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From: Richie
Category: Category 1
Date: 04 Dec 2001
Time: 17:12:24
Remote Name: ool-182c94c9.dyn.optonline.net
I DON’T BELIEVE IT FOLLOWS OUR TRADITIONS OR THE NA WAY OF THINKING TO TELL SOMEONE THEY ARE NOT WELCOME AT A RECOVERY MEETING, ALTHOUGH IF THEIR BEHAVIOR WARRANTS IT, THEY CAN BE ASKED TO LEAVE. IT CAN BE SIMPLIFIED LIKE THIS……IF A PERSON IS SO DISRUPTIVE THAT THEIR BEHAVIOR IS HINDERING OTHERS IN THE ROOM FROM HEARING THE NA MESSAGE OF RECOVERY, AND THEN THEY SHOULD BE ASKED TO BEHAVE IN A RESPONSIBLE, RESPECTFUL MANNER OR LEAVE.
THE CHAIRPERSON OR LEADER OF A MEETING should have experience, strength, and hope to share from regular attendance at Narcotics Anonymous meetings. This person is responsible for keeping the discussion moving smoothly. A meeting is two or more addicts gathered together to help each other stay clean. The key is ‘help each other’. The person leading the meeting is responsible for establishing an atmosphere of recovery. The atmosphere of recovery is protected by our Twelve Traditions. It should always be in the leader's mind that we are here for the specific purpose of staying clean and helping other addicts to find recovery from addiction. Our basic states ” We want the place where we recover to be a safe place, free from outside influences.” No addict has the right to interrupt an NA recovery meeting with disruptive behavior.
Let us not forget, there are many kinds of disruptive behavior. Some meetings do not allow children, because they can be so disruptive. I remember one meeting I went to some years ago where 6 women had between them had 15 children under the age of 10. There were often more children running around the room than there were addicts attending the meeting. Needless to say, it was not conducive to an atmosphere of recovery. I have been at meetings in churches and schools when addicts walk in with their pets. I have seen dogs, cats, and ferrets. They were all asked to remove the animals. Animals are not allowed in the buildings we were renting for our meetings. We did not tell the addict he/she was not welcome, only that the animals were not. I have been at meetings where people sit in the back and make and receive phone calls on their cell phones. They also were asked not to disrupt the meeting. I have been at meetings where addicts have overturned tables, had knife fights, or hit another addict with a two by four piece of wood. These are all unacceptable ways of behaving in a meeting. The group has every right, even an obligation to the addicts who want to be in a meeting with out fear, to tell these disruptive people that they are not welcome at that meeting when they behave that way. I have been at meetings where the police were called to remove unruly, unreasonable or violent addicts. I don’t think we can or should turn anyone away from a meeting, but if their behavior affects others, then they must be asked to leave.
Of course a home group is supposed to be a place where you feel ‘at home’, where you can be comfortable. We call this our home group because it suggests a place where we fit in and belong. Having a home group allows us to have an anchor each week where we can get to know the people and they can really get to know us. We develop a bond with each other as we grow together. All addicts do not fit into all home groups. As far as behavior outside the meeting room, if they are causing a ruckus on the grounds of the facility where you are holding your meeting, and are clearly seen by the public as members of NA, then the same principles apply. They must be asked to control their behavior in the parking lot etc., as well. I have seen many meetings close or lose their meeting place because of the behavior of addicts in and around the meeting place. Things such as fights in the parking lot, revving up the motorcycles loudly, throwing of trash and cigarette butts on the grounds of the meeting place has all happened before my eyes..Our text talks about us becoming acceptable, responsible, and productive members of society.. That means the society inside the rooms as well as the society outside the rooms.
I do not believe that a group needs to change their format to accommodate disruptive addicts; rather those addicts need to change their behavior or find a different meeting to go to. I am not by any means addressing your specific situation, as I do not know you or the other addicts or what really happened. I believe that what I wrote is appropriate across the fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous. Richie