This is our very first literature from 1956. If you have anything to share please do...

DO YOU NEED NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS?

You do if you are an addict.

Are you an addict?

Ask yourself these questions. Answer them as honestly as you can.

1. Do you loose time from work due to "using"?

2. Is "using" making your home life unhappy?

3. Do you "fix" because you are shy with other people?

4. Is "using" affecting your reputation?

5. Have you ever felt remorse after "fixing"?

6.Have you ever gotten into financial difficulties as a result of "using"?

7.Do you turn to lower companions and an inferior environment when "using"?

8. Does your "using" make you careless of your family's welfare?

9. Has your ambition decreased since "using"?

10. Do you crave a "fix" at a definite time daily?

11. Do you want a "fix" the next morning?

12. Does "using" cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?

13. Has your efficiency decreased since "using"?

14. Is "using" jeopardizing your job or business?

15. Do you "fix" to escape from worries or trouble?

16. Do you "fix" alone?

17. Have you ever had a complete loss of memory as a result of "using"?

18. Has your physician ever treated you for "using"?

19. Do you "fix" to build up your self-confidence?

20. Have you ever been to a hospital or institution on account of "using"?

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If you answered YES to any one of these questions, you may be an addict.

If you answered YES to any two of the questions, chances are you are an addict.

If you answered YES to three or more then you are an addict beyond doubt.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

Absolutely nothing, unless you are convinced you must do something about it, and sincerely want to do something about it. If you sincerely want to stop using, we in Narcotics Anonymous, who suffered from the same addiction, and who are now arrested cases and living a new way of life, have a program that will show you the way out. We can't offer you a cure, because neither you nor we will ever be cured of addiction. But like us, you can become an arrested case. You can stop using and start living.

WHAT IS THE NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS PROGRAM?

Narcotics Anonymous is an absolutely non-profit-making fellowship and is connected with no police, political, or religious organization. There are no initiation fees, no dues, no charges of any kind. There are no pledges to sign. Any one may join, regardless of age, race, color or religion. We are not interested in what you used, how much, or who your connections were. All we ask is that you have the sincere, honest desire to stop using. We of Narcotics Anonymous are exactly like you. We are a group of addicts who meet regularly to help each other obtain arid maintain our sobriety and to stay clean.

Before coming on the program, our trouble was we could not manage our own lives. We couldn't live like normal people. We had to have something different and we thought we had found it in drugs and narcotics. We got so we had to have these drugs arid narcotics no matter what the cost. We placed their use ahead of the welfare of our families, wives and children. We did them great harm, but most of all, we harmed our selves. We broke not only the laws or society but the greatest law of all - the law of nature.

We were running away, that was our real problem, for the use of drugs and narcotics is but a symptom of underlying causes. We used in order to escape facing life and its problems. We realized we were slowly committing suicide, but such cunning enemies of life are drugs and narcotics that we had lost the power to do anything about it Jail did us no good. Medicine and psychiatry had no answers for us. Everything else having failed, in desperation we sought help from each other, in Narcotics Anonymous.

Here, we have come to realize we are not moral lepers. We are simply sick people. We suffer from a disease, just like alcoholism, diabetes, tuberculosis, heart trouble or cancer. There is no known cure for these diseases and neither is there for drug addiction. But by following a pattern derived from Alcoholics Anonymous and its teachings, we have become arrested cases. We found out how to live a life free from the uses of narcotics and sedation. We have stopped using. We have learned how to live.

Here is how we did it. These are the steps we took, and they are the steps we suggest for anyone who sincerely wants to stop using.

1.We admitted we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

2.We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5.We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6.We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7.We humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.

8.We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9.We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to that out.

12. 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.

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Does this sound like a big order?

We don’t expect you to do it overnight. You didn't become addicted in one day. "Easy does it" We suggest you begin a program of recovery by taking Step One. Admit you are powerless over drugs, that your life has become unmanageable. It you are in a jail or hospital, you have gone through complete withdrawal and have stopped using for the time being. Upon release, tell yourself you will not use today. It is most important you get in touch with a member of Narcotics Anonymous or attend a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous at once. It you are not in a jail or hospital, the same thing holds true: Stop using for today.

If the compulsion becomes so great you can't see going through a whole day, then put yourself on a five minute basis of not using. After five minutes, do it for another five minutes. Minutes will grow into hours, hours into days. Quitting for one day, then another, will eventually help you break the habit.

Go from Step One to Step Two. Then to Step Three. You do it by stages, first thing first. By constant attendance at Narcotics Anonymous meetings, you will find answers to the questions that may be disturbing you now.

JUST FOR TODAY

Tell yourself:

JUST FOR TODAY my thoughts will be on my recovery, living and enjoying life without the use of narcotics.

JUST FOR TODAY I will have faith in someone in Narcotics Anonymous who believes in me and wants to help me to recovery.

JUST FOR TODAY I will have a program. I will try to follow it to the best of my ability.

JUST FOR TODAY, through Narcotics Anonymous, I will try to get a better perspective on my life.

JUST FOR TODAY I will be unafraid. My thoughts will be on my new associations, people who are not using and who have found a new way of life. So long as I follow that way of life, even for today, I have nothing to fear.