A Generous Program: Narcotics Anonymous Program

Upon entering the NA meeting I had mixed feelings. I didn’t know how to come to the meeting knowing my intentions were neither to give nor receive help. I felt like I was an intruder. I didn’t understand why I should betray others or act as if I was an addict who chose not to interact in the healing and recovering process. All of those things pushed me into the door of a meeting and open my mind to the hurt behind the physical appearance of these people. Their stories were heart wrenching. They all wanted help or do be noticed at some point of their lives before they became addicts. Never knowing the decisions they chose to take that first hit would turn their

The Narcotics Anonymous meeting which I attended was named 7 Days of NA which was located on 1212 North Wolfe Street at an organization called Dee’s Place. Just as the Alcoholic Anonymous meeting previously attended, the location appeared to be in a covert and quiet place to hold a support group. We entered through the rear entrance, which seemed to be staged that way to secure participants identity. As before at the last support group I attended, I searched around the room to see again, a 12 steps guide posted on the wall, a relatively thick NA ‘Basic Text’ textbook on the desk of the facilitator and this

For the self-help meeting in regards for my reaction paper, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting. NA is a nonprofit, community-based, 12-step recovery organization for recovering drug addicts (Bowens, 2011, p. 1). The meeting I attended took place outside on a Saturday afternoon at Magnolia Park in Garden Grove, California. It is an open-group tag meeting, where one speaker will tag another person to share and welcome for anyone to attend. It was very easy to locate the meeting, as it was right in front of the park’s only parking lot with members sitting in a circle on benches and lawn chairs. The meeting started at 12:00pm and ended around 1:30pm.

“It is the mission of the Southwest Metro Drug Task Force to provide a comprehensive and multi-jurisdictional effort to reduce drug trafficking and its harmful consequences and to provide effective drug awareness education through the coordination and resource sharing of its participating agencies.”

Narcotics Anonymous is a support group using the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous but designed for individuals addicted to narcotics (Fortinash & Holoday Worret, 2012). The programs emphasize both personal responsibility and mutual accountability by means of a social model recovery program which is peer-driven. Recovery Kentucky utilizes care and change as their foundation for the peer-driven model. Participants are often reminded the program is not just a pit stop for drug and alcohol use but a commitment to change the whole body, mind and spirit. They are required to attend community meetings and complete a twelve step program where the client will acknowledge the problem, recognize a solution and develop a plan of action that will support the ultimate goal of sobriety (MIC Program Description, n.d.).

Narcotics Anonymous is a group that has taught me many values. They have twelve values, twelve traditions, and twelve steps. As a group we learn to accept all of the above for

Imagine that you are the pilot of a plane traveling to a new and exciting destination. Early in the journey the plane takes off and soars high into the sky where you feel like you are on top of the world, looking down from above at all of the beauty underneath you. On the way to your destination you are anxious and full of excitement in anticipation of the new journey that you are about to experience when all of the sudden your plane starts to shake and you find yourself losing control. At this point you have two options: You can try to change course to regain control and make it through the turbulence or you can continue with what you are doing and let the plane spiral to the ground in a firey crash. This scenario is similar to the life

Last night, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. This was not quite a new experience for me, be my late father was an alcoholic and narcotics addict that died of cirrhosis later on in my life this is why I identified myself with them. Narcotics Anonymous is a fraternity or association where there a recuperating addicts and their main purpose is stay clean. Consequently, the member of this fraternity were well-groomed, yesterday was ice cream sticks day where they had a keyword written on a little piece of paper, such as “perseverance”. Anyone can be a narcotics or alcohol user.

But things changed. I remember my life became such turmoil that I no longer wanted to continue living it. I realized that I was trapped within my addiction. I began to believe there had to be more, but what? I began going to Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings to try and escape the dead end life I was living. They did not talk about a God but about a Higher Power. I went to these meetings every night for 90 days. The longer I was without drugs the clearer my mind became but my life remained empty. I began to see a therapist and a psychiatrist. I was told I had major depression and was treated with medication and weekly therapy sessions. The depression improved but again not the emptiness or my bleak outlook on life. An NA friend invited me to her church. I thought it was silly and useless but she was so insistent and I cared for her so I went. When I walked into the church it was loud and the music pounded from the drums and caught up with my heart. People hugged me and welcomed me as a visitor. Everyone seemed so happy. I felt warmth in my chest and I felt light like I was floating and even though I did not believe in God when I walked into the church I realized he was there. I felt

The Narcotics Anonymous meetings I attended were held in community centers, the meeting formats were the same, the environments were clean however sterile concerning anything on the walls that referenced N.A. In the back of the room, a portable table was setup for literature, and coffee and tea. The seating arrangement was a huge circle; about 25-30 individuals attended each meeting. The members were all ages and from all socio-economic status’. They were welcoming, friendly, and everyone hugged everyone! Initially, I thought it maybe it was just the culture of Central Texas (as I am new here), conversely, in my research I came to understand that this is part of the DNA of N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous, 1992).

Through my observations of the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I believe that my analysis could be beneficial to the realm of medicine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) released a study that displayed, “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” Considering the mass amount of prescriptions being written nationwide, it is not surprising that one of the members in the NA meeting I attended was able to easily obtain painkillers from her doctor. The specific interaction I encountered during the Narcotics Anonymous meeting where the woman described that her addiction was being supported by the constant prescriptions written by her doctor

The first thing I noticed was how small the room was; more than two dozen chairs were lined up against all the walls of the room and in the center was a special table with a microphone on top of it. The meeting I went to was a speaker meeting, which meant one individual told his story of his life and how he came to be in AA. So sitting there in the centered table was the speaker. I made sure to not make eye contact as my eyes roamed to inspect the room. I felt a little tense, but then realized no one else did. At the moment I thought of how devastating what these people were going through was. I suddenly felt a pang of sadness as I scanned the room and noticed how completely ordinary the individuals in the room

The first meeting that I attended was a Narcotic Anonymous meeting. The meeting time was 7pm-8pm on September 13, 2016. The group was made up of 12 individuals, 4 females and 8 males. The overall feeling of the group illustrated positive energy. Each person gave the perception that they truly wanted as well as needed to be there. I did observe that most of the participants depicted a very high anxiety level based on their body language and the tone in their voices. There were no “new comers”, which is the terminology used for a person who is new to the world of Narcotic Anonymous. The dynamics of the group, included persons who were in recovery as well as persons whose addiction is still active.

The group that I attended was a Narcotics Anonymous (NA). The meeting was held at the VA, every Monday at 6pm. The meeting was free and open to the public. The meeting lasted for 1 hour. There was a time limit. As we approached the end of the hour the leader announced it and said that if there were any last thoughts before the meeting ended. This gave me the impression that they stick to their time limit.

I abused narcotics and barbiturates for the better part of 15 years. I initially liked the way the drugs made me feel. Toward the end of my use, however, everything had changed. I was hopelessly addicted. I lived in terror of being caught, thinking that I was maybe one of two or three doctors in the entire country with such a shameful problem. I went to bed every night vowing not to use tomorrow, but I always did. I despised myself for my lack of willpower and for not being able to control my drug use. Friends, family, and colleagues commented upon my unpredictable mood swings, bizarre behavior, and fits of anger..Finally, the day came when I reached bottom. I had been removed from my job, my family life was in shambles, and I felt that my