Narcotics Anonymous Message Board

Dave R · Dave R

"Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone."Basic Text, p. 85=There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being lonely is a state of the heart, an emptiness that makes us feel sad and sometimes hopeless. Loneliness is not always alleviated when we enter into rel...

Dave R · Dave R

"We believe that our Higher Power will take care of us."Basic Text, p. 58=We all have times when it seems as though our lives are falling apart. There are days, or even weeks, when it seems that everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Whether it's the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or th...

Dave R · Dave R

"We examined our lives and discovered who we really are. To be truly humble is to accept and honestly try to be ourselves."Basic Text, p. 36=As using addicts, the demands of our disease determined our personality. We could be whoever or whatever we needed to be in order to get our "fix." We were surv...

Dave R · Dave R

...the decision to ask for God's help is our greatest source of strength and courage.Basic Text, p. 26A challenge is anything that dares us to succeed. Things new and unfamiliar serve as challenges, whether those things appear good or bad to us. We are challenged by obstacles and opposition from w...

Dave R · Dave R

"Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us...We can call it the group, the program, or we can call it God."Basic Text, p. 24=Many of us have a hard time with the idea of a Higher Power until we fully accept the depth of our own powerlessness over addiction. Once we do, most of us are at least willing t...

Dave R · Dave R

"A lot happens in one day, both negative and positive. If we do not take time to appreciate both, perhaps we will miss something that will help us grow."IP No. 8, Just for Today=Most of us seem to unconsciously judge what happens in our lives each day as good or bad, success or failure. We tend to feel h...

Dave R · Dave R

"As we grow, we learn to overcome the tendency to run and hide from ourselves and our feelings."Basic Text, p. 85=Rather than risk vulnerability, many of us have developed habits that keep others at a safe distance. These patterns of emotional isolation can give us the feeling we are hopelessly loc...

Dave R · Dave R

"We want to be free of our guilt, but we don't wish to do so at the expense of anyone else."Basic Text, p. 40=Let's face it: Most of us left trails of destruction in our wakes and harmed anyone who got in our way. Some of the people we hurt most in our addiction were the people we loved most. In an effort to p...

Dave R · Dave R

"The steps lead to an awakening of a spiritual nature. This awakening is evidenced by changes in our lives."Basic Text, p. 49=We know how to recognize the disease of addiction. Its symptoms are indisputable. Besides an uncontrollable appetite for drugs, those suffering exhibit self-centere...

Dave R · Dave R

"Meetings keep us in touch with where we've been, but more importantly, with where we could go in our recovery."Basic Text, p. 56=In many ways, addicts are different. When we came to Narcotics Anonymous we found others like ourselves, people who understood us and whom we could understand. No long...

Dave R · Dave R

"We find ourselves doing and enjoying things that we never thought we would be doing."Basic Text, p. 102=Active addiction kept us isolated for many reasons. In the beginning, we avoided family and friends so they wouldn't find out we were using. Some of us avoided all non-addicts, fearing mora...

Dave R · Dave R

"We review our past performance and our present behavior to see what we want to keep and what we want to discard."Basic Text, p. 29=As each day winds to a close, many of us reflect on the past twenty-four hours and consider how we can live differently in the future. It's easy for our thoughts to remain tr...

Dave R · Dave R

"We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."Step Nine=In every relationship, we don't always handle things the way we would have hoped. But friendships don't have to end when we make mistakes; instead, we can make amends. If we are sinc...

Dave R · Dave R

"We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."Step Six=After taking the Fifth Step, many of us spend some time considering "the exact nature of our wrongs" and the part they'd played in making us who we were. What would our lives be like without, say, our arrogance?Sure,...

Dave R · Dave R

"God's will for us becomes our own true will for ourselves."Basic Text, p. 48=The Twelve Steps are a path to spiritual awakening. This awakening takes the form of a developing relationship with a loving Higher Power. Each succeeding step strengthens that relationship. As we continue to work th...

Dave R · Dave R

"For meditation to be of value, the results must show in our daily lives."Basic Text, p. 47=In working our program, we are given many indirect indications of a Higher Power's presence in our lives: the clean feeling that comes to so many of us in taking our Fifth Step; the sense that we are finally on the...

Dave R · Dave R

"As we approach this step, most of us are afraid that there is a monster inside of us that, if released, will destroy us."Basic Text, p. 27=Most of us are terrified to look at ourselves, to probe our insides. Were afraid that if we examine our actions and motives, well find a bottomless black pit of self...

