Recovery in Narcotics Anonymous

Narcotics Anonymous is for any addict who wants to recover from the disease of addiction. If you are currently in treatment, you may have entered for some reason other than a desire to stop using drugs. No matter what your initial motivation for entering treatment may have been, if you want to stop using drugs and continue your recovery, Narcotics Anonymous may be for you.

Once we stopped using drugs, many of us started comparing ourselves to other addicts. We focused on our differences rather than our similarities. Seeing only the differences made it easy to think that maybe we didn’t belong in NA.

Denial is a prominent aspect of the disease of addiction. Denial keeps us from seeing the whole truth about ourselves and our disease. Feeling that we are different from other addicts is a manifestation of this denial. It helps to take an honest look at the unmanageability of our lives that resulted from our drug use. We look especially at our relationships, our employment, our living conditions, and our financial obligations. Instead of thinking about the good times we had using drugs, we try to remember when we may have said, “What am I doing here? Why do I feel this way? How long has it been since drugs worked the way I wanted them to?”

Eventually, we all face a basic question: “Do I want to stop using drugs?” Many of us could not answer this question immediately. However, when we willingly and honestly looked at our past, we found many reasons to stop using drugs. Your answer to this question can set the course for your future recovery.

The disease of addiction is progressive. Our experience during active addiction proved that to us. Continued drug use destroys us in body, mind, and spirit. We believe that, for addicts, continued use of drugs leads to jails, institutions, or death. Breaking through denial gives us a clear picture of the destruction in our lives. With this in mind, we can look for solutions to our problems.

We learn that we are powerless over our addiction. The use of drugs is one aspect of the disease of addiction, although this disease affects all areas of our lives. We begin to recover when we abstain from all drugs. Admitting our powerlessness is a surrender, an admission that we don’t know the solution to our problems. Surrender begins as we become willing to consider new ideas. We can ask for help and accept it when it’s offered…

The rest of this pamphlet “For Those In Treatment” can be read for free at https://na.org/e-lit/ip-17-for-those-in-treatment/

This is NA Fellowship-approved literature.

Narcotics Anonymous, and The NA Way are registered trademarks of Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Incorporated.