Welcome to Narcotics Anonymous

What is our message? The message is that an addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Our message is hope and the promise is freedom.

Resource of the Month

“When new members come to meetings, our sole interest is in their desire for freedom from active addiction and how we can be of help.”

It Works: How and Why, “Third Tradition”

Is NA for me?

This is a question every potential member must answer for themselves. Here are some recommended resources that may be helpful:

Need help for family or a friend?

NA meetings are run by and for addicts. If you're looking for help for a loved one, you can contact Narcotics Anonymous near you.

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Never before have so many clean addicts, of their own choice and in free society, been able to meet where they please, to maintain their recovery in complete creative freedom.

Basic Text, “We Do Recover”

Recovery Quicklinks:

Service Quicklinks:

Narcotics Anonymous sprang from the Alcoholics Anonymous Program of the late 1940s, with meetings first emerging in the Los Angeles area of California, USA, in the early Fifties. The NA program started as a small US movement that has grown into one of the world's oldest and largest organizations of its type.

Today, Narcotics Anonymous is well established throughout much of the Americas, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Newly formed groups and NA communities are now scattered throughout the Indian subcontinent, Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Narcotics Anonymous books and information pamphlets are currently available in 49 languages.

Information About NA

Daily Meditations

Just for Today

June 28, 2025

Group conscience

Page 186

“Working with others is only the beginning of service work.“

Basic Text, p. 59

Service work calls for a selfless devotion to carrying the message to the still-suffering addict. But our attitude of service cannot stop there. Service also requires that we look at ourselves and our motives. Our efforts at service make us highly visible to the fellowship. In NA, it is easy to become a “big fish in a little pond.” Our controlling attitude can easily drive away the newcomer.

Group conscience is one of the most important principles in service. It is vital to remember that the group conscience is what counts, not just our individual beliefs and desires. We lend our thoughts and beliefs to the development of a group conscience. Then when that conscience arises, we accept its guidance. The key is working with others, not against them. If we remember that we strive together to develop a collective conscience, we will see that all sides have equal merit. When all the discussions are over, all sides will come back together to carry a unified message.

It is often tempting to think that we know what is best for the group. If we remember that it doesn't matter if we get our way, then it is easier to allow service to be the vehicle it is intended to be–a way to carry the message to the addict who still suffers.

Just for Today: I will take part in the development of group conscience. I will remember that the world won't end just because I don't get my way. I will think about our primary purpose in all my service efforts. I will reach out to a newcomer.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

June 28, 2025

Unconditional Love Brings Healing

Page 185

“Practicing the principle of unconditional love in the Twelfth Step is essential. Nobody needs love without conditions more than a suffering addict.“

NA Step Working Guides, Step Twelve, “Spiritual Principles”

Judging from our experiences prior to NA, many of us believed that love only came with conditions. That was often true in our families and in our relationships while using. We were loved as long as we got decent grades, were gainfully employed, looked presentable, or could talk our way out of an arrest. We internalized these messages and berated ourselves for not being good enough. We felt ashamed of our very existence. Many of us turned those feelings of guilt and shame outward. We judged others based on how we felt about ourselves.

Thankfully, working a program allows us to examine and discard much of this damaged thinking. Members' willingness to love and support us without conditions makes that work possible. Their unconditional love helps us to climb out of that pit of despair and self-loathing.

When we begin to work the Twelfth Step, we get to pay that favor forward by giving unconditional love to other suffering addicts. Our self-esteem grows as we do esteemable acts. As one member shared, “After taking a meeting into the local jail every month for a year, I began to believe that maybe I was a good person, worthy of love, too.”

Learning to practice unconditional love is a process. The love of other members sustains us along the way. In one member's experience: “If I'd had to wait until I loved myself, I might not have made it.” A firm hug outside a meeting, sharing our story at an H&I meeting, giving newcomers rides, even a friendly smile of recognition–we give and receive these acts of love without conditions. And it keeps us coming back.

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Today I will give away the unconditional love that was (and is) so freely given to me.

Do you need help with a drug problem?

“If you’re new to NA or planning to go to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting for the first time, it might be nice to know a little bit about what happens in our meetings. The information here is meant to give you an understanding of what we do when we come together to share recovery…”

Welcome to Narcotics Anonymous

Read NA Literature

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It Works: How and Why, “Third Tradition”

Is NA for me?

Need help for family or a friend?

Subscribe to NAWS Emails

Basic Text, “We Do Recover”

Recovery Quicklinks:

Service Quicklinks:

Information About NA

Daily Meditations

Just for Today

June 28, 2025

Group conscience

A Spiritual Principle a Day

June 28, 2025

Unconditional Love Brings Healing

Do you need help with a drug problem?

Subscribe to NAWS Emails