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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 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.

Information About NA

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Daily Meditations

Just for Today

November 13, 2025

Not perfect
Page 331
“We are not going to be perfect. If we were perfect, we would not be human.“
Basic Text, p. 31
All of us had expectations about life in recovery. Some of us thought recovery would suddenly make us employable or able to do anything in the world we wanted to do. Or maybe we imagined perfect ease in our interactions with others. When we stop and think, we realize that we expected recovery would make us perfect. We didn't expect to continue making many mistakes. But we do. That's not the addict side of us showing through; that's being human.

In Narcotics Anonymous we strive for recovery, not perfection. The only promise we are given is freedom from active addiction. Perfection is not an attainable state for human beings; it's not a realistic goal. What we often seek in perfection is freedom from the discomfort of making mistakes. In return for that freedom from discomfort, we trade our curiosity, our flexibility, and the room to grow.

We can consider the trade: Do we want to live the rest of our lives in our well-defined little world, safe but perhaps stifled? Or do we wish to venture out into the unknown, take a risk, and reach for everything life has to offer?

Just for Today: I want all that life has to offer me and all that recovery can provide. Today, I will take a risk, try something new, and grow.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

November 13, 2025

Balance Through Meditation
Page 328
“Emotional balance is one of the first results of meditation, and our experience bears this out.“
Basic Text, Chapter 4, “Step Eleven”
Life can be an emotional roller coaster. Before we found recovery, we could exit the ride by getting high. With that option off the table–just for today–it's up to us to find ways to handle life's ups and downs, twists and turns. “If I'm going to ride this roller coaster called life,” a member shared, “I want to be one of those screaming, giggling fools in the front car. They are truly in the moment.”

We learn the usefulness of living in today in early recovery. One oldtimer put it bluntly: “If you've got one foot in the past and one in the future, you're pissing all over today.” Truly being in the moment is some next-level stuff, and few of us have regular access to an actual roller coaster to practice that mindset.

Fortunately, we have an Eleventh Step that encourages us to give prayer and meditation a try. Practicing some form of meditation can help us to let our feelings come and go like waves on the beach. Practice pays off, and it becomes easier to roll with the punches when we're a little less attached to our emotions.

We learn to be fully feeling human beings and to be all right with that. More often than not, we can be attentive to our emotional lives and not want to check out. One member shared, “Finding even a minute or two to slow down and breathe can drastically improve my emotional well-being.” As we weave meditation into our recovery repertoire, emotional balance feels increasingly attainable.
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I will remind myself that the balance I have experienced in my recovery is a result of my emotional well-being. I will sustain this state of being by meditating today.

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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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