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Frequently Asked Questions |
What is the Narcotics Anonymous Program?
Am I an addict?
What are meetings like?
How much does NA cost?
Where can I get information about NA outside of the Tualatin Valley?
What's a "sponsor"?
I see some meetings are held in churches; is NA a religious program?
I am not an addict; can I come to a meeting anyway?
I have a problem with just one or two drugs; are there drug-specific meetings?
What about treatment centers and other recovery programs?
What is the Narcotics Anonymous Program?
N.A. 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.
There are no strings attached to N.A. We are
not affiliated with any other organizations, we have no initiation
fees or dues, no pledges to sign, no promises to make to anyone. We
are not connected with any political, religious or law enforcement
groups, and are under no surveillance at any time. Anyone may join
us, regardless of age, race, sexual identity, creed, religion or
lack of religion.
We are not interested in what or how much you
used or who your connections were, what you have done in the past,
how much or how little you have, but only in what you want to do
about your problem and how we can help. The newcomer is the most
important person at any meeting, because we can only keep what we
have by giving it away. We have learned from our group experience
that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.
From "Narcotics Anonymous", pg 8
Am I an addict?
Only you can answer this question. This may
not be an easy thing to do. All through our usage, we told
ourselves, “I can handle it.” Even if this was true in the
beginning, it is not so now. The drugs handled us. We lived to use
and used to live. Very simply, an addict is a person whose life is
controlled by drugs.
Perhaps you admit you have a problem with
drugs, but you don’t consider yourself an addict. All of us have
preconceived ideas about what an addict is. There is nothing
shameful about being an addict once you begin to take positive
action. If you can identify with our problems, you may be able to
identify with our solution.
Addiction is a disease which, without
recovery, ends in jails, institutions, and death. Many of us came to
Narcotics Anonymous because drugs had stopped doing what we needed
them to do. Addiction takes our pride, self-esteem, family, loved
ones, and even our desire to live. If you have not reached this
point in your addiction, you don’t have to. We have found that our
own private hell was within us. If you want help, you can find it in
the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.
“We were searching for an answer when we
reached out and found Narcotics Anonymous. We came to our first NA
meeting in defeat and didn’t know what to expect. After sitting in a
meeting, or several meetings, we began to feel that people cared and
were willing to help. Although our minds told us that we would never
make it, the people in the fellowship gave us hope by insisting that
we could recover. […] Surrounded by fellow addicts, we realized that
we were not alone anymore. Recovery is what happens in our meetings.
Our lives are at stake. We found that by putting recovery first, the
program works. We faced three disturbing realizations:
1. We are powerless over addiction and our
lives are unmanageable;
2. Although we are not responsible for our
disease, we are responsible for our recovery;
3. We can no longer blame people, places, and
things for our addiction. We must face our problems and our
feelings.
The ultimate weapon for recovery is the
recovering addict.”
From IP #7, "Am I an Addict?" [Revised]
What are meetings like?
At your first meeting, you will meet people
with various lengths of clean time. You may wonder how they could
remain clean for that period of time. If you keep coming to NA
meetings and stay clean, you will come to understand how it works.
There is a mutual respect and caring among clean addicts because
we’ve all had to overcome the misery of addiction. We love and
support each other in our recovery. The program of NA is comprised
of spiritual principles that we have found help us to remain clean.
Nothing will be demanded of you, but you will receive many
suggestions. This fellowship provides the opportunity for us to give
you what we have found: a clean way of living. We know that we have
to “give it away in order to keep it.”
If you are like many of us when we attended
our first NA meeting, you may be feeling pretty nervous and think
that everyone at the meeting is focusing on you. If so, you are not
the only one. Many of us have felt the same way. It has been said,
“If your stomach’s all tied up in knots, you’re probably in the
right place.” We often say that no one comes through the doors of NA
by mistake. Nonaddicted people don’t spend their time wondering if
they’re addicts. They don’t even think about it. If you’re wondering
whether or not you’re an addict, you might be one. Just allow
yourself the time to listen to us share about what it has been like
for us. Perhaps you will hear something that sounds familiar to you.
