NA was founded in 1953, and our membership growth was minimal during our initial twenty years as an organization. Since the publication of our Basic Text in 1983, the number of members and meetings has increased dramatically. Today, NA members hold nearly 76,000 meetings weekly in 143 countries. We offer recovery from the effects of addiction through working a twelve-step program, including regular attendance at group meetings.
The group atmosphere provides help from peers and offers an ongoing support network for addicts who wish to pursue and maintain a drug-free lifestyle. Our name, Narcotics Anonymous, is not meant to imply a focus on any particular drug; NA’s approach makes no distinction between drugs, including alcohol.
Membership is free, and we have no affiliation with any organizations outside of NA including governments, religions, law enforcement groups, or medical and psychiatric associations. Through all of our service efforts and our cooperation with others seeking to help addicts, we strive to reach a day when every addict in the world has an opportunity to experience our message of recovery in their own language and culture.
For more information about our program, we invite you to review some of the items below:
An Introduction to NA Meetings: Offers a welcoming introduction, and explains practices unfamiliar to those at their first meetings, and provides tips for groups to preserve an atmosphere of recovery.
NA: A Resource In Your Community: This pamphlet provides information about local NA services that may be available such as public service announcements, phonelines, literature sales, and NA presentations for health fairs, schools and professional conferences.
In Times of Illness: This relied-upon booklet was recently revised to reflect members’ experiences with challenges such as mental health issues, chronic illness and pain, and supporting members with illnesses. It includes section summaries in the table of contents.
For Those In Treatment: In this pamphlet, we offer some suggestions and a basic plan of action to help recovering addicts in the transition from treatment, to continuing recovery in Narcotics Anonymous.
By Young Addicts, For Young Addicts: This pamphlet was developed by young members of Narcotics Anonymous to illustrate the fact that young addicts around the world, speaking many different languages, are getting and staying clean in NA.
