Narcotics Anonymous Message Board

Dave R · Dave R

"Help for addicts begins only when we are able to admit complete defeat. This can be frightening, but it is the foundation on which we have built our lives."Basic Text, p. 22=Most of us have tried everything we can think of, exerted every ounce of force possible, to fill the spiritual hole inside us. ...

Dave R · Dave R

"Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."Step Twelve=There is no such thing as a failed Twelfth Step call. Even if our prospect doesn't get clean, we have accomplished two purposes. ...

Dave R · Dave R

"...we covered low self-esteem by hiding behind phony images that we hoped would fool people. The masks have to go."Basic Text, p. 33=Over-sensitivity, insecurity, and lack of identity are often associated with active addiction. Many of us carry these with us into recovery; our fears of inadequ...

Dave R · Dave R

"We want and demand that things always go our way. We should know from our past experience that our way of doing things did not work."Basic Text, p. 93=All of us have ideas, plans, goals for our lives. There's nothing in the NA program that says we shouldn't think for ourselves, take initiative, and p...

Dave R · Dave R

"For us, to use is to die, often in more ways than one."Basic Text, p. 82=As newcomers, many of us came to our first meeting with only a small spark of life remaining. That spark, our spirit, wants to survive. Narcotics Anonymous nurtures that spirit. The love of the fellowship quickly fans that sp...

Dave R · Dave R

"If, after a period of time, we find ourselves in trouble with our recovery, we have probably stopped doing one or more of the things that helped us in the earlier stages of our recovery."Basic Text, p. 95=Surrender is just for newcomers, right? Wrong!After we've been around awhile, some of us succu...

Dave R · Dave R

We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable. Step One = The First Step begins with we, and theres a reason for that. There is great strength in making a verbal admission of our powerlessness. And when we go to meetings and make this admission, we ga...

Dave R · Dave R

"Our disease always resurfaced or continued to progress until, in desperation, we sought help from each other in Narcotics Anonymous." Basic Text, p. 13=When we think of being desperate, we envision an undesirable state: a poor, bedraggled soul frantically clawing at something sorely needed, a...

Dave R · Dave R

"Dreams that we gave up long ago can now become realities." Basic Text, p. 71 = All things begin with a dream. But how many of us fulfilled our dreams while using? Even if we managed to complete something we had started, our addiction usually robbed us of any pride in our accomplishment....

Dave R · Dave R

"Do we fully accept the fact that our every attempt to stop using or to control our using failed?"Basic Text, p. 19=The room is dark. Your forehead is bathed in cold sweat. Your heart is racing. You open your eyes, sure that you've just blown your clean time. You've had a using dream, and it was just l...

Dave R · Dave R

"Deep inside, I had feelings of inadequacy and inferiority." Somewhere along the way, many of us developed strong feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. Deep inside was a voice that continually cried out, "You're worthless!" Many of us learn to recognize this characteristic of low self-es...

Dave R · Dave R

"Social acceptability does not equal recovery."Basic Text, p. 22=One of the first things that happens to many of us in recovery is that we start to look better. We get healthier; we bathe; we dress more appropriately. And without the goading of active addiction, many of us finally stop stealing, l...

Dave R · Dave R

"If we are hurting, and most of us do from time to time, we learn to ask for help."Basic Text, p. 83=Sometimes recovery gets downright difficult. It can be even more difficult to get humble enough to ask for help. We think, "I have all this time clean. I should be better than this!" But the reality of r...

Dave R · Dave R

"We were trapped by our need for the instant gratification that drugs gave us."Basic Text, p. 25="I want what I want, and I want it now!" That's about as patient as most of us ever got in our active addiction. The obsession and compulsion of our disease gave us a one-track way of thinking; when we want...

Dave R · Dave R

"We share comfort and encouragement with others."Basic Text, p. 99=Many of us have watched as babies take their first steps. The mother holds the child on its feet. The father kneels nearby with outstretched arms, encouraging the little one, his face flooded with devotion. The baby takes a few s...

Dave R · Dave R

That old nest of negativism followed me everywhere I went. Basic Text, p. 137 = A negative attitude is the trademark of active addiction. Everything that occurred in our lives was someone or something else's fault. We had blaming others for our shortcomings down to a fine science. In recovery...

Dave R · Dave R

"...the time has come when that tired old lie, "Once an addict, always an addict," will no longer be tolerated by either society or the addict himself. We do recover."Basic Text, p. 89=From time to time, we hear speakers share that they don't really understand spiritual principles yet. They tell u...

Dave R · Dave R

"It is important for you to know that you will hear God mentioned at NA meetings. What we are referring to is a Power greater than ourselves that makes possible what seems impossible."IP No. 22, Welcome to NA=Most of us come to Narcotics Anonymous with a variety of preconceptions about what the word...

Davethewave · Davethewave

Are you done, or just in disposed?

Dave R · Dave R

"One aspect of our spiritual awakening comes through the new understanding of our Higher Power that we develop by sharing another addict's recovery."Basic Text, p. 52=We've heard it said that we often see God most clearly in one another. We see the truth of this when we practice our Twelfth Step. W...

Dave R · Dave R

"The nature of our belief will determine the manner of our prayers and meditation."Basic Text, p. 44=How do we pray? For each NA member, this is a deeply personal matter. Many of us find that, over time, we develop a manner of prayer and meditation based on what we learn from others and what we are comf...

Dave R · Dave R

"We learn that conflicts are a part of reality, and we learn new ways to resolve them instead of running from them."Basic Text, p. 90=From time to time, we all experience conflicts. It may be that we just can't get along with that new coworker. Maybe our friends are driving us crazy. Or perhaps our pa...

Dave R · Dave R

"Many of us have found that setting aside quiet time for ourselves is helpful in making conscious contact with our Higher Power."Basic Text, p. 95=Most of us pay lip-service to the value of conscious contact with a Higher Power. Yet how many of us consistently take time to improve that conscious con...

Dave R · Dave R

"Our personal stories may vary in individual pattern, but in the end we all have the same thing in common."Basic Text, p. 87=We addicts are a varied bunch, coming from different backgrounds, having used different drugs, and recalling different experiences. Our differences don't disappear in re...

Dave R · Dave R

"The program is simply sharing, working the Twelve Steps, attending meetings, and practicing the principles of the program." =Our complicated lives can be made a lot less complicated if we concentrate on a few simple things--sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, regular meet...

Dave R · Dave R

"Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future."Basic Text, p. 96=The foundation of our lives is what the rest of our lives is built upon. When we were using, that foundation affected everything we did. When we decided that recovery was important, thats where we began t...

Dave R · Dave R

"Complacency is the enemy of members with substantial clean time. If we remain complacent for long, the recovery process ceases."Basic Text, p. 84=After the first couple of years in recovery, most of us start to feel like there are no more big deals. If we've been diligent in working the steps, th...

Dave R · Dave R

"Working with others is only the beginning of service work." Basic Text, p. 59 = Service work calls for a selfless devotion to carrying the message to the still-suffering addict. But our attitude of service cannot stop there. Service also requires that we look at ourselves and our motives. Our ef...

Dave R · Dave R

"When someone points out a shortcoming, our first reaction may be defensive. There will always be room for growth."Basic Text, p. 36=Recovery is a process that brings about change in our lives. We need that change if we are to continue our growth toward freedom. It's important that we remain ope...

Maggie · Maggie

Okay - I need help - desperately. I am now on my sixth step, problem is that I have only come up with a few defects - anger, judgmentalism, self-centeredness... I wish I had a list of defects I could pick from, but then again, I would probably find that I had every one of them. So, if anyone out there can giv...

Topic		Started By	Replies	Views	Last Post
	JFT July 26 Unconditional surrender (Preview) "Help for addicts begins only when we are able to admit complete defeat. This can be frightening, but it is the foundation on which we have built our lives."Basic Text, p. 22=Most of us have tried everything we can think of, exerted every ounce of force possible, to fill the spiritual hole inside us. ...	Dave R	1	459	Jul 26, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 25 Twelve step failure? (Preview) "Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."Step Twelve=There is no such thing as a failed Twelfth Step call. Even if our prospect doesn't get clean, we have accomplished two purposes. ...	Dave R	1	465	Jul 25, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 24 The masks have to go (Preview) "...we covered low self-esteem by hiding behind phony images that we hoped would fool people. The masks have to go."Basic Text, p. 33=Over-sensitivity, insecurity, and lack of identity are often associated with active addiction. Many of us carry these with us into recovery; our fears of inadequ...	Dave R	1	452	Jul 24, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 23 Surrendering self-will (Preview) "We want and demand that things always go our way. We should know from our past experience that our way of doing things did not work."Basic Text, p. 93=All of us have ideas, plans, goals for our lives. There's nothing in the NA program that says we shouldn't think for ourselves, take initiative, and p...	Dave R	2	530	Jul 23, 2017 by Davethewave
	JFT July 22 Spiritual death (Preview) "For us, to use is to die, often in more ways than one."Basic Text, p. 82=As newcomers, many of us came to our first meeting with only a small spark of life remaining. That spark, our spirit, wants to survive. Narcotics Anonymous nurtures that spirit. The love of the fellowship quickly fans that sp...	Dave R	1	480	Jul 22, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 21 Surrender is for everyone (Preview) "If, after a period of time, we find ourselves in trouble with our recovery, we have probably stopped doing one or more of the things that helped us in the earlier stages of our recovery."Basic Text, p. 95=Surrender is just for newcomers, right? Wrong!After we've been around awhile, some of us succu...	Dave R	1	507	Jul 21, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 20 Step One (Preview) We admitted that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable. Step One = The First Step begins with we, and theres a reason for that. There is great strength in making a verbal admission of our powerlessness. And when we go to meetings and make this admission, we ga...	Dave R	5	330	Jul 20, 2017 by MIKEF
	JFT July 18 The gift of desperation (Preview) "Our disease always resurfaced or continued to progress until, in desperation, we sought help from each other in Narcotics Anonymous." Basic Text, p. 13=When we think of being desperate, we envision an undesirable state: a poor, bedraggled soul frantically clawing at something sorely needed, a...	Dave R	2	494	Jul 19, 2017 by Davethewave
	JFT July 19 Fulfilling our dreams (Preview) "Dreams that we gave up long ago can now become realities." Basic Text, p. 71 = All things begin with a dream. But how many of us fulfilled our dreams while using? Even if we managed to complete something we had started, our addiction usually robbed us of any pride in our accomplishment....	Dave R	2	541	Jul 19, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 17 Using our using dreams (Preview) "Do we fully accept the fact that our every attempt to stop using or to control our using failed?"Basic Text, p. 19=The room is dark. Your forehead is bathed in cold sweat. Your heart is racing. You open your eyes, sure that you've just blown your clean time. You've had a using dream, and it was just l...	Dave R	1	580	Jul 17, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 16 Self-esteem (Preview) "Deep inside, I had feelings of inadequacy and inferiority." Somewhere along the way, many of us developed strong feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. Deep inside was a voice that continually cried out, "You're worthless!" Many of us learn to recognize this characteristic of low self-es...	Dave R	2	480	Jul 16, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 14 An inside job (Preview) "Social acceptability does not equal recovery."Basic Text, p. 22=One of the first things that happens to many of us in recovery is that we start to look better. We get healthier; we bathe; we dress more appropriately. And without the goading of active addiction, many of us finally stop stealing, l...	Dave R	1	456	Jul 14, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 13 Humility in action (Preview) "If we are hurting, and most of us do from time to time, we learn to ask for help."Basic Text, p. 83=Sometimes recovery gets downright difficult. It can be even more difficult to get humble enough to ask for help. We think, "I have all this time clean. I should be better than this!" But the reality of r...	Dave R	1	492	Jul 13, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 12 Patience (Preview) "We were trapped by our need for the instant gratification that drugs gave us."Basic Text, p. 25="I want what I want, and I want it now!" That's about as patient as most of us ever got in our active addiction. The obsession and compulsion of our disease gave us a one-track way of thinking; when we want...	Dave R	1	475	Jul 12, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 11 Encouragement (Preview) "We share comfort and encouragement with others."Basic Text, p. 99=Many of us have watched as babies take their first steps. The mother holds the child on its feet. The father kneels nearby with outstretched arms, encouraging the little one, his face flooded with devotion. The baby takes a few s...	Dave R	1	403	Jul 11, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 10 A positive attitude (Preview) That old nest of negativism followed me everywhere I went. Basic Text, p. 137 = A negative attitude is the trademark of active addiction. Everything that occurred in our lives was someone or something else's fault. We had blaming others for our shortcomings down to a fine science. In recovery...	Dave R	1	515	Jul 10, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 9 We do recover (Preview) "...the time has come when that tired old lie, "Once an addict, always an addict," will no longer be tolerated by either society or the addict himself. We do recover."Basic Text, p. 89=From time to time, we hear speakers share that they don't really understand spiritual principles yet. They tell u...	Dave R	1	404	Jul 9, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 8 The G word (Preview) "It is important for you to know that you will hear God mentioned at NA meetings. What we are referring to is a Power greater than ourselves that makes possible what seems impossible."IP No. 22, Welcome to NA=Most of us come to Narcotics Anonymous with a variety of preconceptions about what the word...	Dave R	0	246	Jul 8, 2017 by Dave R
	Dave R (Preview) Are you done, or just in disposed?	Davethewave	2	239	Jul 7, 2017 by Davethewave
	JFT July 7 God in each other (Preview) "One aspect of our spiritual awakening comes through the new understanding of our Higher Power that we develop by sharing another addict's recovery."Basic Text, p. 52=We've heard it said that we often see God most clearly in one another. We see the truth of this when we practice our Twelfth Step. W...	Dave R	0	266	Jul 7, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 5 Exploring spiritual options (Preview) "The nature of our belief will determine the manner of our prayers and meditation."Basic Text, p. 44=How do we pray? For each NA member, this is a deeply personal matter. Many of us find that, over time, we develop a manner of prayer and meditation based on what we learn from others and what we are comf...	Dave R	0	213	Jul 5, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 4 Conflict (Preview) "We learn that conflicts are a part of reality, and we learn new ways to resolve them instead of running from them."Basic Text, p. 90=From time to time, we all experience conflicts. It may be that we just can't get along with that new coworker. Maybe our friends are driving us crazy. Or perhaps our pa...	Dave R	0	187	Jul 4, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 3 Quiet time (Preview) "Many of us have found that setting aside quiet time for ourselves is helpful in making conscious contact with our Higher Power."Basic Text, p. 95=Most of us pay lip-service to the value of conscious contact with a Higher Power. Yet how many of us consistently take time to improve that conscious con...	Dave R	0	187	Jul 3, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 2 Comparing (Preview) "Our personal stories may vary in individual pattern, but in the end we all have the same thing in common."Basic Text, p. 87=We addicts are a varied bunch, coming from different backgrounds, having used different drugs, and recalling different experiences. Our differences don't disappear in re...	Dave R	0	215	Jul 2, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT July 1 A simple program (Preview) "The program is simply sharing, working the Twelve Steps, attending meetings, and practicing the principles of the program." =Our complicated lives can be made a lot less complicated if we concentrate on a few simple things--sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, regular meet...	Dave R	0	204	Jul 1, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 30 Maintaining the foundation (Preview) "Our newly found faith serves as a firm foundation for courage in the future."Basic Text, p. 96=The foundation of our lives is what the rest of our lives is built upon. When we were using, that foundation affected everything we did. When we decided that recovery was important, thats where we began t...	Dave R	0	183	Jun 30, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 29 Keeping recovery fresh (Preview) "Complacency is the enemy of members with substantial clean time. If we remain complacent for long, the recovery process ceases."Basic Text, p. 84=After the first couple of years in recovery, most of us start to feel like there are no more big deals. If we've been diligent in working the steps, th...	Dave R	0	198	Jun 29, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 28 Group conscience (Preview) "Working with others is only the beginning of service work." Basic Text, p. 59 = Service work calls for a selfless devotion to carrying the message to the still-suffering addict. But our attitude of service cannot stop there. Service also requires that we look at ourselves and our motives. Our ef...	Dave R	0	166	Jun 28, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 27 Change and growth (Preview) "When someone points out a shortcoming, our first reaction may be defensive. There will always be room for growth."Basic Text, p. 36=Recovery is a process that brings about change in our lives. We need that change if we are to continue our growth toward freedom. It's important that we remain ope...	Dave R	0	251	Jun 27, 2017 by Dave R
	Step Six - Character Defects (Preview) Okay - I need help - desperately. I am now on my sixth step, problem is that I have only come up with a few defects - anger, judgmentalism, self-centeredness... I wish I had a list of defects I could pick from, but then again, I would probably find that I had every one of them. So, if anyone out there can giv...	Maggie	48	36471	Jun 26, 2017 by Davethewave
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