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.

“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

Daily Meditations

Just for Today

October 23, 2024

Surrender

Page 309

“By surrendering control, we gain a far greater power.“

Basic Text, p. 44

When we were using, we did everything we could to run things our way. We used every scheme imaginable to bring our world under control. When we got what we wanted, we felt powerful, invincible; when we didn’t, we felt vulnerable, defeated. But that didn’t stop us–it only led to more efforts to control and manipulate our lives into a manageable state.

Scheming was our way of denying our powerlessness. As long as we could distract ourselves with our plans, we could put off accepting that we were out of control. Only gradually did we realize that our lives had become unmanageable and that all the conning and manipulating in the world was not going to put our lives back in order.

When we admit our powerlessness, we stop trying to control and manage our way to a better life–we surrender. Lacking sufficient power of our own, we seek a Power greater than ourselves; needing support and guidance, we ask that Power to care for our will and our lives. We ask others in recovery to share their experience with living the NA program instead of trying to program our own lives. The power and direction we seek is all around us; we need only turn away from self to find it.

Just for Today: I will not try to scheme and manipulate my way to a manageable life. Through the NA program, I will surrender myself to my Higher Power’s care.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

October 23, 2024

Expressing Our Autonomy with Integrity

Page 306

“Autonomy allows us to express who we are with integrity and to carry a message: the truth of our own experience, in our own way.“

Guiding Principles, Tradition Four, Opening Reflection

The autonomy spoken of in Tradition Four has a strong appeal to many of us in NA. We are people who tend to put a pretty high value on self-determination. In active addiction, insistence on doing things our way often led to poor results, usually because “our way” had a lot to do with self-centeredness, rather than integrity. In recovery, autonomy becomes an asset rather than a liability–as our Basic Text puts it, “Our real value is in being ourselves.”

It’s the second half of Tradition Four that keeps us on track: “except in matters affecting other groups or NA as a whole.” For NA groups, this means we think about our role as part of the Fellowship, not just what our own group wants. As individual recovering addicts, we balance our right to do as we please with our responsibilities to those around us: family, friends, the Fellowship, and society. One way we begin to learn that balance is in how we share in meetings.

“As a newcomer, my sharing was super-aggressive and put some people on edge,” a member wrote. “My justification was ‘Hey, this is who I am!’ After a while, I tried to mimic the way others shared, but it wasn’t my own voice, and it always came out wrong. Eventually, I got comfortable being me while also thinking about the feelings of those around me I finally started to connect.”

If any group of people can sniff out a fake, it’s addicts. Authenticity is a message that lasts, whether it comes in the form of a riveting performance or an understated, soft-spoken share. Whether we’re trying to reach a still-suffering addict or save our own life, we try to strike the right balance between autonomy and responsibility, freedom and self-control, self-determination and connection.

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Being autonomous doesn’t mean disregarding those around me. I will practice balancing personal freedom with social responsibility.

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

October 23, 2024

Surrender

A Spiritual Principle a Day

October 23, 2024

Expressing Our Autonomy with Integrity

Do you need help with a drug problem?

Subscribe to NAWS Emails