I was talking with a fellow addict last night and I was asked what I thought was a pretty straight up question. What is your take on "What is the NA programn" My response was That Na was a fellowship of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problemn. His reply was that it was more than that. He stated that the NA programn was a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. Then he told me the principles are the steps. Ity was an interesting way of .looking at the programn but it was right there in our literature so I couldn't deny it. This gentleman had a solid grasp of the programn that I try to complicate.
Very true, my first Sponsor also used to say "The Steps ARE the principles that make our recovery possible" later I found that to be true, as written through the collective experience of many addicts in NA in our IP #1...
Recovery through the application of the Steps is what I've come to believe NA is all about, for me it's a way of life which I've found to be all-encompassing in the sense if I do will so, I can make use of in every situation and context of every area of my life... What a blessing it is to be gifted such a wonderful program for free! And to think that it was all and merely about physically abstaining from drugs when I walked in, although I have to admit that's all that mattered when I walked in, right? It's only later when I took a Sponsor who could guide me through the Steps and started working the Program that I realized that using is but one symptom of a greater problem that I have - my disease of addiction. It was scary in the beginning, to grasp the idea that whether I use or not use, I'm gonna think, feel, behave, act and react the same way as a junkie would, and that I had to actually make my daily life flow in a new and different way, living the Program (Steps), but then I realized as I was slowly eased into the process of stepwork and application of Steps that everything becomes easier and simpler and I start living in the solution experience of freedom for the first time in my life, with a Power greater than me backing me all the way, it's some trip! And I've come to love it today. It's advantageous and definitely what I was looking for actually, just that I thought I had found what I was looking for in drugs for a decade and a half
Had an awesome recovery meeting today, great shares, terrific spiritual energy, I could almost sense it reverberate in the classroom, feel so nourished, nurtured, light and free. Yes, today I lived 'clean' not just stayed clean, gratitude is a great high indeed!
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"If we do an honest examination of exactly what we are giving, we are better able to evaluate the results we are getting."Chapter 10 - Emotional Pain - NA Way of Life.
Hey Dave, Thanks for you post. You have just hit upon one of those divisive issues that many addicts are so highly opinionated about: Is the Program and the Fellowship one and the same? Many in my area believe deeply that you can not separate the two, that they are the same entity. Just as many believe that they are separate and distinct aspects of NA. What you asked is "What is the Narcotics Anonymous PROGRAM?" I believe as your friend does, that "our program is a set of principles..." However, I also believe it would be impossible for me to effectively practice those principles without the example of a fellowship of recovering addicts who encourage and support me. Together the two make possible what impossible for me before, living clean and in recovery. I'm sure glad of one thing though, regardless of where we may stand on this issue, we can certainly agree that IT WORKS! Thank God for Narcotics Anonymous!!!
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"With a sweet tongue of kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair." ~Persian Proverb
