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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.
July 07, 2026 |
God in each other |
| Page 187 |
| "One aspect of our spiritual awakening comes through the new understanding of our Higher Power that we develop by sharing another addict's recovery." |
| Basic Text, p. 52 |
| We've heard it said that we often see God most clearly in one another. We see the truth of this when we practice our Twelfth Step. When we carry the recovery message to another addict, we sense the presence of a Power greater than ourselves. And as we watch the message take hold, we realize something else: It's the message that brings recovery, not the messenger. A Higher Power, not our own power, is the source of the change that begins when we carry the message to a still-suffering addict. As the message does its work, transforming the life of another addict, we see a Higher Power in action. We watch as acceptance and hope replace denial and despair. Before our very eyes, the first traces of honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness begin to appear. Something's happening inside this person, something bigger and more powerful than either of us. We're watching the God we've come to understand at work in someone's life. We see the Higher Power in them. And we know with greater certainty than ever that this Higher Power is in us, too, as the force driving our recovery. |
| Just for Today: As I carry the message of recovery to other addicts, I will try to pay attention to the Power behind the message. Today, as I watch other addicts recover, I will try to recognize the God in them so I can better recognize the God in myself. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
July 07, 2026 |
The Practical and Spiritual Application of "We" |
| Page 195 |
| "In NA, our identification as addicts is what we have in common." |
| In Times of Illness, "Mental Health Issues" |
| What bound our predecessors together in NA's early days is what connects us today: It's our identification as addicts through the common lens of the disease of addiction and our desire to get clean. That commonality alone means we belong here and with each other--despite what or how much we used, the specifics of our stories and experiences, and what makes us different as people. One of NA's gifts, we hear members say over and over again, is having relationships with people whom we very likely would never even have met, let alone connected with, outside the rooms. NA's success as a Fellowship since its inception has hinged on this fact: Our best hope for recovery from addiction is banding together to help each other. Our common welfare--the health and well-being of our groups and NA as a whole--underpins our personal recovery. That includes every member of this Fellowship, past and present. Even our future members depend on the "we" of NA. Though we may approach them in a variety of ways, it's no accident that eleven of the Twelve Steps start with the word "We." But "we" isn't just a concept. Like all principles, its practical application is what makes it spiritual. When we identify, we connect. When we share our true selves, that connection deepens. When we help each other and accept help, we stay connected. Above all, practicing "we" is fulfilling our primary purpose of carrying the message of recovery to the still-suffering addict. |
| I will be mindful of practicing "we" today by investing in our common welfare: I'll keep what I have by giving it away to another addict. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |