NA meetings or narcotics anonymous meetings are a great way to help a person stay sober. Being part of the 12-step community and working the program is an excellent alternative to rehab if you are unable to afford it. Narcotics Anonymous works best when your community has a good mixture of people with time sober and newcomers to the support group.
This mixture of time sober works best because it is the “old timers” that lead the newcomers in their newly found sobriety. The peer group focuses on the premise of service and helping a fellow addict to become sober. There can seem to be a lot of leg work involved in this type of rehabilitation, but it is worth it, especially if you are out there, can work a program, and participate in other self-growth activities such as therapy for underlying issues.
How do NA Meetings Work
NA meetings in Levittown PA are like AA meetings in Levittown PA. They are different formats. The premise of the program focuses on the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some meetings will focus on speakers sharing their story, some will have a topic form AA literature to discuss, some are open to women or men only, some will be set up like workshops, and some will focus on readings from the big book.
This is a 12-step program, which means that there are 12 basic steps that people work through to “work the program.” Here are the steps:
- Admit that you are powerless over your substance of choice
- Believe that a power greater than yourself can help you get better
- Turn your will to use over to a higher power
- Create a moral inventory of yourself
- Admit the exact nature of your wrongs
- Be ready to let your higher power remove your defects
- Ask your higher power to remove your defects
- Make a list of the people you have harmed and make amends
- Continue to take inventory and admit wrongs
- Seek your higher power and improve conscious contact through prayer and meditation; praying for knowledge and the ability to carry on in life as your higher power would see fit
- After going through the first 11 steps work with other addicts to carry the message, and practice the principles daily
While this may sound scary and in the big book, they do use the word, God. Your higher power does not need to be God, as you may have been taught at one point in your life. Your higher power can be anything you choose it to be. If you want your higher power to be a chair, then it’s a chair, it can be a movie star, anything so long as it is not you. The idea is that your brain does not make good decisions around substances, so you need to allow that decision to be made by something else.
Also, when you go into your first NA meeting, people will great you, and you will probably get a lot of phone numbers. That is part of the helping. Other members want to help you stay sober. You can call these people whenever you feel like using again, and they can help you not to use. You will go to some more meetings and meet people, and then you will probably start looking for a sponsor. Your Sponsor is the person that will help you work through the steps.
As you go to more meetings, you will pick a group that you like to go to every week and assume a job. You can make coffee, or greet people a the door, stack chairs when the meeting is over, etc. Meetings are free with a suggested donation, and volunteers are needed to make sure everything goes well.
Does It Work?
People that regularly attend NA meetings are more likely to abstain from using than those that don’t. A 12-Step program is a program of serious self-analysis, critique, and learning, this is not an easy program, and you are never technically done with it. If you have a co-occurring condition, it is highly recommended that you participate in professional counseling in addition to a 12-step program.
Some co-occurring disorders are:
- Depression
- Schizophrenia
- Bipolar
- PTSD
- Borderline Personality Disorder
There is no one size fits all for solution for people addicted to substances. When you are newly sober, it is a good idea o try a smattering of things and see what sticks. Residential rehabs are great places to do this since you they remove you from the possibility of using.
Where Are NA Meetings?
There are NA meetings all over the world and online. If you cannot find any NA meetings in your area, you can try to go to some AA meetings. Some Alcoholics Anonymous participants are accepting of people that need NA, and some are not. As time passes, people are becoming less rigid, but you will have to feel your community out. If there are no in-person NA meetings for you to attend, or there are not enough, there are online solutions. There is one large online group called in the rooms that offers AA meetings almost every hour and NA meetings multiple times a day.
Do not fret; there is a solution out there for you whether it be rehab, counseling, NA meetings, or any combination. Steps to Recovery in Pennsylvania is here to help you find NA meetings close to you; we can also work with you on finding counseling and other resources you may need to get and stay sober. Call us at 267.719.8528 today to find out more.
