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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

February 11, 2026

A curse into a blessing
Page 43
“We have become very grateful in the course of our recovery…. We have a disease, but we do recover.“
Basic Text, p. 8
Active addiction was no picnic; many of us barely came out of it alive. But ranting against the disease, lamenting what it has done to us, pitying ourselves for the condition it has left us in–these things can only keep us locked in the spirit of bitterness and resentment. The path to freedom and spiritual growth begins where bitterness ends, with acceptance.

There is no denying the suffering brought by addiction. Yet it was this disease that brought us to Narcotics Anonymous; without it, we would neither have sought nor found the blessing of recovery. In isolating us, it forced us to seek fellowship. In causing us to suffer, it gave us the experience needed to help others, help no one else was so uniquely suited to offer. In forcing us to our knees, addiction gave us the opportunity to surrender to the care of a loving Higher Power.

We would not wish the disease of addiction on anyone. But the fact remains that we addicts already have this disease–and further, that without this disease we may never have embarked on our spiritual journey. Thousands of people search their whole lives for what we have found in Narcotics Anonymous: fellowship, a sense of purpose, and conscious contact with a Higher Power. Today, we are grateful for everything that has brought us this blessing.
Just for Today: I will accept the fact of my disease, and pursue the blessing of my recovery.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

February 11, 2026

Strategies for Optimism
Page 43
“Being spiritually awake, we can see the miracles that surround us, even when life is difficult.“
Living Clean, Chapter 7, “Awakenings”
Optimism is one of those spiritual principles that, perhaps too simplistically, gets merged with a personality trait. It's true that some of us easily see the positive side of things because that's who we are. But more of us are wired differently. For those of us who aren't born optimists, we can use optimism as a strategy to shift our perspective. It takes effort–sometimes enormous effort–to open our eyes to see life's bounty and beauty during dark times.

“To me,” a member wrote, “optimism means that even if I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel, I can keep checking to see if one appears. And the ‘miracle' is that it eventually does, even if it's tiny.” Because we risk rejection and disappointment by doing so, it takes courage to keep peering into that darkness.

Optimism can sometimes be found when we take a moment to look outside our own woes. “When I can't discern the good in my own life,” wrote another, “I look at someone else's. I see the road they've traveled and their transformation against all odds. Sometimes it takes one breath to shift my perspective, other times I need a crowbar.” When we look only at ourselves, we're self-obsessed–obsessed with what was taken away from us or what we never had.

Some of us find our optimism strategy in the simple benefit of the gratitude list. Or it's allowing others to care for us in our time of need, rather than driving them away with our indulgence in “I got this” or “poor, poor me.” Or it's prayer, an expression of trust in our Higher Power. Optimism alone can't save us from utter despair or self-destruction. We need perseverance, hope, and lots of gratitude. One addict put it like this: “The only way to have what I want is to want what I have.”
———     ———     ———     ———     ———
I'm relieved I don't have to be an optimist to practice this principle. I will make every effort to see the miracles around me, or at least I can commit to finding strategies that help me to keep looking.

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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