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
Spreading gossip feeds a dark hunger in us. Sometimes we think the only way we can feel good about ourselves is to make someone else look bad by comparison. But the kind of self-esteem that can be purchased at another's expense is hollow and not worth the price.
How, then, do we deal with our negative sense of self? Simple. We replace it with a positive concern for others. Rather than dwell on our low self-esteem, we turn to those around us and seek to be of service to them.
This may seem to be a way of avoiding the issue, but it's not. There's nothing we can do by dwelling on our low sense of self except work ourselves into a stew of self-pity. But by replacing our self-pity with active, loving concern for others, we become the kind of people we can respect.
The way to build our self-esteem is not to tear others down, but to build them up through love and positive concern. To help us with this, we can ask ourselves if we are contributing to the problem or to the solution. Today, we can choose to build instead of destroy.
A Spiritual Principal a Day
We're brought together by desperation, so being alive and clean may seem like enough reason to be joyful at first. But wait, there's more! Even in our earliest days clean, we may have some inkling that we are part of something special. We may wonder, Am I being indoctrinated into a cult? but with no discernable leader and no dogma to adhere to, we can rule that out. We decide to keep coming back. I'll just play along as we see what these weirdos are up to.
So, we're clean! Now what? We come across this passage in the Basic Text: "When the drugs go and the addict works the program, wonderful things happen." I like the sound of that! We start to piece together what it means to "work the program" and find some practical advice in "What Can I Do?"--Chapter Five of the addict's owner's manual. We go to lots of meetings without using between them--even on holidays! We get a home group, a sponsor, and a service commitment, and we find ourselves surrounded by people who take great joy in our progress. They want nothing from us, just good things for us. They offer us words of encouragement, lessons from their own lives, and epic tales of shenanigans with other members. They point out our growth and say they're happy, grateful, and even honored to be a part of our miracle. We smile and nod and our eyes start leaking. All we can think is, This NA thing . . . is a trip.
Our lives are transformed as we become both the helpers and the helped. Now we're those people with stories and kindness for the newer folks and are moved by being a part of their miracle. Our mentors continue to evolve, too, and they allow us to help them. We've found a purpose and a framework for living. We are free from active addiction, and although that's NA's only promise, that freedom opens up in unimaginably beautiful ways.