Aldo · Aldo

HI all, I'm am addict with almost 1.5 years of recovery under my belt, im a first timer so I have no idea what I'm doing. I have nobody to go to for answers, so after a brief Google search I found this site. I hope I'm posting in the right forum for this question, but here goes. So I've had my sponsor for mos...

Dave R · Dave R

"Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results."Basic Text, p. 23=Mistakes! We all know how it feels to make them. Many of us feel that our entire lives have been a mistake. We often regard our mistakes with shame or guilt--at the very least, with frustration and impa...

Dave R · Dave R

"The progression of recovery is a continuous uphill journey."Basic Text, p. 83=The longer we stay clean, the steeper and narrower our path seems to become. But God doesn't give us more than we can handle. No matter how difficult the road becomes, no matter how narrow, how winding the turns, there i...

wishfulthinking · wishfulthinking

My fiance has decided that he is ready to start getting help he needs. I just need help want to be there for him. He has decide to start taken NA classes. I have just never been threw any of this before and reaching out for help. I do not want to say or do wrong things to make him feel as though i am judging him in a...

Dave R · Dave R

"A lot of our chief concerns and major difficulties come from our inexperience with living without drugs. Often when we ask an oldtimer what to do, we are amazed at the simplicity of the answer."Basic Text, p. 43=Finding balance in recovery is quite a bit like sitting down with a set of scales and a pil...

Dave R · Dave R

"We...get a good look at what these defects are doing to our lives. We begin to long for freedom from these defects."Basic Text, p. 34=Becoming entirely ready to have our defects of character removed can be a long process, often taking place over the course of a lifetime. Our state of readiness grow...

scumbagdrew · scumbagdrew

Hello everyone I went to an NA meeting for the first time tonight in over a year I was desperate to talk to release some of this guilt and it backfired on me. I told everyone that I recently discovered when I went on facebook that my highschool sweetheart who I introduced to heroin killed herself last octo...

Dave R · Dave R

"We sit down with a notebook, ask for guidance, pick up our pen, and start writing."Basic Text, p. 30=When we're confused or in pain, our sponsor sometimes tells us to "write about it." Though we may groan as we drag out the notebook, we know that it will help. By laying it all out on paper, we give ourse...

thomas_hobbit · thomas_hobbit

Im wondering how others feel about this topic. Ive been clean for more than a few years now, and I now find myself with chronic, debilitating back pain. I am facing the harsh reality that I need to take SOMETHING for the pain in order to function at all. Ive spent a year trying every option that did not inv...

Dave R · Dave R

"We have learned that it is okay to not know all the answers, for then we are teachable and can learn to live our new life successfully."Basic Text, p. 96=In a way, addiction is a great teacher. And if addiction teaches us nothing else, it will teach us humility. We hear it said that it took our very best...

Dave R · Dave R

"With the world in such a turmoil, I feel I have been blessed to be where I am."Basic Text, p. 145=Some days it doesn't pay to turn on the news, we hear so many stories about violence and mayhem. When we used, many of us grew accustomed to violence. Through the fog of our addiction, we rarely got too distu...

Dave R · Dave R

"In time, we can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of recovery."Basic Text, p. 56=Imagine what would happen if a newcomer walked into one of our meetings and was met by a group of grim-faced people gripping the arms of their chairs with white knuckles. That newcomer would probably bolt, perhaps mutter...

poi · poi

Hi all! I am so lucky and blessed to be getting remarried and recovery has everything to do with it. Addiction tore my marriage apart with a divorce in 2011 and recovery (4 years sober last week) has brought it back together. I want to incorporate my commitment to recovery/living clean in my marriag...

