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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. 

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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”

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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

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Daily Meditations

Just for Today

January 13, 2025

Surrender to win
Page 13
“Help for addicts begins only when we are able to admit complete defeat.“
Basic Text, p. 22
Complete defeat–what a concept! That must mean surrender. Surrender–to give up absolutely. To quit with no reservations. To put up our hands and quit fighting. Maybe to put up our hand at our first meeting and admit we're addicts.

How do we know we've taken a First Step that will allow us to live drug-free? We know because, once we have taken that gigantic step, we never have to use again–just for today. That's it. It's not easy, but it's very simple.

We work the First Step. We accept that, yes, we are addicts. “One is too many, and a thousand never enough.” We've proven that to ourselves enough times. We admit that we cannot handle drugs in any form. We admit it; we say it out loud, if necessary.

We take the First Step at the beginning of our day. For one day. This admission frees us, just for today, from the need to live out our addiction all over again. We've surrendered to this disease. We give up. We quit. But in quitting, we win. And that's the paradox of the First Step: We surrender to win, and by surrendering we gain a far greater power than we ever imagined possible.

Just for Today: I admit that I am powerless over my addiction. I will surrender to win.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

January 13, 2025

Inclusiveness and Our Sense of Belonging
Page 13
“Our diversity strengthens and affirms the reality of our simple message. Across all of our differences, the same simple program works.“
Guiding Principles, Tradition Five, “Word by Word”
NA's simple message is that any addict can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Any addict. We've witnessed the proof that our program works, for ourselves and addicts from all walks of life, those with obvious similarities and those who are different from us. Tradition Five states that a group's primary purpose is to carry NA's message to the still-suffering addict who, on any given day, could be a newcomer or a more experienced member.

While most of us will acknowledge the above as true, it's not a given. Inclusiveness, like all the spiritual principles, requires work. It takes practice and a degree of self-awareness. “Our diversity is our strength” is just a slogan unless we take steps to actively include each other, welcome and remember each other, share and listen to each other. Nearly all of us walk into NA feeling different and separate, not a part of. Our job as members is to try to bridge that gap.

While it's true that we all have the same disease, we aren't the same people. When we look–and feel–different from everyone else in the room, that can challenge us. One longtime member described his experience like this: “I walked into a meeting and nobody looked like me. I asked, ‘Where are my people?' and a member responded, ‘Oh, they're on the way. You have to stay, so you'll be here when they come.' That made me feel included and that I had a purpose.”

It will do us well to remember that we are used to many factors defining us and our worth. Frankly, some of us have privileges and resources that others don't. While we like to say, “That stuff doesn't matter here,” we need to keep actively demonstrating that to newcomers. We're all accountable to the Fifth Tradition. We must never take it for granted. One member wrote, “The disease wants us to focus on our differences. Recovery helps us appreciate our diversity, see beyond our differences, and know that we belong together.”
———     ———     ———     ———     ———
How am I putting “our diversity is our strength” into action? Today I'll look for an opportunity to show another member that they belong.

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“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…” 

An Introduction to NA Meetings

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