Narcotics Anonymous is a "fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem" following the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions developed by Alcoholics Anonymous and it is the second-largest 12-step organization.
Membership and Organization
The third tradition of NA states that the only requirement for membership is "a desire to stop using". NA says it's meetings are where members can "meet regularly to help each other stay clean," where "clean" is defined as complete abstinence from all mood and mind altering substances. Membership in NA is free, and there are no dues or fees.
The foundation of the Narcotics Anonymous program is the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
Narcotics Anonymous "has no opinion on outside issues," including those of politics, science, or medicine, and does not endorse any outside organization or institution. The fellowship does not promote itself, but rather attracts new members through public information and outreach. NA groups and areas supply outside organizations with factual information regarding the NA program, and individual members may carry the NA message to hospitals and institutions, such as treatment centers and jails.
The Nature of Addiction
NA describes addiction as a progressive disease with no known cure, which affects every area of an addict's life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. NA suggests that the disease of addiction can be arrested, and recovery is possible through the NA twelve-step program. The steps never mention drugs or drug use, rather they refer only to addiction, to indicate that addicts have a disease of which drug use is one symptom. Other symptoms include obsession, compulsion, denial, and self-centeredness.
Addicts often first enter NA after reaching a "rock bottom" in their life, a point at which life feels completely unmanageable, characterized by "unemployability, dereliction and destruction" and centered around the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more drugs. Every NA member reaches a different bottom, which can be wherever the addict chooses to stop using. In practice, it is drug use and the extreme consequences associated with its abuse that bring most addicts to their bottom, many of them sliding along 'this bottom' for many years and often never finding a way out
Membership and Organization
The third tradition of NA states that the only requirement for membership is "a desire to stop using". NA says it's meetings are where members can "meet regularly to help each other stay clean," where "clean" is defined as complete abstinence from all mood and mind altering substances. Membership in NA is free, and there are no dues or fees.
The foundation of the Narcotics Anonymous program is the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.
Narcotics Anonymous "has no opinion on outside issues," including those of politics, science, or medicine, and does not endorse any outside organization or institution. The fellowship does not promote itself, but rather attracts new members through public information and outreach. NA groups and areas supply outside organizations with factual information regarding the NA program, and individual members may carry the NA message to hospitals and institutions, such as treatment centers and jails.
The Nature of Addiction
NA describes addiction as a progressive disease with no known cure, which affects every area of an addict's life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. NA suggests that the disease of addiction can be arrested, and recovery is possible through the NA twelve-step program. The steps never mention drugs or drug use, rather they refer only to addiction, to indicate that addicts have a disease of which drug use is one symptom. Other symptoms include obsession, compulsion, denial, and self-centeredness.
Addicts often first enter NA after reaching a "rock bottom" in their life, a point at which life feels completely unmanageable, characterized by "unemployability, dereliction and destruction" and centered around the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more drugs. Every NA member reaches a different bottom, which can be wherever the addict chooses to stop using. In practice, it is drug use and the extreme consequences associated with its abuse that bring most addicts to their bottom, many of them sliding along 'this bottom' for many years and often never finding a way out