Narcotics Anonymous Meetings – The Basics
A Brief History of Narcotics Anonymous Meetings
Narcotics Anonymous (NA) was inspired by the Alcoholics Anonymous program and began about 10 years later, in the early 1950’s, with Narcotics Anonymous meetings appearing first in California. It took a good thirty years to fully develop and spread, but today, the program extends throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and even the Middle East. Meetings can even be found scattered across India, Africa, and Eastern Asia.
Alcoholics Anonymous was, unsurprisingly, focused on helping people who had a desire to quit drinking alcohol. Many AA meetings openly frown upon the discussion of other types of drugs. People soon realized that something similar for other drugs could be very beneficial. Early NA literature describes Narcotics Anonymous as “a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem.”
How Do You Join NA?
Joining N.A. is similar to joining A.A. or any other 12 step program, where all you have to do is show up! Membership with the group is open to anyone struggling with a drug addiction, no matter what substance or substances you use. You don’t have to choose between joining N.A. or joining A.A. if a 12 step program is something you want to try. You could abuse drugs and alcohol and be a member of both, or a member of one or the other, to get the support you need.
Do You Have To Be Religious to Go To Narcotics Anonymous Meetings?
A common misconception is that you have to be religious to join N.A. meetings because of the frequent references to God or something similar. This is not the case. NA does reference God and a higher power often, but it is not a religious organization. It is is simply a therapeutic avenue for addicts to work with, learn from, and heal with one another. There is a lot of healing in learning that you are not alone, in sharing your struggles, and in celebrating your successes. And, where a higher power is concerned, every member is encouraged to find any spiritual source, whatever that source may be, to admit their powerlessness over their disease.
How Do Narcotics Anonymous Meetings Work?
Each meeting can be slightly different, but they all follow the samegeneral format. People get together and share their stories, successes, failures, hopes, and etc. with each other with the hope that it will help free them from their addiction.
Some meetings are speaker meetings. This means that someone is chosen to speak and tell their story. The speaker spends about half of the meeting, sometimes more sometimes less, sharing their story. After they share their story, everyone else is then allowed to raise their hand and share something with the group. The idea is to share something you can relate to within that person’s story, but you can really share about whatever you want.
Other meetings sometimes focus on the NA literature, similar to how AA has Big Book meetings. Someone might read a passage from NA literature and then people share about that passage.
There are also open meetings and closed meetings. An open meeting is open to anyone – friends or family of the addict, people who are just curious about NA, etc.
Closed meetings are only for people who are trying to overcome their addiction and who want to stop using drugs.
This is an important distinction because you will know that if you are going to an open meeting, there might be people there who aren’t addicts and who aren’t struggling. This might make some people uncomfortable. If it does, they can go to a closed meeting to feel safer.
What Are The 12 Steps?
Just like in AA, NA has its own 12 steps that have been adapted from AA’s literature. The idea is that we are powerless over our addictions and we can’t beat it alone. Keep going to meetings, get a sponsor, work the steps, and whatever you do, don’t pick up a drink or a drug.
You don’t have to get a sponsor and work the 12 steps in order to attend meetings, but it is definitely advised that you do. If you find meetings helpful but don’t feel like you’re ready, or you just don’t want to, get a sponsor and do the steps, then don’t. Do whatever helps you.
Any 12 step program can be helpful for those recovering from any addiction, but Narcotics Anonymous meetings are ideal for the recovering drug addicts because the Steps and Traditions have been modified from their original A.A. language to speak more generally about “addicts” instead of “alcoholics.”
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