Welcome to your first NA meeting. NA offers addicts a way to
live drug-free. If you are not
sure you’re an addict, don’t worry about it; just keep coming to
our meetings. You will have all
the time you need to make up your own mind.
If you are like many of us when we attended our first NA
meeting, you may be feeling pretty
nervous and think that everyone at the meeting is focusing on
you. If so, you are not the only
one. Many of us have felt the same way. It has been said, “If
your stomach’s all tied up in knots,
you’re probably in the right place.” We often say that no one
comes through the doors of NA by
mistake. Nonaddicted people don’t spend their time wondering if
they’re addicts. They don’t
even think about it. If you’re wondering whether or not you’re
an addict, you might be one. Just
allow yourself the time to listen to us share about what it has
been like for us. Perhaps you will
hear something that sounds familiar to you. It doesn’t matter
whether or not you have used the
same drugs others mention. It is not important which drugs you
used; you’re welcome here if
you want to stop using. Most addicts experience very similar
feelings, and it is in focusing on
our similarities, rather than our differences, that we are
helpful to one another.
You may be feeling hopeless and afraid. You may think that this
program, like other things
you have tried, will not work. Or you may think that it will
work for someone else but not for
you because you feel you are different than us. Most of us felt
like that when we first came to
NA. Somehow we knew that we couldn’t go on using drugs, but we
didn’t know how to stop or
stay clean. We were all afraid to let go of something that had
become so important to us. It is a
relief to discover that the only requirement for membership in
NA is a
to stop using.
At first, most of us were mistrustful and fearful of trying a
new way of doing things. About
the only thing we were sure of was that our old ways were not
working at all. Even after getting
clean, things didn’t change right away. Often, even our usual
activities, such as driving a car or
using the telephone, seemed frightening and strange, as if we
had become someone we didn’t
recognize. This is where the fellowship and support of other
clean addicts really helps, and we
begin to rely on others for the reassurance we so desperately
need.
You may already be thinking: “Yes, but” or “What if?” However,
even if you have doubts,
you can use these simple suggestions for starters: Attend as
many NA meetings as you can and
collect a list of NA phone numbers to use regularly, especially
when the urge for drugs is strong.
The temptation is not restricted to the days and hours where
meetings occur. We are clean
today because we reached out for help. What helped us can help
you. So don’t be afraid to call
another recovering addict.
The only way to keep from returning to active addiction is not
to take that first drug. The
most natural thing for an addict to do is to use drugs. In order
for most of us to abstain from
using mood-altering, mind-changing chemicals, we have had to
undergo drastic changes
physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The Twelve
Steps of NA offer us a way to
change. As someone said: “You can probably get clean by just
coming to meetings. However, if
you want to stay clean and experience recovery, you will need to
practice the Twelve Steps.”
This is more than we can do alone. In the NA Fellowship, we
support one another in our efforts
to learn and practice a new way of living that keeps us healthy
and drug-free.
At your first meeting, you will meet people with various lengths
of clean time. You may
wonder how they could remain clean for that period of time. If
you keep coming to NA
meetings and stay clean, you will come to understand how it
works. There is a mutual respect
and caring among clean addicts because we’ve all had to overcome
the misery of addiction. We
love and support each other in our recovery. The program of NA
is comprised of spiritual
principles that we have found help us to remain clean. Nothing
will be demanded of you, but
you will receive many suggestions. This fellowship provides the
opportunity for us to give you
what we have found: a clean way of living. We know that we have
to “give it away in order to
keep it.”
So, welcome! We are glad that you have made it here, and hope
that you decide to stay. It is
important for you to know that you will hear God mentioned at NA
meetings. What we are
referring to is a Power greater than ourselves that makes
possible what seems impossible. We
found that Power here, in NA, in the program, in the meetings,
and in the people. This is the
spiritual principle that has worked for us to live drug-free a
day at a time; and whenever a day
is too long, then five minutes at a time. We can do together
what we could not do alone. We
invite you to use our strength and our hope until you have found
some of your own. There will
come a time when you too may want to share with someone else
what has been freely given to
you.
