I’ve noticed that drugs have distressed a significant amount of many of my peers no matter what their ethnic backgrounds may be. Coming from a household where many of my relatives used, or still use I can tell a variety of devastating stories due to their disease. For example my thirty-year-old brother living in isolation due to the failure of the Erikson’s Psychosocial “Young Adulthood” Stage; because of his addiction to cocaine and alcohol. Another example is my father having an unstable relationship with not only his wife, but as well as my little brother and I. Even some of my own friends are somewhat connected with the issue of drug abuse. For instance some of my African American, Hispanic, Caucasian friends who use occasionally are young parents and or suffer financially, and has had some type of incarceration in their past. Throughout my participant observation I noticed the engagements of multicultural addicts and how they were similarly structured in Narcotic Anonymous.
By living a couple of traumatic situations related with either alcohol and or drugs I’ve witnessed similar stories through my peers. For instance when my father was headed towards an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting with such exasperation a drunk driver crashed with our car. At the time of this car accident I was about four years old, and my baby brother about a couple weeks old. Since, my mother had my little brother in her arms in the front seat he fractured his skull then leaving him with a permanent brain injury. Similarly my oldest brother whom was affiliated with a gang and obviously did drugs and other illicit things got shot one day while outside drinking with some of his “buddies”. The gunshot had him in critical conditions and almost killed him. Not to say a couple of family friends, both Caucasian and Mexican whom used drugs and drunken alcohol often are currently serving time in prison for murder. Although, nothing but bad stories after someone has been immensely intoxicated sometimes many users just laugh about the ridiculous moment afterwards, pretend as if nothing happened, or regret it.
Based on a then called Addict Anonymous website www.nawol.org/2012 these meetings were originated in the 1947s, and eventually N.A branched off around 1948. In accordance to a booklet that was given to me by one of the Narcotic Anonymous leaders, their foreword is to simply provide spiritual support for any individual seeking hope to stop suffering from an addiction to drugs. Basically N.A. is considered a non-profit organization that does accept donations to provide a location for members to meet regularly; however they have no initiation fees or dues, no pledges to sign, and no promises to make to anyone. Even their literatures’ intended audiences are addicts regardless of age, race, sexual identity, creed, religion, or lack of religion. This goes to show the diversity of this programs connection with drug users. The principles of the N.A traditions or foundations to recovery are a combination of honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.
As I attended several meetings in different locations here in Chicago I noticed some general patterns between the N.A gatherings. The first pattern was how four out of four meeting locations didn’t have a big sign of N.A meeting here noticeable to the public as if it was practically hidden. Another repeated movement was how often people kept coming in and out the door. The members were easily distracted and fidgety, and all of them hugged and sometimes even exchanged a kiss to greet each other. There were many distractions in all of the meeting locations. Many members of both genders (mostly guys) would walk in with a strong distinct cologne or perfume scent. In most of the meetings a lot of people kept showing up at different hours. The facilitators of these meeting were mostly guys and they often sit in an office type desk while everyone else sits in a single chair facing their direction. The meeting always initiated with readings out loud of the twelve principals, twelve traditions, and what N.A was about. When a volunteer was ready to speak on basically anything they first stated their name followed by “I’m an addict”. Then everyone replies, “Hi” followed by his or her name. All of these meetings allowed a certain individual to speak for a specific period, and reminding them with a bell to end their “microphone talk” so the discussion can move on to the next speaker. At one point almost all of the members got upset at one facilitator because he was ringing the bell of five minute limit, in which was cutting off this guy whom was giving an encouraging speech to one fellow who described how he was going through hard times. There was always some type of funny remark said about anything and many of the speakers were kind of making jokes about a lot of things, along with some others who were just laughing and whispering amongst themselves. It was very odd to me how a couple of people were over dressed wearing suits, fancy hats, and even a suitcase. One guy in particular who was over dressed even absurdly had his hat tilted almost completely to the left side of his head. I still wonder how he managed to keep it steady while speaking so frantically. Many of these addicts had a sense of humor. Many members comforted each other even in a joking manner. Like, after I was leaving one of the meetings a guy asked me for my number, and then some other guy said, “Girl stop flirting with that boy and focus on your treatment, I’m just kidding we have to have a little fun while being sober”. There was a joke said about how many recovering addicts claim they feel great, but he believed they were lying and shouldn’t feel great about screwing with others and that they might feel bad and really wanted to use. There was always a coffee table, donation jar, and an exchange of hugs. There was always a list of contacts going around the room and given to the new comers to call in case they thought about using or about to use. A distinguished color key chain with the N.A stamp was given to the member depending on the amount of time being sober on behalf of N.A. A white key chain symbolized one day being clean, glow in the dark colored key chain symbolized years, and so forth. African Americans were the dominant race in all of the meetings, not only in numbers, but also in participation. It was rare to hear a Caucasian or a Hispanic share their stories. At the end of every meeting we all had to gather in a circle and physically touch and together recited the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
As soon as I walked in my first observation site located on 1409 N. Pulaski the beauty of the mural on the longest wall amazed me. The mural was the skyline of Chicago and N.A written in very nice letters above it. However, the conditions of the meeting were very poor. The fans, chairs, and tiles all appeared very old and raggedy. I’ve been passing through this location since I was really young, but I’m just realizing that exact location was for N.A. It’s very obvious though once you enter this place you can tell it’s land use is primarily for N.A, because of their posters, schedule, and 12traditions/principles displayed on the wall. The door was really noisy and it didn’t help that the facilitator didn’t speak loudly and clearly enough. There were approximately eighteen members trying to recover. Out of the eighteen trying to recover fourteen seemed African American, and four Hispanics. There were approximately eight females and ten males, but because of their quick gestures and movement it was kind of difficult to keep track. Although many of the attendants seemed really old a couple of people whom I asked how old they were said they were thirty years or more. The people coming late or in and out of the room kept distracting the addicts trying to pay attention. At first I was shocked to have these complete strangers come up to me and hug me, but after a while I noticed that it was their way of greeting each other. I arrived there a bit earlier than the time the meeting began, and noticed how everyone sat at least one seat apart from each other. After the space began to get crowded they had no choice but to sit right next to someone. There was this one incident of when the recovering addicts must have got the urge to smoke a cigarette and stepped outside the meeting, their rowdy voices and arguments completely disrupted the meeting for a while. The facilitator wanted to attempt to tell them to quiet down, but another guy said, “No let them be don’t pay no attention to them”. Eventually he had to do his job of making sure the meeting ran smoothly, and told them that the meeting was still active.
My second observation on another N.A location was on the fourth floor of 77 W. Washington St. This location was in a very tall and fancy church building named Chicago Temple Building located on downtown. Therefore, the conditions were much better than the first meeting I attended. There was even a big window with a view of the neighbor skyscrapers, and the room had simple paintings with statements of hope or some positive quotes. There were approximately seventeen participants. Eleven out of the seventeen seemed African Americans, approximately four Caucasians, and maybe two Hispanics. Fourteen out of these seventeen participants were males, and only three females (including myself). There were some apparent young fellows maybe three, but the others looked older than thirty years old. It was completely quiet so every speaker’s story was attentively heard. A man was eating some fast food during the meeting, perhaps his lunch.One guy kept looking at me, maybe wondering what can she be doing here. After couple minutes after the meeting had already commenced I noticed one African American male rolling his eyes all the way back, and acting very odd. After watching him for a while he caught on to me. He grinned and got up off of his seat and decided to sit right next to me. At first he didn’t say anything, but then I noticed he was chuckling for almost nothing. When I looked around to see if anyone had seen him or would say anything nothing happened. He began murmuring to himself. Even though the speaker was sitting right next to him, not even he cared so he just spoke over his subliminal noise. I still don’t know whom the facilitator was at this particular meeting; because he or she was just sitting in the big oval shaped table located at the center of the room, blending in with the others.
On September 24th I attended two meetings one after the other. The first one was on 2847 W. Washington St. This location was also in a church, but not as fancy as the one previously. Although the room in the basement had plenty of chairs I only counted about twenty people. Present at that meeting included eighteen African Americans, and the remaining two were Hispanic. Contrarily from the last two patterns this meeting had mostly women, with eleven women and only nine men. All of the people gathered there were at least around forty years old. In the table of the facilitator whom was a guy, was set a variety of literature. Each booklet was worth some change.
Right after I went to the last meeting on 4220 W. Roosevelt Rd. in which was real packed. I saw it was also a regular church and the meeting was in the basement too. In this meeting there were about eight to ten long tables for about four people, but all facing the facilitator. This time the facilitator was an African American female. She sat in the table located in the front of the room with the literature out. One of her friends was announcing the prices of each booklet. Another difference was the speaker had an extended time to talk than the other meetings. Only one woman spoke through the whole session, and she implied being sober for many years. She spoke loudly and clearly, but kept walking back and forth maybe a little nervous. What shocked me about this meeting was where people sat. Due to the crowdedness and no seats being left for the ones that arrived late some were sitting on top of tables and even the freezer. Others just had to stand because there wasn’t anywhere else to sit.
In conclusion and accordance to the data I gathered, more African Americans were the ones who frequently go to N.A meetings. In regards of more blacks engaging to these meetings they are most likely to feel comfortable on socializing and contributing with the other participants. By African Americans engaging themselves more than the other ethnicities at N.A meetings they have the power to structure it. My impression on the facts I gathered are even if there are more Hispanic addicts or Caucasian addicts this can also show how much the African Americans seek for outside help. Perhaps even to prior suffering African Americans are more vulnerable to fall into addiction due to their stereotyped style of living. For example the amount of drug dealers located on their neighborhoods push them to have a higher probability on relapse, causing them to keep going back to the meetings. More men than women attended the meetings I observed because the environment of drug abuse is a tough lifestyle, maybe too much for a woman to bear.