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?
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?
In the animal kingdom, there is a creature that thrives on others. It is called a leech. It attaches itself to people and takes what it needs. When one victim brushes the leech off, it simply goes to the next.
In our active addiction, we behaved similarly. We drained our families, our friends, and our communities. Consciously or unconsciously, we sought to get something for nothing from virtually everyone we encountered.
When we saw the basket passed at our first meeting we may have thought, "Self-support! Now what kind of odd notion is this?" As we watched, we noticed something. These self-supporting addicts were free. By paying their own way, they had earned the privilege of making their own decisions.
By applying the principle of self-support in our personal lives, we gain for ourselves the same kind of freedom. No longer does anyone have the right to tell us where to live, because we pay our own rent. We can eat, wear, or drive whatever we choose, because we provide it for ourselves.
Unlike the leech, we don't have to depend on others for our sustenance. The more responsibility we assume, the more freedom we'll gain.
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