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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 of 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.

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Daily Meditations

Just for Today

October 20, 2025

Freedom to choose
Page 306
“Enforced morality lacks the power that comes to us when we choose to live a spiritual life.“
Basic Text, p. 45
In our active addiction, many of us lived our lives by default. We were unwilling or unable to make choices about how we wanted to act, what we preferred to do, or even where we would live. We allowed the drugs or other people to make our most basic decisions for us. Freedom from active addiction means, among other things, the freedom to make those choices for ourselves.

Freedom of choice is a wonderful gift, but it's also a great responsibility. Choice allows us to find out who we are and what we believe in. However, in exercising it, we're called on to weigh our own choices and accept the consequences. This leads some of us to seek out someone who will make our choices for us–our sponsor, our home group, our NA friends–just as our disease made our choices for us when we were using. That's not recovery.

Seeking others' experience is one thing; abdicating personal responsibility is something else. If we don't use the gift of freedom we've been given, if we refuse to accept the responsibilities that go along with it, we'll lose that gift and our lives will be diminished. We are responsible for our own recovery and our own choices. Difficult as it may seem; we must make those choices for ourselves and become willing to accept the consequences.

Just for Today: I am grateful for the freedom to live as I choose. Today, I will accept responsibility for my recovery, make my own choices, and accept the consequences.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

October 20, 2025

Anonymity as Our Spiritual Foundation
Page 303
“Our spiritual foundation is not a question of whether we know each other's last names; it's that we accept each other regardless of who we are and what we have done.“
Guiding Principles, Tradition Twelve, Opening Reflection
What's in a name? Well, “Anonymous” is half of ours. In not using our last names, we end up sharing the same one: “Addict.” But practicing anonymity doesn't end with a last initial. A principle can't be that simple–not when it's a word that's so hard to pronounce. Go ahead, try it: Anonymity…. See? The struggle is real for so many of us!

Because anonymity is, according to our Twelfth Tradition, the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, understanding what it means and how to practice it is essential to our ability to work with, relate to, and love each other, unconditionally. Our spiritual foundation is “the very rock we're all standing on,” a member wrote. “But any rock can be pounded into sand by relentless forces. A slight here, a direct insult or backhanded compliment there, and on and on.”

Anonymity ensures equity among us, and we can't have unity without it. None of us is too bad or too good for NA. We don't merely tolerate each other's differences and ignore our difficult pasts. Instead, we honor and embrace the people we are today. We do our damnedest to rise above personality differences and having-a-bad-day reactions. We give each other the benefit of the doubt, roll up our sleeves in unity, and get to work.

Acceptance doesn't mean we endorse each other's every action. There's space for all of us at the NA table, but we must hold ourselves and each other accountable. Anonymity requires that we all have equal access to the message. So when a member's behavior prevents that from happening or otherwise interrupts the atmosphere of recovery, we need to be clear: “You are welcome. Your behavior is not.” We can't expect ourselves to practice the unconditional love aspect of anonymity perfectly, but we can't let that stop us from ensuring that every addict who comes to our group has access to a message of recovery, no matter who they are or what they have done or perhaps will do.
———     ———     ———     ———     ———
Today I aim to give my fellow addicts the benefit of the doubt. Practicing anonymity means I have faith that we can all grow, personalities and pasts aside. It also means I'll get better at pronouncing it over time!

Do you need help with a drug problem?

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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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