Narcotic Anonymous for recovering drug addicts

Are you wondering if you have a drug problem? Robert Smith* from Narcotic Anonymous says if one feels they have a problem with drugs and have the desire to stop using, they should join their NA meeting.

• What is Narcotic anonymous?

It is a non-profit 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 programme of complete abstinence from all drugs.

• What are the requirements for joining?

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 programme 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.

• Are you affiliated with any organisations?

There are no strings attached to NA. We are not affiliated with any other organisations. 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.

• Are you interested in how much a person used?

No, 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.

•Why should a person join the group?

If one feels they have a problem with drugs and have the desire to stop using drugs, then they should join an NA meeting so they have the opportunity to see what we have to offer.

The only requirement for membership to NA is the desire to stop using drugs. There is no requirement to be an addict to join NA, where members share their experience strength and hope with each other.

• Who is an addict?

Most of us do not have to think twice about this question. Our whole life and thinking was centered in drugs in one form or another the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. We lived to use and used to live. Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs. We are people in the grip of a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same: jails, institutions, and death.

• Why do you exist?

Before coming to the Fellowship of NA, we could not manage our own lives. We could not live and enjoy life as other people do. We had to have something different and we thought we had found it in drugs. We placed their use ahead of the welfare of our families, our wives, husbands, and our children. We had to have drugs at all costs. We did many people great harm, but most of all we harmed ourselves. Through our inability to accept personal responsibilities we were actually creating our own problems. We seemed to be incapable of facing life on its own terms.

• Where do you have meetings?

NA has meetings all over the country, in Johannesburg we have 90 meeting venues per week currently. If you would like to find out where the nearest meeting is to you then please visit our website at www.na.org.za or phone us on 083 900 6962.

*Robert Smith is not his real name, identity is known, however it is withheld to protect him.

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