Experience, Strength, Hope ...

Hoping for a wonderful tomorrow~
Originally uploaded by ♥Spice / Tryin' to catch up!

Last night in the Substance Abuse course I teach at the University, my students submitted their reaction papers about having attended some kind of 12 Step meeting: AA, NA, Al Anon or OA. The first part of the class involved each person sharing for a few minutes about what this experience was like for them and anything that really stood out about the nature or culture of the meeting and its members.

The level and depth of sharing in this classroom was a 12 Step meeting in and of itself. The first person to share was a hulking guy whose skepticism has been slowly fading about what he could possibly be taught given that he's been an addictions counselor for quite some time. His sharing was totally and utterly from his heart. He visited a legendary meeting, one that is hardcore and in one of the roughest sections of the city, and yet the words he used to describe it were anything but tough: humbling; touching; moved my soul; had me writing poetry again after the experience. His voice trembled as he spoke. Every eye was on him. He stated that this experience renewed his faith in the power of 12 Step programs, which he had actually dismissed in his jadedness of being entrenched in this work. My own hand rested on my heart, as I soaked up the beauty of his sharing.

Following him were 3 other students who attended this same meeting, just different nights, and two of them were women ! Each spoke from such a heartfelt place about the way the stories and the rawness and the bottom-of-the-bottomness moved them. I began capturing key words on the board: humility; spirituality; faith; hope; love; self-acceptance; resilience. I emphasized with my students how they were learning the language of recovery and that speaking from this place with current or future clients will be the key to building a therapeutic relationship.

One student had a very emotionally moving experience at an Al-Anon meeting, which she attended not just for this class but with her fiance whose father is an alcoholic. She was struck by how the spouses and family members of alcoholics had to do the same Step work so that they could work on their own powerlessness over the disease and the person using and the strength of the cammeraderie in the meeting. Her words were: "They didn't have much in common in terms of ages or other demographics but that didn't matter because they were all there for the same thing: to be stronger in themselves while their loved one was drinking. This was their common bond."

Some students who attended NA meetings were surprised at how young folks were -- noting that there were 15 and 16 year old heroin and crack addicts among the members. What students did share, however, was that it felt like there was a "looser, more lax" adherence to the 12 Step principles, particularly after they had the assignment of reading key chapters of the AA Big Book. They found these meetings powerful yet filled with more venting, more profanity and a LOT of cigarette smoking ! And still, amid these conditions and crime-ridden locations, my students marveled at the numbers in attendance and the desire for people to get clean because of the consequences many were facing: criminal records; losing children; loss of home, job, family; major health issues.

This was far more than just a college course assignment; for many of these students, it was a life changing experience. I attribute this to their willingness to be open to receiving what so many who walk in the doors of a 12 Step meeting also gain from others in the rooms: experience, strength, hope.