Welcome to the Northwest Area of Narcotics Anonymous! We are a community of individuals who have come together to support one another in our journey of recovery from addiction. Our doors are open to anyone seeking a safe and supportive environment to begin or continue their path of recovery. We invite you to explore our website and learn more about the resources and events we offer. Together, we can overcome the challenges of addiction and find the strength to live a fulfilling, drug-free life.
When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a human being, 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.
Narcotics Anonymous (N.A.) 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. We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.
December 31, 2025 |
Being of Service |
| Page 381 |
| "Working with others is only the beginning of service work." |
| Basic Text, p. 59 |
| We're in recovery now. Through living the program, we've attained some stability in our lives. Our faith in a Higher Power has grown. Our individual spiritual awakening is progressing comfortably. So now what? Do we simply sit still and enjoy? Of course not. We find a way to be of service. We tend to think of service only in terms of committee service or holding a position at some level, but service goes far beyond this understanding. In fact, we can find opportunities to be of service in nearly every area of our lives. Our jobs are a form of service to our communities, no matter what our occupation. The work we do in our homes serves our families. Perhaps we do volunteer work in our communities. What a difference our service efforts make! If we doubt this, we can just imagine what the world would be like if no one bothered to be of service to others. Our work serves humanity. The message we carry goes beyond the rooms of recovery, affecting everything we do. |
| Just for Today: I will look for opportunities to be of service in everything I do. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
December 31, 2025 |
The Compassion of Tradition Three |
| Page 377 |
| "We reach out where we can, and make an effort to increase our compassion for those who don't match our expectations or whose recovery doesn't look like our own." |
| Guiding Principles, Tradition Three, "For Members" |
| In a program where the only requirement for membership is the desire to stop using, it logically follows that there are myriad ways to work the program of Narcotics Anonymous. What doesn't necessarily follow that same logic is the fact that we addicts in recovery can lose our patience--or have none to start with--for addicts whose program differs from our own. For a bunch of nonconformists, we can sure be rigid. We certainly can have plenty of opinions about what works and doesn't work: how and when we work Steps, how we sponsor, what service looks like, to hug or not to hug, to medicate or not to medicate. These are the opinions of individual members, not NA's. Our passion about these opinions comes from our passion for recovery. We know what is working for us and what we see work for others. Yet there are times when we'd do well to infuse that passion for our experience with compassion for others who don't "get it" the way we expect they should. When we keep an open mind about the varied ways that members recover from addiction, we are honoring Tradition Three. When we become earnest in our desire to reach out to other members who are different from us, we are practicing compassion. If there's any logic here, that openness will make us more patient with newcomers because we know that everyone walks a different path. Who knows? We might even learn something. Translated literally from its Latin roots, compassion means "suffering together." While some may take issue with "suffering" defining what we're doing together in NA, there's one thing that we can agree on: We are in this thing together. |
| I am passionate about what has worked for my own recovery, but I will try to remain open-minded toward others whose paths look different from mine. Today I strive to release any expectations I have that they should recover the same way I do. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
