The groups I attended were well organized. There is a rule however that was constantly broken in each of the group sessions I attended. The rule is called cross-talk and when a member is sharing their story or whatever it is they decided to participate to the group, the other members are supposed to be in complete silence. Each member is given between three to five minutes to speak as they please with no interruptions. However, members were often interrupted in meetings. It seemed as if many of these interruptions may have been caused by newcomers who were not used to the format. Yet in each case, if the disruption was too disruptive to the group then the leader would moderate and redirect the group to the speaker's attention.
Even if the distractions were not so prominent, they were still present. People would nod their heads in agreement or mutter some kind of message under their breadth. However, just gestures did not really cause much of a disruption for the speaker and in many cases it actually helped them to feel more comfortable. In both AA groups that I attended the meetings flowed smoothly from the different steps of the meeting. The NA meetings did not run quite as smoothly however.
Some of the members of the NA meeting...
Some of them would doze off during at different points in the meeting. Others would have trouble sitting straight up in their chairs. And still others were shaky and disoriented. However, in the AA meetings I did not notice anyone that seemed to be under the influence of alcohol while at the NA meetings some of the members were clearly "using" at the time. Apparently, most of the AA members where there voluntarily, while a greater percentage of the NA meetings participants were there under some kind of mandate by an authority of some sort. The NA meetings were less effective in my opinion with the quality of participation by the members were much lower.
Works Cited
Harris, J. (2013, June 8). The Group Dynamics of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Meetings and the ritual ceremonies of Bill Wilson chanting and worship. Retrieved from Orange Papers: http://www.*****/forum/node/1638
Sharma, M., & Branscum, P. (2010). Is alcoholics anonymous effective? Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, 3-6.
Young, L. (2011). Alcoholism and identity: How an alternative framing of identity can facilitate Alcoholics Anonymous research. Addiction Research & Theory, 213-223.
