A dear friend of mine is a student at Kauai Community College. Her class had to give small group oral reports on different subjects, and three of the four chose dealing with alcohol or other substance abuse. They were challenged
A dear friend of mine is a student at Kauai Community College. Her class had to give small group oral reports on different subjects, and three of the four chose dealing with alcohol or other substance abuse. They were challenged because they didn’t seem to have a clue as to where to go to get help. Hence, this article!
Memorize this: aa.org It is the Alcoholics Anonymous website for the U.S. and Canada. It’s very timely because AA is celebrating its 75th anniversary this month. At that site you can get info about:
• The organization Alcoholics Anonymous.
• how to explain AA for the media.
• Whether AA is for you or not. There’s a special click for “Young People.” You can then choose to read and download “Message to Teenagers”, or a book entitled “Young people and AA.” They each have a questionnaire that can help you decided if AA would work for you. They also have 5 videos to watch that are about 5 minutes each. I viewed four of them and liked them.
• Groups and Members services
• Archives and History which also includes info on upcoming AA events
• How to find AA meetings. Under that heading you can click on finding AA resources within the U.S. and Canada.
You will be directed to a list of states. When you click Hawaii, you’ll get a website for each county. Kauai’s is www.kauaiaa.org. They give you a 24-hour hotline number. It is (808) 245-6677. I checked it out, and spoke with a woman who asked what town I lived in. There are several for Kapaa. I asked about Kilauea, Poipu, Waimea, Lihue and got a yes to all of them. She said that they were in about every city.
My AA friend told me that they want a hotline person to talk to whomever calls to be helpful in directing them to AA services, or Narcotics Anonymous services.
It’s helpful to know that anonymous means that no one tells their names in AA, and you won’t be asked your name. That’s what anonymous means. People may give their first names at meetings.
In the four videos that I watched, some of the teens and young people had been to rehab. One young man had drunk so much alcohol that he had alcohol poisoning and woke up in the ER with tubes, and terrified parents standing around him, twice.
These teens then went on to attend adult membership AA meetings. The “alcoholic” story, the illness, the symptoms are universal and they recognized themselves in the stories shared. Some also stated that they were very happy that they were able to beat alcoholism at such an early age.
I spent a whole lot of time on aa.org. But actually, you can just remember AA if you want to use the phonebook. AA will direct you to Alcoholics Anonymous, and you’ll get the same number above: 245-6677.
Two great movies you can watch online about alcoholism are “Bill W”, and “My Name is Bill W.” Bill W was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous 75 years ago when he realized that he himself couldn’t control his drinking. He and Dr. Bob began finding others who had the same problem, and began meeting. About 100 of them got together to write AA’s “Bible” “The Big Book”, which has the famous 12 Steps listed. I found them on Wikipedia, and here they are as they were first written:
• We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.
• Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
• Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
• Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
• Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
• Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
• Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
• Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
• Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
• Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
• Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
• Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Other groups have adopted and edited them a bit, because they can be applied to any addiction that has a power over someone’s mind.
Meeting with others who have overcome their issues gives hope. Seekers hear their stories when others share. Also, the excuses that one offers for the negative behavior have all been heard before, and are dismissed! Seekers get a sponsor, a person they can call when they are getting stressed, or want to take a drink. Sponsors and members know that it’s by helping others that they continue to stay sober.
So now the information on where to get help is out. Readers, please share this with teens and youth groups, schools, etc. A whole class of students at KCC didn’t know where to get help. There is so much help and love on this island for people with addictions, but they may feel shame in asking for it. So we have to get it to them! Remember that alcohol is a depressant, and over time it leads to depression. This might be another way to stop teen suicide.
Next week the Corner will tackle what family members can do when they live with alcoholics.
• Hale Opio Kauai convened a support group of adults in our Kauai community to “step into the corner” for our teens, to answer questions and give support to youth and their families on a wide variety of issues. Please email your questions or concerns facing our youth and families today to Annaleah Atkinson at aatkinson@haleopio.org