It doesn’t matter whether or not you have used the same drugs others
mention. It is not important which drugs you used; you’re welcome
here if you want to stop using. Most addicts experience very similar
feelings, and it is in focusing on our similarities, rather than our
differences, that we are helpful to one another.
You may be feeling hopeless and afraid. You
may think that this program, like other things you have tried, will
not work. Or you may think that it will work for someone else but
not for you because you feel you are different than us. Most of us
felt like that when we first came to NA. Somehow we knew that we
couldn’t go on using drugs, but we didn’t know how to stop or stay
clean. We were all afraid to let go of something that had become so
important to us. It is a relief to discover that the only
requirement for membership in NA is a desire to stop using.
From IP #22, "Welcome to Narcotics Anonymous"
How much does NA cost?
It costs nothing to belong to Narcotics
Anonymous, only a desire to stop using drugs!
Money has always been a problem for us. We
could never find enough to support ourselves and our habits. We
worked, stole, conned, begged and sold ourselves; there was never
enough money to fill the emptiness inside.
In our recovery, money is often still a
problem. We need money to run our group; there is rent to pay,
supplies and literature to buy. We take a collection in our meetings
to cover these expenses and whatever is left goes to support our
services and to further our primary purpose. Unfortunately, there is
little left once a group pays its way. Sometimes members who can
afford it give a little extra to help. Sometimes a committee is
formed to put on an activity to raise funds. These efforts help and
without them, we could not have come this far. N.A. services remain
in need of money, and even though it is sometimes frustrating, we
really would not have it any other way; we know the price would be
too high. We all have to pull together, and in pulling together we
learn that we really are part of something greater than ourselves.
Our policy concerning money is clearly stated:
We decline any outside contributions; our Fellowship is completely
self-supporting. We accept no funding, endowments, loans, and/or
gifts. Everything has its price, regardless of intent. Whether the
price is money, promises, concessions, special recognition,
endorsements, or favors, it’s too high for us. Even if those who
would help us could guarantee no strings, we still would not accept
their aid. We cannot afford to let our members contribute more than
their fair share. We have found that the price paid by our groups is
disunity and controversy. We will not put our freedom on the line.
From IP #24 "Hey! What's the Basket For?"
Where can I get information about NA outside
of the Tualatin Valley?
To find information about NA worldwide:
Narcotics Anonymous World Services
For information about other NA areas and
services in Oregon:
Pacific Cascade
Region
What's a "sponsor"?
Our Basic Text tells us that “the heart of NA
beats when two addicts share their recovery,” and sponsorship is
simply one addict helping another. The two-way street of sponsorship
is a loving, spiritual, and compassionate relationship that helps
both the sponsor and sponsee.
Sponsorship is a personal and private
relationship that can mean different things to different people. For
the purposes of this pamphlet, an NA sponsor is a member of
Narcotics Anonymous, living our program of recovery, who is willing
to build a special, supportive, one-on-one relationship with us.
Most members think of a sponsor, first and foremost, as someone who
can help us work the Twelve Steps of NA, and sometimes the Twelve
Traditions and Twelve Concepts. A sponsor is not necessarily a
friend, but may be someone in whom we confide. We can share things
with our sponsor that we might not be comfortable sharing in a
meeting.
Sponsorship works for the same reason that NA
works—because recovering members share common bonds of addiction and
recovery and, in many cases, can empathize with each other. A
sponsor’s role is not that of a legal advisor, a banker, a parent, a
marriage counselor, or a social worker. Nor is a sponsor a therapist
offering some sort of professional advice. A sponsor is simply
another addict in recovery who is willing to share his or her
journey through the Twelve Steps.
To get a sponsor, all we need to do is ask.
While this is simple, it may not be easy. Many of us are afraid to
ask someone to be our sponsor. In active addiction, we may have
learned not to trust anyone, and the idea of asking someone to
listen to us and help us may feel alien and frightening.
