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.

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“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. 

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”

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.

Daily Meditations

Just for Today

November 07, 2024

Feeling God’s will

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I sincerely believed that a Higher Power could restore my sanity and that I would stop trying to figure out what God’s will was, just accept things for what they were, and be grateful.

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The longer we stay clean, the less surely we “know” what our Higher Power’s will for us is–and the less it matters. Knowledge of our Higher Power’s will becomes less a “knowing” thing and more a “feeling” thing. We still practice the Eleventh Step faithfully. But rather than look for “signs” from our Higher Power, we begin to rely more on our intuition, trusting our feelings about what will make us comfortable.

After staying clean a few years, what we do seem to know is when we are acting against God’s will for us. When we are going against God’s will, we get that old uncomfortable feeling in our gut. That queasiness is a warning that, if we continue in this direction, ahead lie many sleepless nights. We need to pay attention to such feelings, for they are often signals that we are acting contrary to our Higher Power’s will for us.

Our Eleventh Step clearly states the true goal of prayer and meditation: improvement of our conscious contact with the God of our understanding, bringing us clearer knowledge of our Higher Power’s will for us and the power to carry it out. We know God’s will most clearly by how it feels, not by “signs” or words–and it feels right.

Just for Today: I will pray for the knowledge of my Higher Power’s will for me and the power to carry it out. I will pay attention to my feelings, and act when they feel right.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

November 07, 2024

Purpose and Our Path Forward

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Faith in the process means believing that we are moving in the right direction, even if it’s not where we thought we would be going.

Living Clean, Chapter 1, “Desperation to Passion”

On the day of our first NA meeting, we may have predictions about what our lives will look like without drugs, but what if our dreams don’t come true? Desperation has forced us to strive for something new, but what will it be? We now have choices about how we live that we didn’t have before, but how do we know which is the “right” path and if we’re following our life’s “true” purpose? If we don’t have a whole lot of faith in the future, how can we get more?

Whatever questions we have about finding our true purpose, the same crystal ball that didn’t work when we were high doesn’t when we’re clean either. Thankfully, more is revealed as we stay clean. Through the Steps, we discover our values and convictions. For many of us, that means our purpose radically shifts, or we find one at last. Recovery gives us a chance to revisit goals that addiction interfered with, or we start from scratch. Hope helps us to believe we’re headed down the right path, and faith keeps our feet moving in that direction.

We find purpose (or many purposes, as time passes) in NA, in a career, in relationships, in our communities, on a mountaintop, in a foreign land, or in sitting still. We learn to serve others more than our egos. We practice self-acceptance and model it for newer members who think that being okay with themselves is unattainable. Many of us also have–or regain and revitalize–our faith in a God who has a plan for us that we can’t predict, ardently believing this plan is better than one we could create on our own. Others find purpose in a life guided by spiritual principles or believe the universe conspires in our favor, cheering us on. Having faith in finding and living our purpose takes practice. Recovery in NA provides us with tools to manage our discomfort with trial and error, impossible without plenty of open-mindedness and willingness along the journey.

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I can’t predict the future, but I believe I have one. I will move in a direction and see where the path leads. It’s worth staying alive to find out.

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…” 

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