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
Everyone has secrets, right? Some of us have little secrets, items that would cause only minor embarrassment if found out. Some of us have big secrets, whole areas of our lives cloaked in thick, murky darkness. Big secrets may represent a more obvious, immediate danger to our recovery. But the little secrets do their own kind of damage, the more insidious perhaps because we think they're "harmless."
Big or little, our secrets represent spiritual territory we are unwilling to surrender to the principles of recovery. The longer we reserve pieces of our lives to be ruled by self-will and the more vigorously we defend our "right" to hold onto them, the more damage we do. Gradually, the unsurrendered territories of our lives tend to expand, taking more and more ground.
Whether the secrets in our lives are big or little, sooner or later they bring us to the same place. We must choose--either we surrender everything to our program, or we will lose our recovery.
A Spiritual Principle a Day
Feelings of belonging don't often come easy for us addicts, though some of us faked it well. We were social chameleons who so often felt like imposters, masking insecurity with perfectionism and hiding our control issues behind allegedly high standards and attention to detail. For others of us, that game seemed like way too much work. We were too cool for all that. We prized our loner status. Or maybe we were just too high to care. Whatever our situation was, most of us have been on a difficult path to a sense of community and solidarity.
In meetings, we hear right away that our desire to get clean--no matter how desperately or indifferently we feel it--is our ticket to membership. We are also told--and shown by example--how important service is in solidifying our relationship to the Fellowship and in helping us to stay clean.
"Until I eventually took my sponsor's direction and took on a service commitment, I never felt like I was really a part of in NA," one member shared. "I never thought I wanted to be. All of a sudden, I had a voice. I started to use it, and people even listened."
"I took on five commitments in the first 30 days," a newer member shared. "I stayed clean, but I made everyone bananas with my brilliant ideas to make everything better. Soon I found out about 'group conscience'--which wasn't necessarily the same as my conscience. I always wanted to know why why why."
And someone with a lot of time shared, "After 33 years, I still find it hard to 'let go and let the group.'. . . I want to explain all the history of how we do things in NA. I may be older, but that doesn't always make me the wisest. Unfortunately!"
