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
By the time we came to NA, our inner voices had become unreliable and self-destructive. Addiction had warped our desires, our interests, our sense of what was best for ourselves. That's why it's been so important in recovery to develop our belief in a Power greater than ourselves, something that could provide saner, more reliable guidance than our own. We've begun learning how to rely on this Power's care and to trust the inner direction it provides us.
As with all learning processes, it takes practice to "pray only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out." The selfish, ego-driven attitudes we developed in our addiction are not cast off overnight. Those attitudes may affect the way we pray. We may even find ourselves praying something like, "Relieve me of this character defect so I can look good."
The more straightforward we are about our own ideas and desires, the easier it will be to distinguish between our own will and our Higher Power's will. "Just for your information, God," we might pray, "here's what I want in this situation. Nonetheless, I ask that your will, not mine, be done." Once we do this, we are prepared to recognize and accept our Higher Power's guidance.
A Spiritual Principal a Day
Once we have been in recovery for a while, we discover that unmanageability can be caused by things other than the use of drugs. Some difficulties we face are the result of factors other than our disease. This can be especially frustrating after we put so much work into gaining freedom from our disease: developing the ability to make and keep plans, to set and achieve goals for ourselves. We were stuck in ruts for so long, and finally we are going somewhere!
And then complications arise. Someone cancels on us at the last minute. The bus is late. Money we were counting on doesn't come through on time. External complications are a fact of life, and they sometimes make our lives more difficult to manage. For people who are well versed in unmanageability, our tolerance for complications not of our own making can be surprisingly low sometimes. Acceptance and faith often go hand in hand, especially in these moments.
One real danger to our practice of faith comes when we obsess over complications. Rather than simply addressing an issue head-on, we are prone to begin thinking about it. And keep thinking about it--about precisely how much the complication is interfering with our plans. Self-centered obsession is familiar territory for us; what better place for us to go when things aren't going our way? A member shared, "I can have 99 things going right for me, but all I can think about is the one thing that isn't."
Sharing with other addicts can help us move from obsession back to faith. When our sponsor suggests a gratitude list, it's not about pretending that difficulties or hardships don't exist--it's about getting a better perspective. Taking a more objective look at our lives helps us reconnect with faith. Yes, something is going wrong. But in many other areas, our lives are going better than we ever could have managed on our own. We will be okay. In fact, we already are.
