Thread Prompt: After reading Hester and Miller (2003) and attending your first AA meeting, incorporate your readings into your observations at the meeting and discuss the different treatment models and how they compare to self-help groups like AA.
Discuss what you observed in the members:
Did they seem connected? How was AA servicing them? Was there cohesiveness in the group? How was the time used?
Some of you will have the privilege of being a part of a very healthy group, while others will be a part of a group that is strictly to serve as a means to an end. How do the different meetings affect treatment outcomes and research? Apply what you have read to what you observed.
Reply Prompt: For your replies, respond to at least 2 classmates. In each reply, add at least 1 additional detail from what you observed in your first meeting, connecting your observation to citation of course materials.
Discussion Board #1 MLski
After reading the text and attending my first AA group, I observed many different things. The members who were in attendance were connected because I could tell that they were long-term members. They were from different ages and cultures and yet, I could sense the common ground present at the meeting.
The AA meeting began with the Medical Model, meaning addiction is a unitary, primary and progressive condition over which afflicted persons do not have control (Jenkins, 2018). Some were in their early stages of sobriety and others were in recovery for over 20 years.
Part of the Medical Model discussed in the meeting were interventions, which covered abstinence from the alcohol and behaviors that went along with the addiction. Acceptance of the diagnosis was covered in sharing. One member shared how a neighbor gave a challenge that this person was in fact not an alcoholic, however, the group offered support and limitations of personal responsibility (Jenkins, 2018).
Another model of treatment covered in the AA meeting was the Spiritual Model. According to Hester and Miller, (2003), "alcoholism is understood as a condition that people are powerless to overcome on their own. The hope for this hopeless condition lies in appeal for help from and turning over one's life to a higher power, and in following a spiritual path to recovery." Several members shared that belief in their higher power made is possible to surrender their fears and problems to overcome the addiction and disease of alcoholism in a very powerful way.
Other observations in the AA meetings was sharing how helpful attending groups on a regular basis was instrumental in their recovery and remaining abstinent. A new member shared how she missed several meetings and it was impacting her wellness. A long-term member shared the importance of staying connected and asking for help.
This same new female member shared how she had not contacted her sponsor and felt shame in putting off calling her. This was processed by members of the group with permission. According to the General Systems Model under the Social Learning Model, both models contribute to social learning perspectives that put focus on the importance of coping skills, choosing a health living environment and support system and members come to consider AA a form of family (Hester & Miller, 2003).
Another model observed in the AA meeting was the Cognitive Model. According to Hester and Miller, "emphasizing the importance of covert mental processes in guiding behavior is essential. Increased attention was devoted to cognitive processes in addictions, such as expectations about the effects of alcohol. Cognitive therapies as part of treatment applied to cope with cravings, manage moods and beliefs." Members discussed how their thinking was connected to how they coped.
One member shared how when he was active in drinking, he felt there were significant problems in his life and drank because of the problems. After 20 years, he shared how he still has problems but being sober and learning better coping skills beginning with his thoughts has made his sobriety a success. Learning new adaptive skills, changing environments to healthy ones, and relying on meetings, members, the recovery providers to live a life free from addiction.
References
Hester, R. K., & Miller, W. R (2003), Handbook of Alcoholism Treatment Approaches: Effective Alternatives (Third ed.). Boston, MA; Pearson Education.
Discusion Board #2 JHud
I must first start with revealing that this is not my first venture into the arms of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was required to attend this and a number of other self-help groups during my undergraduate and graduate studies. In that time I was able witness how varied AA experience could be and all the different components that forged these impressions. That being said, this was the first time I ever examined it from the perspective of the treatment model.
As Hester and Miller note (2003), Alcoholics Anonymous (as well as most of its sister groups, like Narcotics Anonymous) approaches the addiction from Spiritual Model. This model sees alcoholism as a condition that is impossible for individuals to overcome on their own power. The only solution to this is for the individual to look beyond themselves and the resources of the material world, to a divine power to help heal them of their affliction.
The meeting I attended this week was very much in-line with this ideal. The majority of the group consisted of people with anywhere from 1 to 20 years of sobriety, with a few people only having a few weeks to a month or two. Though AA is non-denominational, it became clear that this group consisted of Christians, as one member recounted that the program really took hold for him when he recognized the Christian idea of "broken people in a broken world".
Though there was clear display of the influence of the Spiritual Model, there were also some aspects of the Dispositional Disease Model (Hester & Miller, 2003) being presented. When they would go around the circle and speak, a number of the members continued to refer to alcoholism as a disease. Some stated that they were an alcoholic from the first time they drank, envied or reviled those who could drink responsibly, and knew that no matter how much "clean time" they had that they would always be an alcoholic.
This last statement was underscored by "Jim", who had 12 years sober when he first started the program; and, thinking he had a "handle" on it. For the sake of anonymity, I will not go into details, but suffice it to say, his one drink lead to a full relapse that took another year to work through before he could start on his sobriety again. His lack of control over his drinking seems to be a textbook description of Hester and Miller's (2003) explanation of the disease model.
As the meeting went on, I heard a number of different views and stories. There were quite a few who took a General Systems Model (Hester & Miller, 2003) approach, making observations that their drinking seemed normal due to the way their family drank and how that impacted not just how they saw their own drinking, but how they viewed the sobriety or temperance of others. One lady noted that she had always had an "addictive personality". No matter if it was alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, she seemed to immediately enjoy and accept these activities into her life, mirroring the concepts of the Characterological Model (Hester & Miller, 2003), which even goes so far to suggest that this lay on an oral fixation, due to some issue during the Freudian oral stage.
In the end, I did notice that, despite these differing experiences and views, they all (or at least those who were having success in their sobriety) seemed to be gravitating back to the Spiritual Model. As I reviewed their statements, the majority of the members were expressing these alternative model views as their pre-sobriety way of thinking. These ideas had been present when they were either in the depths of their alcoholism, or in previous failed attempts at sobriety. They now saw clarity and hope in the idea of a higher power guiding them.