I recently held a meeting with an alcoholics’ group I n an attempt to establish their past struggles with alcoholism. Members of the group were mostly men aged between 20 and 35 years, implying that they had developed alcoholism in their early life. This group has been active in the last fifteen years in which members have extensively discussed the consumption of alcohol, its impact and prevention. Addiction to alcohol has been on an upward trend and it been established that alcohol use is responsible for approximately 1.8 deaths, annually, in the globe. Notably, alcoholism develops primarily because of the society’s perception that consumption is a normal lifestyle. The Alcoholics Anonymous group has prioritized the change of people’s belief on the use of alcohol and its impact, in order to reduce the number of young people developing alcoholism in the local society.
From this meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous, I learned that there is a great relationship between alcoholism and difficulties in one’s life. Most of the group members cited various problems in their life as the cause of their alcoholic lifestyle. For example, a middle-aged male seated in the front row claimed that he started consuming alcohol after a conflict with his spouse at the age of 23 years. At the time of the meeting, this man was 10 years older and described how he had engaged in heavy drinking after the fall out. Two-three alcoholics who were present claimed that their abusive fathers were responsible for their alcoholism. According to these individuals, their fathers were always confronting them for lack of success in college. Indeed, two of them went ahead to drop from school after which they entered the lifestyle of heavy drinking.
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As I further interacted with the alcoholics, I learned that peer pressure is also a significant contributing factor towards the development of alcoholism. Some group members explained how the first experience with alcohol was and how their close friends influenced them into the activity. Indeed, I established that several young people had never tasted alcohol before their college life. However, while in their early stages, they would admire the pleasure displayed by their friends while under the influence of alcohol. Consequently, these individuals would opt to have a sip from time to time, eventually becoming new entrants into the alcohol consumption lifestyle. I was, therefore, able to link the increasing number of young alcoholics to peer pressure. This influence is also responsible for the trend of having alcoholics concentrated in a single neighborhood. For examples, most members of the Alcoholics Anonymous were from the same locality implying that the influence of friends had played a significant part in their development of alcoholism.
In the course of this meeting I established that most alcoholics are still in touch with their spiritual life. In the beginning, one group member led the rest in a serenity prayer and some biblical readings. Throughout the meeting, members told out their daily reflections most of which revealed that the individuals had attempted to use religion as a means of breaking the cycle of alcohol use. Ideally, they explained how they would spend as much time as possible in religious activities to avoid the opportunity of taking alcohol with friends. However, despite this strategy, most of the members of the Alcoholics Anonymous group still found themselves in the continued use of alcohol, a trend which d discouraged their commitment in religion.
The meeting with the Alcoholics Anonymous gave me an insight to the fact that many people have ignored the various negative impacts associated with the consumption of alcohol. The individuals who got an opportunity to address the meeting admitted that they were aware of an array of financial, social, and health consequences of alcohol use. Indeed, most of the speakers quoted chronic diseases which have alcohol as one of their risk factors. In addition, other speakers reflected on how some of their family members and friends had got in serious social and financial crises because of heavy drinking. These problems were inclusive of termination from employment, failed businesses, marriage break-ups, and complete isolation from family and society. However, members claimed that despite this awareness, they could not live without drinking. Indeed, some members revealed how they used to take some odd jobs to earn the little it would cost them to purchase at least one unit of alcohol.
Several attendees talked about how it was almost impossible to take one drink. Indeed, members said that their first drink leads to the development of a desire to have more adding that they could end up taking more than ten drinks a day. Consequently, most of the alcoholics revealed that they believed the only effective strategy to end their problem was total abstinence. The members suggested the need to increase the social and economic activity of the Alcoholics Anonymous to minimize the opportunity of drinking.
My meeting with Alcoholics Anonymous was highly successful as I learned several concepts associated with alcoholism. For instance, it came to my awareness that the process of one becoming an alcoholic is hardly a default thing; there are several factors that lead to this lifestyle including peer pressure and frustrations. I have, since then, changed my perception and attitude towards alcoholics as I understand that most of them are, indeed, struggling to come out of this lifestyle. I have also increased my commitment to help many young people, struggling with alcoholism, to change their lifestyle.
