. However, it’s not uncommon for the meeting to only be made available to people that are just beginning their AA journey.
The items read in a literature meeting are for people reading them for the first time. The great thing about this type of meeting is that you don’t have to worry about bringing a copy of the literature that will be read.
AA Meetings and the Different Types
When it comes to AA meetings, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all. Different meeting formats and types of meetings are meant for people struggling with various substances.
Whether you want to listen to someone speak or want to be more involved in the discussion, there’s something for everyone.
You’ve just got to take some time to find the one that works for you. If you’re ready to find a place with the support you need, check out the meetings at 12-Step NY, whether Al-Anon, AA, or NA meetings.