Nonetheless, most of our members describe sponsorship as a crucial
part of their recovery. Sometimes we finally gather our courage,
only to have someone say no. If that happens, we need to be
persistent, have faith, and try not to take his or her decision
personally. The reasons people may decline probably have nothing to
do with us: they may have busy lives or many sponsees, or they may
be going through difficult times. We need to reaffirm our faith and
ask someone else.
You may have questions about sponsorship that
this IP did not answer for you. While there may not be “right” or
“wrong” answers to your questions—the experience of our fellowship
varies from community to community and member to member—we do have a
book on sponsorship that addresses many issues related to
sponsorship in greater depth.
From IP #11 "Sponsorship" [Revised]
I see some meetings are held in churches; is
NA a religious program?
The Narcotics Anonymous Program is spiritual.
We strongly suggest that members make an attempt to find a Higher
Power of their understanding. Some of us have profound spiritual
experiences, dramatic and inspirational in nature. For others, the
awakening is more subtle. We recover in an atmosphere of acceptance
and respect for one another’s beliefs. We try to avoid the
self-deception of arrogance and self-righteousness. As we develop
faith in our daily lives, we find that our Higher Power supplies us
with the strength and guidance that we need.
Each of us is free to work out our own concept
of a Higher Power. Many of us were suspicious and skeptical because
of disappointments that we have had with religion. As new members,
the talk of God we heard in meetings repelled us. Until we sought
our own answers in this area, we were trapped in the ideas gathered
from our past. Agnostics and atheists sometimes start by just
talking to “whatever’s there.” There is a spirit or an energy that
can be felt in the meetings. This is sometimes the newcomer’s first
concept of a Higher Power. Ideas from the past are often incomplete
and unsatisfactory. Everything we know is subject to revision,
especially what we know about the truth. We re-evaluate our old
ideas, so we can become acquainted with the new ideas that lead to a
new way of life. We recognize that we are human with a physical,
mental and spiritual sickness. When we accept that our addiction
caused our own hell and that there is a power available to help us,
we begin to make progress in solving our problems.
From "Narcotics Anonymous", pg 75
I am not an addict; can I come to a meeting
anyway?
...There are two basic types of meetings:
those open to the general public and those closed to the public (for
addicts only). Meeting formats vary widely from group to group; some
are participation meetings, some speakers, some are question and
answer, and some focus on special problems discussion.
...Closed meetings are for addicts or those
who think they might have a drug problem. Open meetings welcome
anyone wishing to experience our fellowship. The atmosphere of
recovery is protected by our Twelve Traditions. We are fully
self-supporting through voluntary contributions from our members.
Regardless of where the meeting takes place, we remain unaffiliated.
Meetings provide a place to be with fellow addicts. All we need are
two addicts, caring and sharing, to make a meeting.
From "Narcotics Anonymous", pgs 10, 53
Most meetings in the Tualatin Valley Area are open meetings, and
anyone is welcome to attend. Please check the meetings page for more
detail.
I have a problem with just one or two drugs;
are there drug-specific meetings?
Narcotics Anonymous offers recovery to addicts
around the world. We focus on the disease of addiction rather than
any particular drug. Our message is broad enough to attract addicts
from any social class or nationality. When new members come to
meetings, our sole interest is in their desire for freedom from
active addiction and how we can be of help.
From "It Works - How and Why", pg 144
What about treatment centers and other
recovery programs?
“Narcotics Anonymous has no opinion on outside
issues; hence the N.A. name ought never be drawn into public
controversy.”
Our recovery speaks for itself. Our Tenth
Tradition specifically helps protect our reputation. This tradition
says that N.A. has no opinion on outside issues. We don’t take
sides. We don’t have any recommendations. N.A., as a Fellowship,
does not participate in politics; to do so would invite controversy.
It would jeopardize our Fellowship. Those who agree with our
opinions might commend us for taking a stand, but some would always
disagree. With a price this high, is it any wonder we choose not to
take sides in society’s problems? For our own survival, we have no
opinion on outside issues.
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Last
Updated
01/09/2010 01:24:31 PM |
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