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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.
January 13, 2026 |
Surrender to win |
| Page 13 |
| "Help for addicts begins only when we are able to admit complete defeat." |
| Basic Text, p. 22 |
| Complete defeat--what a concept! That must mean surrender. Surrender--to give up absolutely. To quit with no reservations. To put up our hands and quit fighting. Maybe to put up our hand at our first meeting and admit we're addicts. How do we know we've taken a First Step that will allow us to live drug-free? We know because, once we have taken that gigantic step, we never have to use again--just for today. That's it. It's not easy, but it's very simple. We work the First Step. We accept that, yes, we are addicts. "One is too many, and a thousand never enough." We've proven that to ourselves enough times. We admit that we cannot handle drugs in any form. We admit it; we say it out loud, if necessary. We take the First Step at the beginning of our day. For one day. This admission frees us, just for today, from the need to live out our addiction all over again. We've surrendered to this disease. We give up. We quit. But in quitting, we win. And that's the paradox of the First Step: We surrender to win, and by surrendering we gain a far greater power than we ever imagined possible. |
| Just for Today: I admit that I am powerless over my addiction. I will surrender to win. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
January 13, 2026 |
Inclusiveness and Our Sense of Belonging |
| Page 13 |
| "Our diversity strengthens and affirms the reality of our simple message. Across all of our differences, the same simple program works." |
| Guiding Principles, Tradition Five, "Word by Word" |
| NA's simple message is that any addict can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live. Any addict. We've witnessed the proof that our program works, for ourselves and addicts from all walks of life, those with obvious similarities and those who are different from us. Tradition Five states that a group's primary purpose is to carry NA's message to the still-suffering addict who, on any given day, could be a newcomer or a more experienced member. While most of us will acknowledge the above as true, it's not a given. Inclusiveness, like all the spiritual principles, requires work. It takes practice and a degree of self-awareness. "Our diversity is our strength" is just a slogan unless we take steps to actively include each other, welcome and remember each other, share and listen to each other. Nearly all of us walk into NA feeling different and separate, not a part of. Our job as members is to try to bridge that gap. While it's true that we all have the same disease, we aren't the same people. When we look--and feel--different from everyone else in the room, that can challenge us. One longtime member described his experience like this: "I walked into a meeting and nobody looked like me. I asked, 'Where are my people?' and a member responded, 'Oh, they're on the way. You have to stay, so you'll be here when they come.' That made me feel included and that I had a purpose." It will do us well to remember that we are used to many factors defining us and our worth. Frankly, some of us have privileges and resources that others don't. While we like to say, "That stuff doesn't matter here," we need to keep actively demonstrating that to newcomers. We're all accountable to the Fifth Tradition. We must never take it for granted. One member wrote, "The disease wants us to focus on our differences. Recovery helps us appreciate our diversity, see beyond our differences, and know that we belong together." |
| How am I putting "our diversity is our strength" into action? Today I'll look for an opportunity to show another member that they belong. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |