Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous Meetings will be hosted at the Grandview Kinsmen Community Centre starting next Tuesday.
Chris, a member of AA for 17 years and a member of NA for 6 years, said in his experience with facilitating meetings, discussions cover a wide variety of topics.
"The discussions go from everything to do with family issues, life issues, homelessness, of course losing your license, any life issue you would have that you would hear about anywhere else, you would hear about in an AA meeting," said Chris.
He also said the discussions tend to take an approach that doesn't talk about the cause more than the issues.
"How we try to do it is to look at how the drugs or the alcohol have affected the way those situations have happened," said Chris.
Discussions often lead to different outcomes than counselling or therapy, because AA/NA is a peer-focused environment.
"It's pretty hard to talk to somebody that doesn't have a drug or alcohol problem about your problems. Whether they're a counsellor or a doctor, or anyone, even though they're concerned, they really don't have an understanding of what you're going through, because they haven't gone through it themselves...being able to talk about it and discuss it openly with people that fully understand what you're going through because they've gone through it themselves, really just lets a lot of pressure off," said Chris.
The AA meetings start at 7:00 PM, and the NA meetings start at 8:00. For more details about the meetings, contact Chris at 204-647-6099.
