12 Step Support Group

Support Groups
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Support groups are critical in assisting individuals affected by various behavioral problems to rebuild their lives. Today, different types of support groups handling different forms of behavioral issues exist within the communities across the globe. These groups focus on helping individuals recover from compulsions and addictions such as gambling, alcoholism, and drug abuse among others. Most of the support groups are based on the 12-step model, which outlines a distinctive set of principles aimed at guiding the affected person towards recovery. However, not all support groups are based on the 12-step model. Based on this background, I am going to compare and contrast my experiences in two different support group meetings I recently attended. The paper will explore the type of the groups, types of individuals who attended the meetings, the environment, topics covered, conduction of the meetings, as well as weaknesses and strengths of the groups besides providing a personal reaction to the groups.
The first type of group I attended was the gamblers anonymous group, popularly known as the GA. The 12-steps based support program, seeks to combat gambling issues in the community by aiding recovery and abstinence from the vice. The group holds a series of regular meetings through which the affected individuals share their experiences and guide one another towards healing. The second group I attended was the parents anonymous, popularly known as the PA. This self-help program aims at providing support to parents with or without child abuse experiences. Unlike the GA, the PA support group is not based on the 12-step model and its meetings were more formal.
The GA meeting was attended by people who had acknowledged that they had a gambling problem and desired to quit. These were mostly adult males between the ages of 30 to 65 years who could not exercise self-restraint with regard to frequenting gambling clubs, and whose lives had either been destroyed or were at risk of being destroyed by the habit. Interestingly, some of those in the meeting were close relatives or people living with a compulsive gambler. For instance, about five of the female members were wives whose husbands were addicted to gambling. Additionally, most of the obsessive gamblers in the meeting had well paying jobs, and were older and married. Contrastingly, the PA meeting was attended by parents who had either abused or at risk of abusing their own children. These were mostly male and female parents aged between 25 and 40 years old. However, like people in the GA meeting, parents in the PA meeting had acknowledged that they had a problem and that they desired change.
With regard to setting, the GA meeting was held in an unused studio that had been leased and renovated by the group founder. The room had an open-kitchen in one corner and chairs arranged in a ring. Pertaining to topics, subjects co...