Narcotics Anonymous offers recovery to addicts around the world

HIGHVELD – Narcotics Anonymous (NA) is a non-profit fellowship of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem.

They are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. Narcotics Anonymous offers recovery to addicts around the world.

Their message is broad enough to attract addicts regardless of gender, race, creed or religion.

Narcotics Anonymous is an independent, volunteer-run organisation welcoming individuals of all ages, nationalities, cultures, gender-orientations, and religions that is not accountable to any outside entity (including employers, medical professionals, religious or educational institutions, friends, and family members etc.).

Narcotics Anonymous also supports addicts in South African hospitals and institutions.

Beyond group meetings, service member volunteers also ensure that the message of fellowship and support is extended to addicts in prisons, hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. Having an introduction to the NA programme helps addicts continue with their recovery when they return into mainstream society.

Narcotics Anonymous’ 12 step programme provides support and helps addicts attain and maintain a lifestyle of recovery.

Key to the programme’s helping addicts stay clean, is regular attendance of NA meetings and finding a sponsor. A sponsor is a more experienced member who serves a guide through the 12 steps for another addict.

Emotional and spiritual well-being are central to the NA program, and the forging of a spiritual connection to a higher power (which may be religious or non-religious) is fostered through individual meditation and prayer.

NA is entirely self-supporting through member contributions, and does not accept financial contributions from non-members. Based on the same principle, groups and service committees are administered solely by NA members for members.

Narcotics Anonymous neither endorses nor opposes any other organisation’s philosophy or methodology. NA’s primary focus is in providing a safe recovery environment in which drug addicts can share freely their recovery experiences with one another. In deliberately remaining free of potentially controversial distractions, NA can focus all its energy on its particular area of purpose.

Narcotics Anonymous launched online meetings in 2019 to reach persons, communities and patients unable to travel to existing face-to-face NA meetings. NA’s online meetings have grown substantially, and towards the end of 2019, online meetings were reaching communities and individuals in remote areas of South Africa that had not yet had the benefit of face-to-face NA meetings. These meetings have since also become a vital part of Narcotics Anonymous meetings across the rest of Africa.

Having an established online platform and experienced members to run meetings now allows Narcotics Anonymous South Africa to provide support online to addicts all over the world. There are nearly 100 meetings per week, and in many of these there are between 50 -150 attendees, many from the Africa, USA, Europe and Australia.

For more information, visit the Narcotics Anonymous website or send a mail to pr-chair@na.org.za