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.
We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a
break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that
we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing
about them is that they work.
There are no strings attached to NA. We are not affiliated
with any other organizations. We have no initiation fees or
dues, no pledges to sign, no promises to make to anyone.
We are not connected with any political, religious, or law
enforcement groups, and are under no surveillance at any
time. Anyone may join us regardless of age, race, sexual
identity, creed, religion, or lack of religion.
We are not interested in what or how much you used or who
your connections were, what you have done in the past, how
much or how little you have, but only in what you want to do
about your problem and how we can help. The newcomer is
the most important person at any meeting, because we can
only keep what we have by giving it away. We have learned
from our group experience that those who keep coming to our
meetings regularly stay clean.
Before coming to the Fellowship of NA, we could notmanage our own lives. We could not live and enjoy life as otherpeople do. We had to have something different and we thoughtwe had found it in drugs. We placed their use ahead of thewelfare of our families, our wives, husbands, and our children.We had to have drugs at all costs. We did many people greatharm but most of all we harmed ourselves. Through ourinability to accept personal responsibilities we were actuallycreating our own problems. We seemed to be incapable offacing life on its own terms.Most of us realized that in our addiction we were slowlycommitting suicide, but addiction is such a cunning enemy oflife that we had lost the power to do anything about it. Many ofus ended up in jail or sought help through medicine, religion,and psychiatry. None of these methods was sufficient for us.Our disease always resurfaced or continued to progress untilin desperation we sought help from each other in NarcoticsAnonymous.After coming to NA, we realized we were sick people. Wesuffered from a disease from which there is no known cure. Itcan, however, be arrested at some point and recovery is thenpossible.
If you want what we have to offer, and are willing to make theeffort to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps. Theseare the principles that made our recovery possible:
1. We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, thatour lives had become unmanageable.
2. We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselvescould restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to thecare of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory ofourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another humanbeing the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defectsof character.
7. We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and becamewilling to make amends to them all.
9. We made direct amends to such people wherever possible,except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we werewrong promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve ourconscious contact with God as we understood Him, prayingonly for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carrythat out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps,we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practicethese principles in all our affairs.
This sounds like a big order, and we can’t do it all at once.We didn’t become addicted in one day, so remember—easydoes it.There is one thing more than anything else that will defeatus in our recovery; this is an attitude of indifference orintolerance toward spiritual principles. Three of these that areindispensable are honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness.With these we are well on our way.We feel that our approach to the disease of addiction iscompletely realistic, for the therapeutic value of one addicthelping another is without parallel. We feel that our way ispractical, for one addict can best understand and help anotheraddict. We believe that the sooner we face our problems withinour society, in everyday living, just that much faster do webecome acceptable, responsible, and productive members of that society.The only way to keep from returning to active addiction isnot to take that first drug. If you are like us you know thatone is too many and a thousand never enough. We put greatemphasis on this, for we know that when we use drugs in anyform, or substitute one for another, we release our addictionall over again.Thinking of alcohol as different from other drugs has causeda great many addicts to relapse. Before we came to NA, manyof us viewed alcohol separately, but we cannot afford to beconfused about this. Alcohol is a drug. We are people with thedisease of addiction who must abstain from all drugs in orderto recover.
