West TN Area Narcotics Anonymous
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?
Our complicated lives can be made a lot less complicated if we concentrate on a few simple things - sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, regular meeting attendance, and practicing the principles of the program in our daily lives.
By sharing our experience, strength, and hope with other addicts, we provide a powerful example for newcomers to follow. The effort we put into helping others also helps keep self-centeredness, the core of our disease, at bay.
Many of us pick one group, a "home group," whose meetings we attend faithfully. This regularity gives some routine to our lives, and lets others know where they can find us if they need us.
Practicing the Twelve Steps in our daily lives make the difference between a balanced recovery and simply not using. The steps give us some much-needed guidance in managing our everyday affairs.
Yes, we are complex people. But the NA program simplified our lives, enabling us to live a life free from active addiction. Our lives can be filled with serenity and hope when we live by the guidance of the simple principles of our program.