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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.
June 07, 2026 |
Someone who believes in me |
| Page 165 |
| "Just for today, I will have faith in someone in NA who believes in me and wants to help me in my recovery." |
| Basic Text, p. 100 |
| Not all of us arrive in NA and automatically stay clean. But if we keep coming back, we find in Narcotics Anonymous the support we need for our recovery. Staying clean is easier when we have someone who believes in us even when we don't believe in ourselves. Even the most frequent relapser in NA usually has one staunch supporter who is always there, no matter what. It is imperative that we find that one person or group of people who believes in us. When we ask them if we will ever get clean, they will always reply, "Yes, you can and you will. Just keep coming back!" We all need someone who believes in us, especially when we can't believe in ourselves. When we relapse, we undermine our already shattered self-confidence, sometimes so badly that we begin to feel utterly hopeless. At such times, we need the support of our loyal NA friends. They tell us that this can be our last relapse. They know from experience that if we keep coming to meetings, we will eventually get clean and stay clean. It's hard for many of us to believe in ourselves. But when someone loves us unconditionally, offering support no matter how many times we've relapsed, recovery in NA becomes a little more real for us. |
| Just for Today: I will find someone who believes in me. I will believe in them. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
June 07, 2026 |
Maintaining an Open Mind |
| Page 164 |
| "New information can be hard for us to accept when it doesn't come to us in the way we think it should." |
| Living Clean, Chapter 1, "Keys to Freedom" |
| Our ideas about the help we need, how it's packaged, and who delivers it can be decidedly unhelpful. Our work in Step Three can provide some useful strategies. We're often advised to "do the footwork and leave the results to your Higher Power," and to "pay attention to which doors are opening and which remain shut." When we find ourselves too attached to an outcome or banging our heads against the same locked door, open-mindedness may be in order. In the classic allegory told in NA meetings over the years, a flood drives a man onto the roof of his home where he prays for help. He refuses to get in the rescue boat or the helicopter that come to his aid, telling them, "My God's got me!" The water continues to rise and the man perishes. In the afterlife, he rails at his maker for allowing him to die, to which his God replies, "I sent a boat and a helicopter!" There's a reason this story is a classic: It reveals some of the problems with closed-mindedness. One member described their broken process this way: "I put my needs out to the universe and ask for help, then I evaluate, judge, and reject the help that's offered. Turns out I'm often just looking for someone to cosign my BS." Open-mindedness will come in handy here, too. Attending out-of-town meetings illustrates the benefit of open-mindedness. "I was just 25 kilometers down the road, but everything I heard seemed so profound," one addict shared. "I realized that not knowing these members made me a better listener." Without the mental static about the messenger--their cleantime, reputation, or other baggage--it's easier to hear the message. Listening in the same way takes a little more effort close to home. Applying the principle of anonymity helps us set aside information that interferes with how we hear others. Instead of listening to validate our own perspectives, we can practice humility and open our minds to consider others' experience, strength, and hope. |
| I will entertain the possibility that I don't always know what's best, making space to consider the ideas of others, no matter whose they are. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |