I started with Narcotics Anonymous in 2002. Members of the Fellowship of NA would say that our primary purpose is to carry a message to the still suffering addict. In the beginning it was easy to connect my addiction to the suffering I felt. Like many people, I thought Narcotics Anonymous was about drug use, but Step One says we were powerless over our addiction, and

2. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. I heard when I first attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings that ‘a desire to stop using’ is the only requirement for membership. I had a lot of desires and using drugs was one of them. I was faced with the fact that my relationship with drugs was affecting every

Attraction and Promotion “Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.” I first heard about Narcotics Anonymous while in the hospital from a chemical dependency worker who had been sent to assess me. I was given a Narcotics Anonymous meeting list and an information pamphlet titled ‘Am I an

N.A. has no opinion on outside issues; hence the N.A. name ought never be drawn into public controversy. True Suffering I first found Narcotics Anonymous in 2002 and attended my first NA meeting on a Thursday night in the middle of June. I had been completely abstinent a couple weeks, but I struggled with every aspect of my life. Hitting bottom was a blessing, but when

“N.A., as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.” By the 1970’s, Narcotics Anonymous had come of age and established itself as a proven program of recovery for those who suffered from the disease of addiction. Hundreds of addicts worked thousands of hours to complete a book that would be titled ‘The Basic Text’