Serving West Tn, Desoto County, West Memphis & Forest City
What Is the Narcotics Anonymous Program? NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using.
Questions we have asked ourselves:
Do we understand that we have no real control over drugs?
Do we recognize that in the long run, we didn’t use drugs—they used us?
Did jails and institutions take over the management of our lives at different times?
Do we fully accept the fact that our every attempt to stop using or to control our using failed?
Do we know that our addiction changed us into someone we didn’t want to be: dishonest, deceitful, self-willed people at odds with ourselves and our fellow man?
Do we really believe that we have failed as drug users?
Do we understand that we have no real control over drugs?
Do we recognize that in the long run, we didn’t use drugs—they used us?
Did jails and institutions take over the management of our lives at different times?
Do we fully accept the fact that our every attempt to stop using or to control our using failed?
Do we know that our addiction changed us into someone we didn’t want to be: dishonest, deceitful, self-willed people at odds with ourselves and our fellow man?
Do we really believe that we have failed as drug users?
JUST FOR TODAY
Getting started on the Sixth and Seventh Steps isn't always easy. We may feel as though we have so much wrong with us that we are totally defective. We might feel like hiding under a rock. Under no circumstance would we want our fellow addicts to know about our inadequacies.
We will probably go through a time of examining everything we say and do in order to identify our character defects and make sure we suppress them. We may look back at one particular day, cringing at what we're certain is the most embarrassing thing we've ever said. We become determined to be rid of these horrible traits at all costs.
But nowhere in the Sixth or Seventh Steps does it say we can learn to control our defects of character. In fact, the more attention we focus on them, the more firmly entrenched they will become in our lives. It takes humility to recognize that we can't control our defects any more than we can control our addiction. We can't remove our own defects; we can only ask a loving God to remove them.
Letting go of something painful can be as difficult as letting go of something pleasant. But let's face it--holding on is a lot of work. When we really think about what we're holding onto, the effort just isn't worthwhile. It's time to let go of our character defects and ask God to remove them.
