Welcome to Narcotics Anonymous of NJ. Our Message Is…
That an addict, any addict can stop using drugs,
lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live.
Helpline
If you feel you have a problem with drugs, call our helpline
Events
See upcoming NA events and activities in NJ
Narcotics Anonymous is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean.
– Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, page 9
Recovery from addiction is possible and available through the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of Narcotics Anonymous.
Narcotics Anonymous is FREEDOM from active addiction.
Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts with over 61,000 weekly meetings in over 131 countries worldwide.
Just for Today
In retrospect, many of us realize that when we used, our ideas of fun were rather bizarre. Some of us would get dressed up and head for the local club. We would dance, drink and do other drugs until the sun rose. On more than one occasion, gun battles broke out. What we then called fun, we now call insanity.
Today, our notion of fun has changed. Fun to us today is a walk along the ocean, watching the dolphins frolic as the sun sets behind them. Fun is going to an NA picnic, or attending the comedy show at an NA convention. Fun is getting dressed up to go to the banquet and not worrying about any gun battles breaking out over who did what to whom.
Through the grace of a Higher Power and the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous, our ideas of fun have changed radically. Today when we are up to see the sun rise, it's usually because we went to bed early the night before, not because we left a club at six in the morning, eyes bleary from a night of drug use. And if that's all we have received from Narcotics Anonymous, that would be enough.
A Spiritual Principle a Day
Many of us came to the rooms of NA battered and broken apart, full of secrets we planned to take to the grave. We couldn't keep a job. Our health was terrible. We couldn't bear to see that look in our parents' eyes one more time. But, hey, we're clean now. Yes! We are done with using and more than happy to move on.
But what's this "secrets keep you sick" thing we keep hearing? We just want to put the past behind us, and instead, we're encouraged to tell some sponsor about it? We can share some of it, but not that. Oh, hell, no! No one can ever know that. And "loving ourselves"? Does that mean I have to look in the mirror and say nice things? Is this a requirement?
For many of us, our sponsor is the first--and perhaps only--person who hears about our darkest actions toward others, our insane thoughts and behaviors, and our deep pit of self- destructiveness. The shame and self-hatred we feel are met with empathy and patience. Our sponsor's loving response and commitment to loving us helps us to understand, a bit at a time, that we are deserving of love. We start to organize the mess we made of our lives as we work the Steps. We know we can tell our sponsor anything, and we know we have to in order to stay clean.
Gazing at ourselves in the mirror and blowing loving kisses at our reflection is not a requirement of NA membership. But, after sustained exposure to the love and acceptance freely given to us by our sponsor, the thought of doing so might make us far less uncomfortable than it would have on day one.
