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
Most of us come to Narcotics Anonymous with a variety of preconceptions about what the word "God" means, many of them negative. Yet the "G" word is used very regularly in NA, if not constantly. It occurs 92 times in the first 102 pages of our Basic Text, and appears prominently in a third of our Twelve Steps. Rather than sidestep the sensitivity many of us feel toward the word, let's address it head on.
It's true that Narcotics Anonymous is a spiritual program. Our Twelve Steps offer a way to find freedom from addiction through the help of a spiritual Power greater than we are. The program, however, doesn't tell us anything about what we have to think about that Power. In fact, over and over again, in our literature and our meetings, we hear it said, "the God of our understanding"--whatever that understanding may be.
We use the word "God" because it's used in our Basic Text and because it communicates most effectively to most people a basic understanding of the Power underlying our recovery. The word, we use for the sake of convenience. The Power behind the word, however, we use for more than convenience. We use that Power to maintain our freedom from addiction and to ensure our ongoing recovery.
A Spiritual Principle a Day
What bound our predecessors together in NA's early days is what connects us today: It's our identification as addicts through the common lens of the disease of addiction and our desire to get clean. That commonality alone means we belong here and with each other--despite what or how much we used, the specifics of our stories and experiences, and what makes us different as people. One of NA's gifts, we hear members say over and over again, is having relationships with people whom we very likely would never even have met, let alone connected with, outside the rooms.
NA's success as a Fellowship since its inception has hinged on this fact: Our best hope for recovery from addiction is banding together to help each other. Our common welfare--the health and well-being of our groups and NA as a whole--underpins our personal recovery. That includes every member of this Fellowship, past and present. Even our future members depend on the "we" of NA. Though we may approach them in a variety of ways, it's no accident that eleven of the Twelve Steps start with the word "We."
But "we" isn't just a concept. Like all principles, its practical application is what makes it spiritual. When we identify, we connect. When we share our true selves, that connection deepens. When we help each other and accept help, we stay connected. Above all, practicing "we" is fulfilling our primary purpose of carrying the message of recovery to the still-suffering addict.