Topic		Started By	Replies	Views	Last Post
	JFT May 30 Loneliness vs. being alone (Preview) "Sharing with others keeps us from feeling isolated and alone."Basic Text, p. 85=There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. Being lonely is a state of the heart, an emptiness that makes us feel sad and sometimes hopeless. Loneliness is not always alleviated when we enter into rel...	Dave R	0	389	May 30, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 29 Carry me (Preview) "We believe that our Higher Power will take care of us."Basic Text, p. 58=We all have times when it seems as though our lives are falling apart. There are days, or even weeks, when it seems that everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Whether it's the loss of a job, the death of a loved one, or th...	Dave R	0	348	May 29, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 28 As we understand (Preview) "We examined our lives and discovered who we really are. To be truly humble is to accept and honestly try to be ourselves."Basic Text, p. 36=As using addicts, the demands of our disease determined our personality. We could be whoever or whatever we needed to be in order to get our "fix." We were surv...	Dave R	0	321	May 28, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 27 Meeting the day's challenge (Preview) ...the decision to ask for God's help is our greatest source of strength and courage.Basic Text, p. 26A challenge is anything that dares us to succeed. Things new and unfamiliar serve as challenges, whether those things appear good or bad to us. We are challenged by obstacles and opposition from w...	Dave R	0	260	May 27, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 26 The power in the group (Preview) "Our understanding of a Higher Power is up to us...We can call it the group, the program, or we can call it God."Basic Text, p. 24=Many of us have a hard time with the idea of a Higher Power until we fully accept the depth of our own powerlessness over addiction. Once we do, most of us are at least willing t...	Dave R	0	356	May 26, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 25 "Good" and "bad" feelings (Preview) "A lot happens in one day, both negative and positive. If we do not take time to appreciate both, perhaps we will miss something that will help us grow."IP No. 8, Just for Today=Most of us seem to unconsciously judge what happens in our lives each day as good or bad, success or failure. We tend to feel h...	Dave R	1	478	May 25, 2016 by Davethewave
	JFT May 23 Risking vulnerability (Preview) "As we grow, we learn to overcome the tendency to run and hide from ourselves and our feelings."Basic Text, p. 85=Rather than risk vulnerability, many of us have developed habits that keep others at a safe distance. These patterns of emotional isolation can give us the feeling we are hopelessly loc...	Dave R	0	326	May 24, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 23 Amends and sponsors (Preview) "We want to be free of our guilt, but we don't wish to do so at the expense of anyone else."Basic Text, p. 40=Let's face it: Most of us left trails of destruction in our wakes and harmed anyone who got in our way. Some of the people we hurt most in our addiction were the people we loved most. In an effort to p...	Dave R	1	331	May 23, 2016 by Davethewave
	JFT May 22 Symptoms of a spiritual awakening (Preview) "The steps lead to an awakening of a spiritual nature. This awakening is evidenced by changes in our lives."Basic Text, p. 49=We know how to recognize the disease of addiction. Its symptoms are indisputable. Besides an uncontrollable appetite for drugs, those suffering exhibit self-centere...	Dave R	0	479	May 22, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 21 Keep coming back! (Preview) "Meetings keep us in touch with where we've been, but more importantly, with where we could go in our recovery."Basic Text, p. 56=In many ways, addicts are different. When we came to Narcotics Anonymous we found others like ourselves, people who understood us and whom we could understand. No long...	Dave R	0	376	May 21, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 20 Coming out of isolation (Preview) "We find ourselves doing and enjoying things that we never thought we would be doing."Basic Text, p. 102=Active addiction kept us isolated for many reasons. In the beginning, we avoided family and friends so they wouldn't find out we were using. Some of us avoided all non-addicts, fearing mora...	Dave R	0	341	May 20, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 19 A growth inventory (Preview) "We review our past performance and our present behavior to see what we want to keep and what we want to discard."Basic Text, p. 29=As each day winds to a close, many of us reflect on the past twenty-four hours and consider how we can live differently in the future. It's easy for our thoughts to remain tr...	Dave R	0	308	May 19, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 18 Friends and amends--keeping it simple (Preview) "We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."Step Nine=In every relationship, we don't always handle things the way we would have hoped. But friendships don't have to end when we make mistakes; instead, we can make amends. If we are sinc...	Dave R	0	417	May 18, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 17 Defects (Preview) "We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character."Step Six=After taking the Fifth Step, many of us spend some time considering "the exact nature of our wrongs" and the part they'd played in making us who we were. What would our lives be like without, say, our arrogance?Sure,...	Dave R	0	389	May 17, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 16 Our higher power's will (Preview) "God's will for us becomes our own true will for ourselves."Basic Text, p. 48=The Twelve Steps are a path to spiritual awakening. This awakening takes the form of a developing relationship with a loving Higher Power. Each succeeding step strengthens that relationship. As we continue to work th...	Dave R	0	344	May 16, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 12 Living with spiritual experiences (Preview) "For meditation to be of value, the results must show in our daily lives."Basic Text, p. 47=In working our program, we are given many indirect indications of a Higher Power's presence in our lives: the clean feeling that comes to so many of us in taking our Fifth Step; the sense that we are finally on the...	Dave R	1	394	May 16, 2016 by foreverclean
