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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.
October 03, 2026 |
Losing self-will |
| Page 289 |
| "Our egos, once so large and dominant, now take a back seat because we are in harmony with a loving God. We find that we lead richer, happier, and much fuller lives when we lose self-will." |
| Basic Text, p. 105 |
| Addiction and self-will go hand in hand. The unmanageability that we admitted to in Step One was as much a product of our self-will as it was of our chronic drug abuse. And today, living on self-will can make our lives just as unmanageable as they were when we were using. When our ideas, our desires, our demands take first place in our lives, we find ourselves in constant conflict with everyone and everything around us. Self-will reflects our reliance on ego. The only thing that will free us from self-will and the conflict it generates in our lives is to break our reliance on ego, coming to rely instead on the guidance and power offered us by a loving God. We are taught to consult spiritual principles, not our selfish desires, in making our decisions. We are taught to seek guidance from a Higher Power, one with a larger vision of things than our own. In doing this, we find our lives meshing more and more easily with the order of things around us. No longer do we exclude ourselves from the flow of life; we become a part of it, and discover the fullness of what recovery has to offer. |
| Just for Today: I seek freedom from ego and the conflicts generated by self-will. I will try to improve my conscious contact with the God of my understanding, seeking the guidance and power I need to live in harmony with my world. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
October 03, 2026 |
Surrendering to Group Conscience |
| Page 286 |
| "How do you know when it's time to speak up against a decision of the majority? When it's time to accept a decision and surrender to group conscience?" |
| Twelve Concepts for NA Service, Study Materials, "Ninth Concept" |
| Once a group or service body makes a decision, we are all supposed to go with the flow, right? But what if the decision goes against our gut, isn't in harmony with the Traditions, lacks compassion by excluding some members, or puts a Band-Aid on a larger issue? Maybe the decision wasn't made with all pertinent information available. Was it truly an informed group conscience, or was it more like a popularity contest? What if we know for sure that the content of the decision has been tried before and it failed miserably? What if the group is wrong and we are right? We have a process, and once that process is complete, to thwart group conscience creates disunity and confusion. Members then have to take sides, or not. Some leave the group or resign from their position instead, telling us "personal recovery depends on NA unity" on the way out. The Ninth Concept of NA Service is clear that hearing all points of view is essential to developing a group conscience. But it's up to us as members to determine which perspectives have the most validity. The time to accept and surrender to a decision occurs immediately after our point of view has been heard, and the group elects to stay the course--despite what our gut is telling us. If we are right and things fall apart later, we can be part of the solution--with humility. Even as we are reminded time and time again that we're not always right, we must also accept that others are sometimes wrong and there isn't anything we can do about it. |
| Today I will participate in NA service with as much surrender and acceptance as possible. If need be, I will say to my group, "Well, I hope I'm wrong!" and do my best to mean it. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |