About Narcotics Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous is a community of people who support each other to achieve and maintain a drug free life. The only requirement for participation in NA is a desire to stop using drugs. There are no membership fees, and each group is self supporting. NA is not allied with any religion, institution or other organisation. NA exists solely so that its members can support each other to stay drug free and to help others achieve and maintain a drug free recovery and lifestyle.
In NA we are not concerned about what drugs people may have used, what they have done in the past or what their personal status might be, we are only interested in what they want to do to change their life and how we can help. Addiction cuts across all segments of society and age groups and affects people in differing ways. In the beginning many who come to our meetings think they are different and will not belong, but on attending meetings and hearing others talk about their experiences they often realise how similar these are to their own.
NA is currently referred to in the UK as a Mutual Aid organisation, NA helps addicts to stop taking drugs, get well and change the quality of their lives. We mutually help each other, we consider those that are new to NA to be the most important people in our meetings because we have learnt that helping others is a gift that reinforces our motivation and desire to stay drug free.
NA offers support for life – it is a community of people who have overcome their drug problem, and who are freely available to help those who also have the desire to live life drug free. It costs nothing to be a NA member, you are a member of NA when you say you are, there are no waiting lists for NA if people want to attend a meeting they just need to show up. Prior to the Covid outbreak there were about 1,250 NA meetings taking place each week throughout England, Scotland and Wales. In the absence of physical meetings we now have over 800 online, UK based, meetings a week.
Public Health England has issued guidelines recognising the benefits of mutual aid groups – stating it is essential that “all keyworkers support their clients to access mutual aid by delivering the structured Facilitated Access to Mutual Aid (FAMA) approach", see link to PHE publications below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mutual-aid-toolkit-for-alcohol-and-drug-misuse-treatment
For a current list of online NA meetings please go to:
Local Meetings in West Country
If you work with addicts and want to learn more about Narcotics Anonymous and what we do please email us at: pi@westcountry.ukna.org