	JFT May 15 The ties that bind (Preview) "As we approach this step, most of us are afraid that there is a monster inside of us that, if released, will destroy us."Basic Text, p. 27=Most of us are terrified to look at ourselves, to probe our insides. Were afraid that if we examine our actions and motives, well find a bottomless black pit of self...	Dave R	0	331	May 15, 2016 by Dave R
	Need help with sponsor! (Preview) HI all, I'm am addict with almost 1.5 years of recovery under my belt, im a first timer so I have no idea what I'm doing. I have nobody to go to for answers, so after a brief Google search I found this site. I hope I'm posting in the right forum for this question, but here goes. So I've had my sponsor for mos...	Aldo	4	438	May 14, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 14 Oops! (Preview) "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results."Basic Text, p. 23=Mistakes! We all know how it feels to make them. Many of us feel that our entire lives have been a mistake. We often regard our mistakes with shame or guilt--at the very least, with frustration and impa...	Dave R	0	346	May 14, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 13 Onward on the journey (Preview) "The progression of recovery is a continuous uphill journey."Basic Text, p. 83=The longer we stay clean, the steeper and narrower our path seems to become. But God doesn't give us more than we can handle. No matter how difficult the road becomes, no matter how narrow, how winding the turns, there i...	Dave R	0	386	May 13, 2016 by Dave R
	Help on helping a spouse (Preview) My fiance has decided that he is ready to start getting help he needs. I just need help want to be there for him. He has decide to start taken NA classes. I have just never been threw any of this before and reaching out for help. I do not want to say or do wrong things to make him feel as though i am judging him in a...	wishfulthinking	4	583	May 12, 2016 by MIKEF
	JFT May 11 Balancing the scales (Preview) "A lot of our chief concerns and major difficulties come from our inexperience with living without drugs. Often when we ask an oldtimer what to do, we are amazed at the simplicity of the answer."Basic Text, p. 43=Finding balance in recovery is quite a bit like sitting down with a set of scales and a pil...	Dave R	0	371	May 11, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 10 Becoming entirely ready (Preview) "We...get a good look at what these defects are doing to our lives. We begin to long for freedom from these defects."Basic Text, p. 34=Becoming entirely ready to have our defects of character removed can be a long process, often taking place over the course of a lifetime. Our state of readiness grow...	Dave R	1	505	May 10, 2016 by Davethewave
	Worst NA meeting of my life today (Preview) Hello everyone I went to an NA meeting for the first time tonight in over a year I was desperate to talk to release some of this guilt and it backfired on me. I told everyone that I recently discovered when I went on facebook that my highschool sweetheart who I introduced to heroin killed herself last octo...	scumbagdrew	3	442	May 9, 2016 by mikah
	JFT May 9 Write about it? (Preview) "We sit down with a notebook, ask for guidance, pick up our pen, and start writing."Basic Text, p. 30=When we're confused or in pain, our sponsor sometimes tells us to "write about it." Though we may groan as we drag out the notebook, we know that it will help. By laying it all out on paper, we give ourse...	Dave R	0	310	May 9, 2016 by Dave R
	Using medical MJ to treat chronic pain while in recovery (Preview) Im wondering how others feel about this topic. Ive been clean for more than a few years now, and I now find myself with chronic, debilitating back pain. I am facing the harsh reality that I need to take SOMETHING for the pain in order to function at all. Ive spent a year trying every option that did not inv...	thomas_hobbit	5	538	May 8, 2016 by Dean
	JFT May 8 Teachable (Preview) "We have learned that it is okay to not know all the answers, for then we are teachable and can learn to live our new life successfully."Basic Text, p. 96=In a way, addiction is a great teacher. And if addiction teaches us nothing else, it will teach us humility. We hear it said that it took our very best...	Dave R	0	405	May 8, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 7 Turning turmoil into peace (Preview) "With the world in such a turmoil, I feel I have been blessed to be where I am."Basic Text, p. 145=Some days it doesn't pay to turn on the news, we hear so many stories about violence and mayhem. When we used, many of us grew accustomed to violence. Through the fog of our addiction, we rarely got too distu...	Dave R	0	341	May 7, 2016 by Dave R
	JFT May 6 Are we having fun yet? (Preview) "In time, we can relax and enjoy the atmosphere of recovery."Basic Text, p. 56=Imagine what would happen if a newcomer walked into one of our meetings and was met by a group of grim-faced people gripping the arms of their chairs with white knuckles. That newcomer would probably bolt, perhaps mutter...	Dave R	0	347	May 6, 2016 by Dave R
	Recovery in wedding vows (Preview) Hi all! I am so lucky and blessed to be getting remarried and recovery has everything to do with it. Addiction tore my marriage apart with a divorce in 2011 and recovery (4 years sober last week) has brought it back together. I want to incorporate my commitment to recovery/living clean in my marriag...	poi	2	287	May 5, 2016 by Dave R
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