➡ VISION: We do not acknowledge clean time
except that we are clean Just for Today. We
strongly encourage everyone to work the Twelve
Steps. We offer medallions only to those who have
completed the twelfth step. You must have an NA
sponsor present you with this medallion.
➡ We now present to you the Little White Book:
➡ SERENITY PRAYER
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I
cannot change, the courage to change the things I
can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
➡ WHO IS AN ADDICT?
Most of us do not have to think twice about this
question. We know! Our whole life and thinking
was centered in drugs in one form or another—
the getting and using and finding ways and means
to get more. We lived to use and used to live. Very
simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is
controlled by drugs. We are people in the grip of a
continuing and progressive illness whose ends are
always the same: jails, institutions, and death.
➡ WHAT IS THE NA PROGRAM?
NA is a nonprofit 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 NA. 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.
➡ WHY ARE WE HERE?
Before coming to the fellowship of NA, we could
not manage our own lives. We could not live and
enjoy life as other people do. We had to have
something different and we thought we had found
it in drugs. We placed their use ahead of the
welfare of our families, our wives, husbands, and
our children. We had to have drugs at all costs. We
did many people great harm, but most of all we
harmed ourselves.
➡ Through our inability to accept personal
responsibilities we were actually creating our own
problems. We seemed to be incapable of facing
life on its own terms.
➡ Most of us realized that in our addiction we
were slowly committing suicide, but addiction is
such a cunning enemy of life that we had lost the
power to do anything about it. Many of us ended
up in jail, or sought help through medicine,
religion, and psychiatry. None of these methods
was sufficient for us. Our disease always
resurfaced or continued to progress until, in
desperation, we sought help from each other in
Narcotics Anonymous.
➡ After coming to NA we realized we were sick
people. We suffered from a disease from which
there is no known cure. It can, however, be
arrested at some point, and recovery is then
possible.
➡ HOW IT WORKS
If you want what we have to offer, and are willing
to make the effort to get it, then you are ready to
take certain steps. These are the principles that
made our recovery possible.
➡ 1. We admitted that we were powerless over
our addiction, that our lives had become
unmanageable.
➡ 2. We came to believe that a Power greater
than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
➡ 3. We made a decision to turn our will and our
lives over to the care of God as we understood
Him.
➡ 4. We made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves.
➡ 5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to
another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
➡ 6. We were entirely ready to have God remove
all these defects of character.
➡ 7. We humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings.
➡ 8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed,
and became willing to make amends to them all.
➡ 9. We made direct amends to such people
wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
➡ 10. We continued to take personal inventory
and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
➡ 11. We sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His
will for us and the power to carry that out.
➡ 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result
of these steps, we tried to carry this message to
addicts, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
➡ This sounds like a big order, and we can’t do it
all at once. We didn’t become addicted in one day,
so remember—easy does it.
➡ There is one thing more than anything else that
will defeat us in our recovery; this is an attitude of
indifference or intolerance toward spiritual
principles.
➡ Three of these that are indispensable are
honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness. With
these we are well on our way.
➡ We feel that our approach to the disease of
addiction is completely realistic, for the
therapeutic value of one addict helping another is
without parallel.
➡ We feel that our way is practical, for one addict
can best understand and help another addict. We
believe that the sooner we face our problems
within our society, in everyday living, just that
much faster do we become acceptable,
responsible, and productive members of that
society.
➡ The only way to keep from returning to active
addiction is not to take that first drug. If you are
like us you know that one is too many and a
thousand never enough. We put great emphasis
on this, for we know that when we use drugs in
any form, or substitute one for another, we
release our addiction all over again.
➡ Thinking of alcohol as different from other
drugs has caused a great many addicts to relapse.
Before we came to NA, many of us viewed alcohol
separately, but we cannot afford to be confused
about this.
➡ Alcohol is a drug. We are people with the
disease of addiction who must abstain from all
drugs in order to recover.
➡ WHAT CAN I DO?
Begin your own program by taking Step One from
the previous chapter, “How It Works.” When we
fully concede to our innermost selves that we are
powerless over our addiction, we have taken a big
step in our recovery.
➡ Many of us have had some reservations at this
point, so give yourself a break and be as thorough
as possible from the start. Go on to Step Two, and
so forth, and as you go on you will come to an
understanding of the program for yourself.
➡ If you are in an institution of any kind and have
stopped using for the present, you can, with a
clear mind, try this way of life.
➡ Upon release, continue your daily program and
contact a member of NA. Do this by mail, by
phone, or in person. Better yet, come to our
meetings. Here you will find answers to some of
the things that may be disturbing you now.
➡ If you are not in an institution, the same holds
true. Stop using for today. Most of us can do for
eight or twelve hours what seems impossible for a
longer period of time. If the obsession or
compulsion becomes too great, put yourself on a
five-minute basis of not using. Minutes will grow
to hours, and hours to days, so you will break the
habit and gain some peace of mind.
➡ The real miracle happens when you realize that
the need for drugs has in some way been lifted
from you. You have stopped using and started to
live.
➡ THE TWELVE TRADITIONS of NA
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.
➡ 1. Our common welfare should come first;
personal recovery depends on NA unity.
➡ 2. For our group purpose there is but one
ultimate authority—a loving God as He may
express Himself in our group conscience. Our
leaders are but trusted servants; they do not
govern.
➡ 3. The only requirement for membership is a
desire to stop using.
➡ 4. Each group should be autonomous except in
matters affecting other groups or NA as a whole.
➡ 5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to
carry the message to the addict who still suffers.
➡ 6. An NA group ought never endorse, finance,
or lend the NA name to any related facility or
outside enterprise, lest problems of money,
property, or prestige divert us from our primary
purpose.
