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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.
September 22, 2026 |
Keeping the gift |
| Page 276 |
| "Life takes on a new meaning when we open ourselves to this gift." |
| Basic Text, p. 107 |
| Neglecting our recovery is like neglecting any other gift we've been given. Suppose someone gave you a new car. Would you let it sit in the driveway until the tires rotted? Would you just drive it, ignoring routine maintenance, until it expired on the road? Of course not! You would go to great lengths to maintain the condition of such a valuable gift. Recovery is also a gift, and we have to care for it if we want to keep it. While our recovery doesn't come with an extended warranty, there is a routine maintenance schedule. This maintenance includes regular meeting attendance and various forms of service. We'll have to do some daily cleaning--our Tenth Step--and, once in a while, a major Fourth Step overhaul will be required. But if we maintain the gift of recovery, thanking the Giver each day, it will continue. The gift of recovery is one that grows with the giving. Unless we give it away, we can't keep it. But in sharing our recovery with others, we come to value it all the more. |
| Just for Today: My recovery is a gift, and I want to keep it. I'll do the required maintenance, and I'll share my recovery with others. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
September 21, 2026 |
Forgiving Others, Forgiving Ourselves |
| Page 273 |
| "Sometimes the path to forgiving ourselves begins with forgiving another for their lack of forgiveness." |
| Living Clean, Chapter 5, "Amends and Reconciliation" |
| At first glance, this quote may sound like a riddle, but our experience validates its wisdom. Hoping to be forgiven is only human. Despite advice to the contrary, we sometimes harbor expectations about how amends should be received. We have ideas about how and when we'll be forgiven. We anticipate the relief it will bring--only to be disappointed at times. Given the harm we've caused, it's understandable that some people may not be quick to forgive us. It hurts nonetheless. The conventional wisdom that "expectations are just premature resentments" makes even more sense to us now. Regardless of how our amends were received, we do our best to clean up our side of the street and let go of any ill will. We take ownership of the damage we've caused and earnestly make an effort to compensate for our wrongs and change our behavior. We release those expectations we had about receiving forgiveness, let go of any hard feelings we set ourselves up for, and--with time--find forgiveness for ourselves and those who were unable to forgive us. Letting all of that go frees up a lot of headspace and energy. We're not as attached to how our formal amends were or were not received; we've done the work to make things right whether or not others recognize it. Our actions lead us to a deeper level of self-acceptance--who we were then and who we are now. We can focus our energy on becoming the best version of ourselves by continuing to work the Twelve Steps. |
| Today I will empathize with those who have yet to forgive me. I will contemplate forgiveness in my Eleventh Step practice and seek to forgive on a deeper level. I will forgive others for not forgiving me. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |