Narcotics Anonymous Message Board

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...

Dave R · Dave R

"Our fears are lessened and faith begins to grow as we learn the true meaning of surrender. We are no longer fighting fear, anger, guilt, self-pity, or depression."Basic Text, p. 27=Surrender is the beginning of a new way of life. When driven primarily by self-will, we constantly wondered whethe...

Dave R · Dave R

"The process of coming to believe restores us to sanity. The strength to move into action comes from this belief."Basic Text, p. 25=Coming to believe is a process that stems from personal experience. Each of us has this experience; all addicts who find recovery in NA have solid evidence of a benevo...

gratefulgirl17 · gratefulgirl17

Hey family, I am a member of a small town group in NA and at the moment we are struggling to keep people in the rooms. So in an effort to motivate our members to start and stick with their steps and do some healing, we have decided to start a step writing meeting. We went to a Unity Day event where a speaker sha...

Dave R · Dave R

"...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."Tradition Twelve=Sometimes it's hard to accept others' character defects. As we recover together, we not only listen to others talk in meetings, we also watch how they walk through their recovery. The more we get to know other me...

Dave R · Dave R

"We didn't stumble into this fellowship brimming with love, honesty, open-mindedness, or willingness...When we were beaten, we became willing."Basic Text, p. 20=Surrender may be the necessary foundation for recovery, but sometimes we fight it. Most of us look back after some clean time and wo...

Dave R · Dave R

"In our recovery, we find it essential to accept reality. Once we can do this, we do not find it necessary to use drugs in an attempt to change our perceptions."Basic Text, p. 90=Drugs used to buffer us from the full force of life. When we stop using drugs and enter recovery, we find ourselves confront...

Dave R · Dave R

"We have been experts at self-deception and rationalization."Basic Text, p. 28=When we come to our first meeting and hear that we must be honest, we may think, "Well now, that shouldn't be too difficult. All I have to do is stop lying." To some of us, this comes easily. We no longer have to lie to our em...

Topic		Started By	Replies	Views	Last Post
	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	537	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	584	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	621	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	520	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	601	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	550	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	540	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	479	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	595	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	444	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	287	Jul 8, 2017 by Dave R
	Dave R (Preview) Are you done, or just in disposed?	Davethewave	2	287	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	353	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	251	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	267	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	239	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	259	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	265	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	221	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	268	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	223	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	308	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	38519	Jun 26, 2017 by Davethewave
	JFT June 26 Surrendering self-will (Preview) "Our fears are lessened and faith begins to grow as we learn the true meaning of surrender. We are no longer fighting fear, anger, guilt, self-pity, or depression."Basic Text, p. 27=Surrender is the beginning of a new way of life. When driven primarily by self-will, we constantly wondered whethe...	Dave R	0	286	Jun 26, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 25 Not just lucky (Preview) "The process of coming to believe restores us to sanity. The strength to move into action comes from this belief."Basic Text, p. 25=Coming to believe is a process that stems from personal experience. Each of us has this experience; all addicts who find recovery in NA have solid evidence of a benevo...	Dave R	0	269	Jun 25, 2017 by Dave R
	Step Writing Meeting (Preview) Hey family, I am a member of a small town group in NA and at the moment we are struggling to keep people in the rooms. So in an effort to motivate our members to start and stick with their steps and do some healing, we have decided to start a step writing meeting. We went to a Unity Day event where a speaker sha...	gratefulgirl17	1	456	Jun 24, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 24 Tolerance (Preview) "...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."Tradition Twelve=Sometimes it's hard to accept others' character defects. As we recover together, we not only listen to others talk in meetings, we also watch how they walk through their recovery. The more we get to know other me...	Dave R	0	371	Jun 24, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 23 Surrender (Preview) "We didn't stumble into this fellowship brimming with love, honesty, open-mindedness, or willingness...When we were beaten, we became willing."Basic Text, p. 20=Surrender may be the necessary foundation for recovery, but sometimes we fight it. Most of us look back after some clean time and wo...	Dave R	0	300	Jun 23, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 22 Accepting life as it is (Preview) "In our recovery, we find it essential to accept reality. Once we can do this, we do not find it necessary to use drugs in an attempt to change our perceptions."Basic Text, p. 90=Drugs used to buffer us from the full force of life. When we stop using drugs and enter recovery, we find ourselves confront...	Dave R	0	272	Jun 22, 2017 by Dave R
	JFT June 21 New levels of honesty (Preview) "We have been experts at self-deception and rationalization."Basic Text, p. 28=When we come to our first meeting and hear that we must be honest, we may think, "Well now, that shouldn't be too difficult. All I have to do is stop lying." To some of us, this comes easily. We no longer have to lie to our em...	Dave R	0	279	Jun 21, 2017 by Dave R
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