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NA members hold nearly 76,000 meetings weekly in 143 countries. We offer recovery from the effects of addiction through working a twelve-step program, including regular attendance at group meetings. The group atmosphere provides help from peers and offers an ongoing support network for addicts who wish to pursue and maintain a drug-free lifestyle.
Our name, Narcotics Anonymous, is not meant to imply a focus on any particular drug; NA’s approach makes no distinction between legal and illegal drugs including alcohol. Membership is free, and we have no affiliation with any organizations outside of NA including governments, religions, law enforcement groups, or medical and psychiatric associations. Through all of our service efforts and our cooperation with others seeking to help addicts, we strive to reach a day when every addict in the world has an opportunity to experience our message of recovery in their own language and culture. This website is the contribution by members living in Ventura County towards that worldwide effort.
We are not alone, you are not alone.
The Narcotics Anonymous message is “that an addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use and find a new way to live.”
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.
The idea of sponsorship may be new to us. We have spent many years without direction, relying only on self-interest, suspecting everyone, trusting no one. Now that we're learning to live in recovery, we find we need help. We can't do it alone anymore; we must take the risk of trusting another human being. Often, the first person we take that risk with is our sponsor--someone we respect, someone we identify with, someone we have reason to trust.
As we open up to our sponsor, a bond develops between us. We disclose our secrets and develop confidence in our sponsor's discretion. We share our concerns and learn to value our sponsor's experience. We share our pain and are met with empathy. We get to know one another, respect one another, love one another. The more we trust our sponsor, the more we learn to trust ourselves.
Trust helps us move away from a life of fear, confusion, suspicion, and indirection. In the beginning, it feels risky to trust another addict. But that trust is the same principle we apply in our relationship with a Higher Power--risky or not, our experience tells us we can't do without it. And the more we take the risk of trusting our sponsor, the more open we will feel about our lives.
Many NA members have a complicated relationship with the concept of safety. It can conjure up the idea of "playing it safe," of being uncool. More profoundly, some of us come to NA never having known a real feeling of safety or having known it only to have it torn away. During our using days, we were rarely safe--even when alone in a room with ourselves. Sometimes we witnessed or experienced terrible things, and that suffering left its mark. So, how do we practice safety as a principle in NA? And how do we strive to create a safe atmosphere of recovery while standing firm on the Tradition Three proposal that all are welcome?
One member shared, "Safety to me means feeling truly at home in the world. I never felt that until I sat in an NA meeting." That sense of belonging, of having found our people, is precious. Anonymity means we are all equal in NA, and we respect each other's privacy, integrity, and choices. We protect our equality by doing our best to provide every desperate and vulnerable member a safe place to recover. Without some sense of safety, it's hard to listen, even harder to participate, and our effectiveness in carrying our message of hope is diminished. A focus on safety enhances our groups' stability by creating healthy places that neither tolerate predatory behavior nor drive out offending members. Everyone deserves a chance to recover.
At its best, NA provides an environment where we can be safe and eventually feel safe, too. This may be aspirational at times; creating a safe and welcoming atmosphere in our meetings often takes careful consideration and thoughtful action. When bullying, unwelcome sexual advances, or other disruptive behaviors threaten to undermine our safety, we invite a loving Higher Power to direct our group conscience. Together, we find the courage to safeguard against harmful behavior, extending the promise of recovery to both the vulnerable and those of us who are still learning a new way to move through the world. We trust the process and do the next right thing.
