What is the Narcotics Anonymous Program?
Narcotics Anonymous is a global, community-based organization with a multilingual and multicultural membership. NA was founded in 1953, and members hold nearly 76,000 meetings weekly in 143 countries today.
NA is a nonprofit 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 program of complete abstinence from all drugs. 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 program 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.
There are no strings attached to NA. We are not affiliated with any other organizations. 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.
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.
We Do Recover
When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a human being, either with or without drugs, we all face the same dilemma. What is there left to do?
There seems to be this alternative: either go on as best we can to the bitter ends—jails, institutions or death—or find a new way to live.
In years gone by, very few addicts ever had this last choice. Those who are addicted today are more fortunate.
For the first time in man’s entire history, a simple way has been proving itself in the lives of many addicts. It is available to us all. This is a simple spiritual—not religious—program, known as Narcotics Anonymous.
If You Need Help?
Our primary purpose as an organization is to carry a message of recovery to the still suffering addict. Hopefully, our fellowship may be of benefit to you, or to the people you serve.
If you have a problem with drugs, please call our helpline or come to one of our meetings! We’d love to help you.
Our helpline number is 1-800-600-4673. You can text your city or zip code to the helpline number and receive a text back with a list of nearby meetings.