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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:

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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

February 21, 2025

Self-pity or recovery–it's our choice
Page 53
“Self-pity is one of the most destructive of defects; it will drain us of all positive energy.“
Basic Text, p. 80
In active addiction, many of us used self-pity as a survival mechanism. We didn't believe there was an alternative to living in our disease-or perhaps we didn't want to believe. As long as we could feel sorry for ourselves and blame someone else for our troubles, we didn't have to accept the consequences of our actions; believing ourselves powerless to change, we didn't have to accept the need for change. Using this “survival mechanism” kept us from entering recovery and led us closer, day by day, to self-destruction. Self-pity is a tool of our disease; we need to stop using it and learn instead to use the new tools we find in the NA program.

We have come to believe that effective help is available for us; when we seek that help, finding it in the NA program, self-pity is displaced by gratitude. Many tools are at our disposal: the Twelve Steps, the support of our sponsor, the fellowship of other recovering addicts, and the care of our Higher Power. The availability of all these tools is more than enough reason to be grateful. We no longer live in isolation, without hope; we have certain help at hand for anything we may face. The surest way to become grateful is to take advantage of the help available to us in the NA program and to experience the improvement the program will bring in our lives.

Just for Today: I will be grateful for the hope NA has given me. I will cultivate my recovery and stop cultivating self-pity.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

February 21, 2025

Faith Provides Shelter from the Storm
Page 53
“I know that faith in my Higher Power will not calm the storms of life, but it will calm my heart. I will let my faith shelter me in times of trouble.“
Just for Today, “Faith,” January 11
Most of us have heard it said that “none of us gets here by accident.” It wasn't exceptional skills for handling life on life's terms that got us here–it was unmanageability. Working Step One helps us to see how addiction creates chaos in our lives and shows us how we can begin to gain some freedom.

Some of us, while floating on that early-recovery pink cloud of hope, might prematurely celebrate the end of all the drama in our lives. We might rush off and make amends to our families–or our exes or virtual strangers–eager to let them know that our problems are all in the past now.

Then, life gets tough and reality sets in again. We are let down by people and institutions we think we should be able to respect. Rent is too high. We get sacked from our job for no reason. A public health crisis occurs. On top of that, our favorite television series is canceled. The injustice of it all! And our stepwork doesn't stop any of it from happening.

Our disease creates unmanageability in our lives, sure–and arresting the disease by working Steps can help us put an end to our needless, self-inflicted suffering. However, not all of the messes in our life are self-created. No amount of stepwork or meditation will prevent us from ever experiencing loss, sadness, rage, frustration, and other unpleasant feelings; no amount of prayer will guarantee freedom from unpleasant encounters with coworkers, family members, or random people in traffic.

We may not know how to react to every new type of weather pattern that comes our way. Still, the freedom from our self-made storms that we gained by working Steps is a source of faith: We can endure all sorts of chaos and nonsense by getting right with ourselves and our Higher Power. Things might not go our way, but we can still go with the flow.
———     ———     ———     ———     ———
The current crisis–whatever it is–will pass. If the problem is one of my own making, the Steps will help me get through it. If the problem is not one of my own making, the Steps will help me get through it.

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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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