Narcotics Anonymous

Helping each other One Day at a Time

I am dedicating this page to the fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. I have been in NA for almost three years now and have found them to be a wonderful group of people, caring and loving.

If someone had told me years ago that there were 12 simple steps to a happier and fuller life, and that if I would follow those 12 steps that I could put the anger and unhappiness behind me, my first question would have been; how much? FREE, well if it's free then it can't be worth anything right? WRONG, the program of NA is free but it's also priceless, the benefit of hearing the problems of others and how they have dealt with them can in turn give you the strength to deal with your own problems. And sometimes just being able to talk about something that is bothering you to people that can understand and relate to what you are going through, is better than any psychiatrist or social worker. A lot of us have lost our self esteem over the years, and when someone shares about a problem that we have dealt with, and when we can in turn share with that individual and help them, we feel better and more whole, because we have actually done something for someone else without thought of, what's in it for me.

"The primary purpose of NA is to carry the message to the addict that still suffers". There are thousands of active addicts out there, living on the street, stealing, selling themselves, doing what ever it takes to get and use drugs. We should all remember when we see these people, not a single one of them went into the guidance counselor at school and said; "I want to be an addict". The addict isn't a evil person, they're a sick one, you wouldn't despise a person that was sick with cancer or some other illness.

One of the reactions that I get from people about NA is fear. They are afraid because after all NA is made up of addicts and addicts are bad people right? WRONG again, they are just people like you and me. Remember that a lot of addicts have never picked up a drug, they are addicted to any number of things; sex, food, television, sports, or even work. The one thing that I feel makes an addict is a tendency to be obsessive and compulsive in your everyday behavior. One girl that I know that has never ever done any kind of drug is a VERY compulsive shopper, the word "SALE" drives her crazy, but for her to admit that she is an addict, not in this lifetime.

Well I've run on long enough now, below are some links to various recovery related sites and a few things that I have included from the writings and texts of Narcotics Anonymous.

Narcotics Anonymous and certain symbols are the registered trademarks of the World Service Office of Narcotics Anonymous.

For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority--a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern. (from the twelve traditions of NA)

The closest thing that we have to a governing body is the World Service Office you can link to the WSO web site at this URL. http://www.na.org/index.htm

While doing research for an e-mail newsletter that I tried to get going here in the Tidewater Virginia area I discovered that there is an enormous amount of recovery oriented content on the internet and the world wide web (the internet includes all of online media that we use, e-mail Usenet, telnet and the world wide web) (the world wide web is the web pages that we surf to) so I started making bookmarks to some of these pages and services and I have included them on this page with a brief description for you.

The new Beginnings International e-mail meeting  This e-mail based meeting is translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian and distributed to countries all over the world. The way it works is you send in an e-mail to the group, sharing just as you would in a regular meeting, your message is then picked up by a trusted servant and translated and sent out to the members in a weekly newsletter, along with e-mails from other members, so that each member will read your e-mail in his or her native language I joined this group several months back and have found it to be a great addition to my regular meetings. It is also a fantastic source of recovery for people who can't get to regular meetings. So be sure to check out their web site at  http://www.netmegs.com/na-nbg/ and if you like what you see sign up with the group.

Other e-mail based meeting groups are:

The Earth Group of NA "meets" on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
For information, see the Earth Group web site is at:   http://www.egna.org

The NA H.O.W. Group "meets" on Wednesdays and Sundays.
For information, see the NA H.O.W. Group web site is at:   http://www.angelfire.com/ok/nahow
The NA H.O.W. Group address for assistance, joining and sharing is:   [email protected]

*** IRC Chat Meeting Schedule: ***

      Recovering addicts have created many NA Chat Meetings on IRC. There are formal regulated live chat meetings every night. If you don't already have IRC, there are two options for obtaining it. Download mIRC to connect to these servers and go to the #na, #nachat or #na-chat rooms. or..

You can use a simple program written by a recovering addict named Dan B. Dan's a member of #nachat on mIRC's Undernet which hosts meetings every night at 9pm Eastern time, Wed at 10am Eastern time, Thurs. at 10:15 PM Pacific time, and chatting all other times. Dan's program works great and will take you right to this chatroom.
      Download from Dan's site:   http://members.xoom.com/RecoveryChat/
      Or direct download the .exe:   http://members.xoom.com/RecoveryChat/rol.exe
      Simply download, load the program, and click on the Icon that looks like a Globe. If it asks you questions, Dan recommends saying "yes". You'll register some info, hit 'connect to server' and you're on-line. If by chance it asks you for a "host", type in your e-mail. "We keep what we have by giving it away... In Loving service, Dan B. (^RoadDog on the undernet)" Once on the system, and with a little fiddling you can reach all the IRC meetings from this program.

Places to download Chat programs:

*** Non-NA related, free programs for chatting: ***

*** Yahoo.com Chat Meetings: ***

      "Recovering Addicts" hosts structured, moderated NA style meetings on Yahoo.com in the user rooms in "Health and Family" section of Yahoo!chat every evening from 9pm - Midnight Pacific time.
      You may go directly to "Recovering Addicts" during meeting times 6-9pm Pacific time daily by typing the following command in the dialogue box once you are in any Yahoo chat room:   /join RECOVERING ADDICTS
      Or go to Yahoo!chat "Health and Family" group of rooms and look for the "Recovering Addicts" room in the "Users" rooms area. "Recovering Addicts" has a WebPage at: http://members.spree.com/recovering/
      Also, "The 12-Step Connection" meets in the same place from 6 - 9pm Pacific and an AA/NA/Alanon chatroom is usually open during the day.

*** Other NA Chat Meetings & Info: ***

Another way for addicts to meet online is through a listserve. A listserve is an automatic program where members (and possibly others) write shares in and the shares are automatically posted to the server without any moderation. This means that when you send in an e-mail, it is posted to the other members of the mailing list automatically, this means that you get lots of individual mailing instead of one mailing with the messages compiled on it.

*** Narcotics Anonymous Listserve Groups ***

And one other method of shareing online is the web based meeting, this is where your "shares" are posted to a web site.

*** Narcotics Anonymous Web Based Meeting List ***
A guide to Narcotics Anonymous groups that meet by posting shares on a website.

The World Wide Fellowship group of NA is always open at http://www.syix.com/mleahey/meeting/
You can read other member's recovery shares and leave one of your own. There are two meetings with different topics to give some diversity to the group.