He asked for a show of hands from new prospects and several people sitting in the back raised their hands, after which the regular members all turned in their direction and applauded briefly to congratulate them for taking the first step in their recovery.
Then, the leader asked for a show of hands from people who wished to share with the group. After four people raised their hands, he assigned an order for them to speak and the first of the group shared a story about hanging out with the wrong people. He had previously tried to drink socially, but found after several drug relapses, that it was impossible for him to drink alcohol without leading to more destructive vices, because alcohol impaired his judgment and his ability to be honest with himself in all circumstances. He described going through the process of rationalization and justification of harmful indulgences starting as soon as he has a single drink. The previous weekend, he had attempted to spend time with people who currently do some of the things that he used to do, and even though he drank only non-alcoholic beer, the environment and social aspects of being in a bar brought him so close to feeling that he wanted to take heroin again that he had to take a prescription pill called Subutext that blocks any response to heroin. The leader spoke briefly again before the next member and reminded the group of the power of suggestion, even in circumstances that are considered "normal" for non-addicts. After thanking him for his contribution, the leader then gave the floor to the next person who had previously raised his hand, repeating that two more times afterwards.
This group requires prospective members to attend one of the open meetings, after which they may attend the closed meetings as well. According to the group leader, the biggest difference between what occurs at open meetings and what occurs at closed meetings is that many members choose not to speak about their experiences in open meetings, which is the main reason only one quarter of the meetings are open.
Otherwise, there are few differences between the open and closed meetings from the perspective of the group members.
Avenues for Improvement:
As a complete outsider to this process, I did not notice anything that I thought required improvement, except that I did wonder why the leader took the floor to speak in between every other speaker, especially since he was merely another group participant and not someone with formal training. It occurred to me that it might have been a better idea to let the group discuss each person's contribution instead of having the same person add his remarks after every contribution by the other group members.
REFERENCES Michael Genquk (nd) A Synthesis of Ethnographic Research. University of Southern California, Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research. Lambert, Elizabeth (1990) The Collection and Interpretation of Data from Hidden Populations. NIDA Research Monograph 98. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Public Health Service, Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Pierce, Todd G. (1996) Gen-X Junkie: Ethnographic Research with Young white Heroin Users in Washington, DC. Substance
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