➡ 7. Every NA group ought to be fully selfsupporting,
declining outside contributions.
➡ 8. Narcotics Anonymous should remain forever
nonprofessional, but our service centers may
employ special workers.
➡ 9. NA, as such, ought never be organized, but
we may create service boards or committees
directly responsible to those they serve.
➡ 10. Narcotics Anonymous has no opinion on
outside issues; hence the NA name ought never
be drawn into public controversy.
➡ 11. Our public relations policy is based on
attraction rather than promotion; we need always
maintain personal anonymity at the level of press,
radio, and films.
➡ 12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all
our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities.
➡ RECOVERY AND RELAPSE
Many people think that recovery is simply a
matter of not using drugs. They consider a relapse
a sign of complete failure, and long periods of
abstinence a sign of complete success.
➡ We in the recovery program of Narcotics
Anonymous have found that this perception is too
simplistic. After a member has had some
involvement in our fellowship, a relapse may be
the jarring experience that brings about a more
rigorous application of the program.
➡ By the same token we have observed some
members who remain abstinent for long periods
of time whose dishonesty and self-deceit still
prevent them from enjoying complete recovery
and acceptance within society.
➡ Complete and continuous abstinence, however,
in close association and identification with others
in NA groups, is still the best ground for growth.
➡ Although all addicts are basically the same in
kind, we do, as individuals, differ in degree of
sickness and rate of recovery. There may be times
when a relapse lays the groundwork for complete
freedom. At other times that freedom can only be
achieved by a grim and obstinate willfulness to
hang on to abstinence, come hell or high water,
until a crisis passes.
➡ An addict who by any means can lose, even for
a time, the need or desire to use, and has free
choice over impulsive thinking and compulsive
action, has reached a turning point that may be
the decisive factor in his recovery. The feeling of
true independence and freedom hangs here at
times in the balance.
➡ To step out alone and run our own lives again
draws us, yet we seem to know that what we have
has come from dependence on a Power greater
than ourselves and from the giving and receiving
of help from others in acts of empathy.
➡ Many times in our recovery the old bugaboos
will haunt us. Life may again become meaningless,
monotonous, and boring. We may tire mentally in
repeating our new ideas and tire physically in our
new activities, yet we know that if we fail to
repeat them we will surely take up our old
practices.
➡ We suspect that if we do not use what we have,
we will lose what we have. These times are often
the periods of our greatest growth. Our minds and
bodies seem tired of it all, yet the dynamic forces
of change or true conversion, deep within, may be
working to give us the answers that alter our inner
motivations and change our lives.
➡ Recovery as experienced through our Twelve
Steps is our goal, not mere physical abstinence. To
improve ourselves takes effort, and since there is
no way in the world to graft a new idea on a
closed mind, an opening must be made somehow.
➡ Since we can do this only for ourselves, we
need to recognize two of our seemingly inherent
enemies, apathy and procrastination. Our
resistance to change seems built in, and only a
nuclear blast of some kind will bring about any
alteration or initiate another course of action.
➡ A relapse, if we survive it, may provide the
charge for the demolition process. A relapse and
sometimes subsequent death of someone close to
us can do the job of awakening us to the necessity
for vigorous personal action.
➡ JUST FOR TODAY
Tell yourself: Just for today, my thoughts will be on
my recovery, living and enjoying life without the
use of drugs.
➡ Just for today, I will have faith in someone in NA
who believes in me and wants to help me in my
recovery.
➡ Just for today, I will have a program. I will try to
follow it to the best of my ability.
➡ Just for today, through NA, I will try to get a
better perspective on my life.
➡ Just for today, I will be unafraid. My thoughts
will be on my new associations, people who are
not using and who have found a new way of life.
So long as I follow that way, I have nothing to fear.
➡ WE DO RECOVER
Although “Politics makes strange bedfellows,” as
the old saying goes, addiction makes us one of a
kind. Our personal stories may vary in individual
pattern but in the end we all have the same thing
in common. This common illness or disorder is
addiction.
➡ We know well the two things that make up true
addiction: obsession and compulsion. Obsession—
that fixed idea that takes us back time and time
again to our particular drug, or some substitute, to
recapture the ease and comfort we once knew.
➡ Compulsion—once having started the process
with one fix, one pill, or one drink we cannot stop
through our own power of will. Because of our
physical sensitivity to drugs, we are completely in
the grip of a destructive power greater than
ourselves.
➡ When at the end of the road we find that we
can no longer function as human beings, either
with or without drugs, we all face the same
dilemma. What is there left to do? There seems to
be this alternative: either go on as best we can to
the bitter ends—jails, institutions, or death—or
find a new way to live.
➡ In years gone by, very few addicts ever had this
last choice. Those who are addicted today are
more fortunate. For the first time in man's entire
history, a simple way has been proving itself in the
lives of many addicts. It is available to us all. This is
a simple spiritual—not religious—program, known
as Narcotics Anonymous.
➡12 MINUTE MEDITATION:
Outside of Narcotics Anonymous, there are any number of different groups practicing meditation. Nearly all of these groups are connected with a particular religion or philosophy. An endorsement of any one of these methods would be a violation of our traditions and a restriction on the individual’s right to have a God of his understanding.
➡
In quiet moments of meditation, God’s will can become evident to us. Quieting the mind through meditation brings an inner peace that brings us into contact with the God within us. A basic premise of meditation is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain conscious contact unless our mind is still. The usual, never-ending succession of thoughts has to cease for progress to be made. So our preliminary practice is aimed at stilling the mind, and letting the thoughts that arise die a natural death. We leave our thoughts behind as the meditation part of the Eleventh Step becomes a reality for us.