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:

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

June 04, 2025

Build, don't destroy

Page 162

“Our negative sense of self has been replaced by a positive concern for others.“

Basic Text, p. 16

Spreading gossip feeds a dark hunger in us. Sometimes we think the only way we can feel good about ourselves is to make someone else look bad by comparison. But the kind of self-esteem that can be purchased at another's expense is hollow and not worth the price.

How, then, do we deal with our negative sense of self? Simple. We replace it with a positive concern for others. Rather than dwell on our low self-esteem, we turn to those around us and seek to be of service to them.

This may seem to be a way of avoiding the issue, but it's not. There's nothing we can do by dwelling on our low sense of self except work ourselves into a stew of self-pity. But by replacing our self-pity with active, loving concern for others, we become the kind of people we can respect.

The way to build our self-esteem is not to tear others down, but to build them up through love and positive concern. To help us with this, we can ask ourselves if we are contributing to the problem or to the solution. Today, we can choose to build instead of destroy.

Just for Today: Though I may be feeling low, I don't need to tear someone down to build myself up. Today, I will replace my negative sense of self with a positive concern for others. I will build, not destroy.

A Spiritual Principle a Day

June 04, 2025

Finding a Life with Purpose

Page 161

“What a joy it is to be part of something that not only saves people's lives, but makes them worth living.“

Living Clean, Chapter 5, “Fellowship”

We're brought together by desperation, so being alive and clean may seem like enough reason to be joyful at first. But wait, there's more! Even in our earliest days clean, we may have some inkling that we are part of something special. We may wonder, Am I being indoctrinated into a cult? but with no discernable leader and no dogma to adhere to, we can rule that out. We decide to keep coming back. I'll just play along as we see what these weirdos are up to.

So, we're clean! Now what? We come across this passage in the Basic Text: “When the drugs go and the addict works the program, wonderful things happen.” I like the sound of that! We start to piece together what it means to “work the program” and find some practical advice in “What Can I Do?”–Chapter Five of the addict's owner's manual. We go to lots of meetings without using between them–even on holidays! We get a home group, a sponsor, and a service commitment, and we find ourselves surrounded by people who take great joy in our progress. They want nothing from us, just good things for us. They offer us words of encouragement, lessons from their own lives, and epic tales of shenanigans with other members. They point out our growth and say they're happy, grateful, and even honored to be a part of our miracle. We smile and nod and our eyes start leaking. All we can think is, This NA thing . . . is a trip.

Our lives are transformed as we become both the helpers and the helped. Now we're those people with stories and kindness for the newer folks and are moved by being a part of their miracle. Our mentors continue to evolve, too, and they allow us to help them. We've found a purpose and a framework for living. We are free from active addiction, and although that's NA's only promise, that freedom opens up in unimaginably beautiful ways.

——— ——— ——— ——— ———

I will soak up the vitality around me and be grateful to have found a life with purpose.

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

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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

June 04, 2025

Build, don't destroy

A Spiritual Principle a Day

June 04, 2025

Finding a Life with Purpose

Do you need help with a drug problem?

Subscribe to NAWS Emails