0%
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.
October 15, 2026 |
Choices |
| Page 301 |
| "We did not choose to become addicts." |
| Basic Text, p. 3 |
| When we were growing up, all of us had dreams. Every child has heard a relative or neighbor ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Even if some of us didn't have elaborate dreams of success, most of us dreamed of work, families, and a future of dignity and respect. But no one asked, "Do you want to be a drug addict when you grow up?" We didn't choose to become addicts, and we cannot choose to stop being addicts. We have the disease of addiction. We are not responsible for having it, but we are responsible for our recovery. Having learned that we are sick people and that there is a way of recovery, we can move away from blaming circumstances--or ourselves--and into living the solution. We didn't choose addiction, but we can choose recovery. |
| Just for Today: I choose recovery. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
October 14, 2026 |
Restraint as an Expression of Freedom |
| Page 297 |
| "Just staying in our seat without checking our phone or creating side conversation can be surprisingly difficult, especially when we are having feelings we'd rather avoid." |
| Guiding Principles, Tradition Six, Opening Reflection |
| The idea of a bunch of addicts sitting in a room together showing restraint sounds like the start of a bad joke, but, hey, recovery in NA is full of miracles! It's truly an achievement that we're able to create and sustain an atmosphere of recovery considering our individual and collective capacity for being distracted. Many of us have to work especially hard to sit with any degree of stillness and patience--and just be present--because of how our brains work or, of course, how new we are. And yes, there are many tools and avenues that may divert our attention from our primary purpose in a meeting--our smartphones, our fellow addicts, a noise outside, a technological glitch, a moment of boredom or overstimulation. Out of respect for the speaker, the newcomer, our group, and ourselves, we try to stay focused. Showing restraint in this manner is the respectful thing to do. There are other times when our diversion is a sign of something deeper, and our tendency to deny or avoid our feelings gets ignited. Identifying with a member's share can be a lovely moment of connection, but it can also make us want to crawl out of our skin. We addicts seem to be allergic to discomfort, and yet pushing through it will often bring us to a place of more profound comfort--with ourselves and our surroundings. Glancing at our phone won't give us that. It does help to have some guidance here, as not all discomfort has that potential to be productive. We need a sponsor and other trusted NA members to help us distinguish between a moment when we should rein in our desire to scoot and stay with our feelings--and when we should honor our need to remove ourselves from a potentially harmful situation. |
| Restraint is an expression of freedom. The freedom "to do" is also the freedom "not to do." I'll practice that today by not being rude or running from my feelings. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |