Addiction, according to Webster Dictionary, is a strong and harmful need to have regularly something (such as a drug) or do something (such as gamble). In the past month, I took a trip to two different Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Due to never having any experience with addiction personally, the only knowledge I had to go off of was what I saw in the movies. I expected to walk into a large empty room except for a dozen or so chairs in the middle of the room set up in a circle. My initial idea of an AA meeting was almost perfectly accurate, but there were a few things that were different from that idea and reality. Being nearly inexperienced on the topic of addiction, I also walked into these meetings believing that there was no such thing as an addiction but attending both of these meetings and experience I had made me realize that addiction is a serious struggle on people. .
The first meeting I attended was at The Office in Saint Charles. This meeting was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. As mentioned before, I expected to walk into a room with several chairs set up in a circle, but this was the first "myth" I noticed that was not always true about AA meetings. This eased my nerves a little realizing that things were more casual than I expected. The meeting was rather slow, or at least, the start was. They started off reading the introductions to the meeting. At this point, most of the men there, based on the way they were sitting in the seats, showed a lack of enjoyment. Most were slouched in their chairs and a few kept looking around the room. Then we started reading an excerpt from The Big Book. While reading, most of the people had a monotone voice, but there were a few people who read the book with enthusiasm. The story, to my surprise, was something that I related to in some parts in the beginning. My favorite part was after we finished reading the story and the men were allowed to share their thoughts about it.
