Went to My First NA Meeting
 

I just got back from my first NA meeting. I introduced myself to everyone and shared a little about myself. I listened to everything and tried my best but honestlIy I'm not sure if I got anything out of it. I was craving pretty bad before the meeting and I'm still craving pretty bad even though so far I have managed to hold off. I know it's not a magic bullet and I need to keep going back I guess I just hoped that it would help with the cravings a little bit more ya know?

I got a few numbers and names and I might make some calls if I start getting close to using again. I also plan to look for another meeting tomorrow but what I really feel like I need is strategies for dealing with cravings and for recovery in general and I'm not sure I will get that from NA. Am I doing something wrong or does anybody have any insight on what else I can do to get more out of the meetings?

Welcome to the program of recovery. Big step. Life changing. FABULOUS.
My cravings didn't leave right away and it was really hard to stay clean but that is normal. Can't do something for years and expect it to be different in days.
Keep going back. An oldtimer said at a meeting yesterday "Bring the body and the mind will follow"

Hey i have quite a few friends in NA and i am in AA, the steps are the same and the quicker you get back into the room and look around for a sponsor, who will be someone who you like the look of, like the sound of, has a decent length off sobriety and has worked the steps themselves the quicker you can get on with the necessary work you need to do in order to remove the mental obsesssion. You want to buy yourself a NA Big Book at the next meeting and start reading through it asap. Keep going to meetings and start and continue to work the program it really is that simple to all that you want and are looking for...

All the above has worked for me and the results have been what you want and a huuuuge amount more...different life...you can have it to...or not, up to you?!

All that sounds familiar. I recall times when I was new in the fellowship that I would get really upset at meetings because people would talk about things that I didn't think was important. I just wanted someone to tell me how to keep from drinking. Eventually it all made sense and I realized they were teaching me how to live in a sane way and therefore I would not need to drink every time I did not feel right.

Keep going back, listen, learn, apply. It doesn't happen overnight.

skroomadoom glad you made it to a meeting, keep on going to meetings, as others have said it does start to make sense and you will begin to get stuff out of it.

Find some one you get along with and for now ask if they will be your temporary sponsor. That is what I did because I had no real idea what some of the things being said in many of my early meetings, so I had him to ask questions of.

It took me about a month or so of meetings every day before I started to grasp the majority of what was being said. This was due to a combination of the fog in my head from 40 years of drinking beginning to clear, the questions I had being answered by my sponsor, and beginning to grasp some new terms and concepts I had no understanding of at all. I feel this is one reason why people who have at least temporary sponsors & go to a lot of meetings stand a better chance at long term sobriety.