The Facebook group chosen was Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded in 1935 by Stock Broker, Bill Wilson, and Robert Smith, recovering alcoholics. The group aims at helping addicted alcoholics on their recovery process (Stone, Conteh & Francis, 2017). This is achieved via the sharing of information with others about specific ways to recover from alcoholism. Discussions related to alcohol consumption, its dangers, and ways to overcome the addiction are encouraged in the platform. Members share their recovery journey that helps other struggling parties and give them hope for recovery from alcoholism. The group also has set guidelines and principles that people should follow to get help. The interaction of each member with each other in the platform is monitored and guided by the set guidelines. This essay discusses a Facebook group named Alcoholics Anonymous that I attended and how the experience ties to the concepts of Group Dynamics.
Those who join the group are also encouraged at the ‘about section’ to read specific motivation books that will help them in the recovery process. My expectations before attending the group were to get help on how to overcome alcohol addiction. Having been a victim of alcoholism, I have suffered the effects of drug and substance abuse in various ways. Besides, joining the group will help me learn about other dangers of alcohol consumption as I interact with people who have suffered alcoholism and overcame it in their lives. Moreover, I am aiming at getting a role model to direct and guide me through the recovery process.
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Alcoholics Anonymous is an active group where all members are encouraged to participate in the discussions. On their journey to sobriety, most members will post the challenge they are facing in their recovery process. On the other hand, other members would positively engage in discussions on the best way to overcome the difficulties mentioned (McGee, 2017). Other members would post encouraging posts that motivated other alcohol addicts to keep fighting in the recovery process. All the positive posts created a conducive environment that attracted other alcoholics to join the group and reduce the number of alcohol users globally.
Alcoholics Anonymous is an open group. People from all levels, ages, status, and gender are free to join the group as long as they are aiming at overcoming alcoholism. Also, people can post, and their post is viewed by anyone who joins the group. However, everyone who joins the group should adhere to meaningful discussions concerning alcoholism problems in the community. Anyone willing to join the group requires no specific qualifications as long as they are struggling with alcoholism problem or willing to help the addicted recover from alcoholism.
Every group member is involved in different discussions. Alcoholics’ Anonymous group is made up of different people at diverse levels of recovery. Some are in critical conditions of addiction, while others are at their final recovery stages. All these members are allowed to share their information to help other members of the organization (Carr et al. 2018). Besides, the members can freely choose other members they regard as sponsors from the members to help them in their recovery process. This ensured that they have someone to share with their sentiments that one feels cannot be shared in the group. Therefore, all members play a critical role in their journey towards sobriety.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a sociological group where different people meet to share ideas on their struggles towards alcoholism and their recovery process. The group is composed of individuals who share common characteristics and values, and a sense of unity among them. The alcohol addicts are all struggling to win the fight against alcoholism in the community and resume their day-to-day activities.
Alcoholics Anonymous has helped me learn about the leadership skills and roles played by each leader. In most Facebook groups, transparent leadership is evident. In Alcoholics Anonymous, leadership skills are expressed by administrators and moderators who control the activities of the group. Their main responsibility is ensuring that members adhere to the group guidelines and principles while maintaining respect while participating in the discussions. In case any members violate the set guidelines, it is the responsibility of the moderators to warn them and remove them if the problem persists. Also, moderators solve disputes in the group whenever they occur.
Interacting with various people at various stages helped me learn and accommodate several attitudes and behaviors of people (Davis, 2016). Overcoming alcoholism being the main objective of the group, the AA group remained functional to follow up with the progress of the recoveries even after completing the levels of healing. The common interest binds members together to help those involved in alcoholism.
References
Carr, H., Rigdon, K., Price, M., Fortner, H., & Herring, A. (2018). Coping Strategies for Recovering Alcoholics and Addicts to Prevent Relapse.
Davis, J. P. (2016). The group dynamics of interorganizational relationships: Collaborating with multiple partners in innovation ecosystems. Administrative Science Quarterly , 61 (4), 621-661.
McGee, R. (2017). The alcoholic society: Addiction and recovery of the self . Routledge.
Nazar, M. M., & Sabitha, M. (2017). Incorporating Islam in the therapeutic community modality for rehabilitation of substance and drug users. A Malaysian experience. International Journal of Human and Health Sciences (IJHHS) , 1 (1), 7. https://doi.org/10.31344/ijhhs.v1i1.2
Stone, D. A., Conteh, J. A., & Francis, J. D. (2017). Therapeutic factors and psychological concepts in alcoholics anonymous. Journal of Counselor Practice , 8(2), 120-135.
