"My gratitude speaks...
When I care and
When I share with others
The N.A. way." "We keep what we have only with vigilance, and just as freedom for the individual comes from the Twelve Steps, so freedom for the group springs from our Traditions.
As long as the ties that bind us together are stronger than those that would tear us apart, all will be well."
" The Twelve Traditions of N.A. are not negotiable. They are the guidelines that keep our fellowship alive and free."
I know that our answers are in the traditions.
The 12 Traditions of narcotics anonymous
I think what causes the alarms that go off for me is that you are the moderator and this particular forum is very special to me. I'm having a difficult time not feeling threatened by past experience's where I've seen NA meetings that get so mixed up, I'm not sure whether we are going to read from the Basic Text, the Big Book, the Bible or the Koran, or Ask Heloise. The result has been disheartening. Before NA addicts died with nary a chance to find their way home. Some found a God of their understanding and managed to recover their life. Some found their way to AA and were able to identify. Jimmy K and some others got together (addicts weren't supposed to associate.. it was a felony at the time ) and figured out that the steps of AA might work for others if they played down the God thing and could talk about the nature of addiction. I sure am grateful they did.
Pernell maybe I would feel more comfortable if I knew your story. I need for all of us to be accountable to the newcomer and when we share an implied Narcotics Anonymous message, do our best not to blur it or add to it what has worked for us that we heard somewhere else. (Outside contibutions mean more than $$)
I'm certainly open to the possibility of appearing antagonistic. Did appearing defensive and protective of the Narcotics Anonymous program also occur? I am not dually diagnosed . (Many years before "getting it" I was asked to lie and call myself an alcoholic so I could get a slot in a treatment center. I felt prostituted. How would you have felt if they had asked you to deny your family to receive treatment?) I don't have dual citizenship. I am a member of Narcotics Anonymous. I am an addict. In identifying myself as an addict I also identify myself as having a strong conviction in the belief that there is only one disease.. Addiction. Whether I smoked, snorted, shot, drank, or sat upon fill in the blank to satisfy my obsessive, compulsiveness I found my way to Narcotics Anonymous and learned how to work
THE program. not my program .. my program got me to denial,depression, desperation, and degradation.
I don't think I have a patent on recovery. I know that there are many who have found other ways to recovery. I have the utmost respect for the AA program as it illuminated the path to recovery for the addicts who could not relate or were shunned in that fellowship. If and when I do attend AA meeting's to honor my friends who get their recovery there, if I speak I identify myself as an alcoholic out of respect for their traditions. When I am in that house I feel a welcome guest. It wasn't alwasy that way. Things have changed. There are AA members who feel the same and when they come to NA meetings they respect the traditions of NA and identify themselves as addicts. Since we can only keep what we have by giving it away, its been pointed out that I better give away what I have learned works and is time proven.
I am open, objective, and willing or I would not have conferred before posting last night. I spoke to other addicts on the phone and online. I do not attack your credibility or your recovery. I do not disagree with the nature of the topic. Before I posted here I checked the other boards to see if this was being simultaneously posted on AA.
I and others are curious to see where this is going. Perhaps I am being overprotective of the message, but I am a product of those I admire most who have years of hard earned experience, working the 12 steps of Narcotics Anonymous, and one point they have driven home is that the unity found in the Narcotics Anonymous message must be preserved and respected.
from what is the NA program:
"N.A. is a non-profit 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. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only ONE requirement for membership, the desire to stop using. We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing about them is that THEY WORK.
There are no strings attached to N.A. We are not affiliated with any other organizations, we have no initiation fees or dues, no pledges to sign, no promises to make to anyone. We are not connected with any Political, religious or law enforcement groups, and are under no surveillance at any time. Anyone may join us, regardless of age, race, sexual identity, creed, religion or lack of religion.
We are not interested in what or how much you used or who your connections were, what you have done in the past, how much or how little you have, but only in what you want to do about your problem and how we can help. The newcomer is the most important person at any meeting, because we can only keep what we have by giving it away. We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean."