persons have visited this page since October 6, 2001
~ 2002 Form ~
NA Foundation Group
Moreland, Georgia Edit October 2001
Special Edit Format - June 2004
To Input Suggestions, use paragraph number
Our
Pledge to the NA Fellowship
1
This material is the result of years of work and preparation. To reach a larger
number of NA members, we have checked the spelling, grammar and paragraph order.
Some sections will be much the same. Others have been greatly improved. There
may be a 3rd Presentation form or even a 4th as we write our way to an agreeable
Final Form.
2
The technical editing we have done will save time, so that you can now
concentrate on the recovery and spiritual issues. Only members can perceive and
share about these. This material is the most complete form so far, but crucial
areas are missing - areas that you know more about than we do.
3
All this has been done to allow a greater number of members to study, review and
discuss the material. We need to find out what is missing, poorly stated or
inappropriate. We will keep your input in files, and hold conferences to discuss
how to include new material.
Edited September 2001
1
This work is designed to produce written recovery materials for addicts seeking
recovery in Narcotics Anonymous. Our efforts to originate and accumulate helpful
material benefit everyone.
2
All are welcome to support, participate, and engage in this effort. Write
seriously or playfully, as the Spirit guides you. There is no telling what great
goodness may emerge if our motives and our spirits are purely devoted to being
instruments of a loving God. We write this for the good of others like us who
have lost their way or never had a way to start with. .
3
We are addicts who come from the dying times. We vividly recall when we believed
that there was absolutely no hope, anywhere on earth, for people like us. No one
else believed there was any hope either. We have created a life style and mind
set which was given to us by a God of our understanding. We are still creating
and enlarging the pathway that gives people like us choices that we never knew
that we had before. Our newfound hope lets us live clean and grow spiritually.
4
We have applied the Twelve Steps of NA to our lives and we live the results. We
see the negative consequences of unhealthy selfishness and compromise. We prefer
now to go our way in peace and to follow the Will of our Higher Power.
5
The main obstacle to writing recovery material is the fact that it must come
from addicts. When considering written input, we go through an enormous amount
of extra trouble to determine whether it is our disease talking or our recovery.
Writing material to suit the needs of all NA members is nearly impossible for
any individual to do. The fact that we have written even one book, our Basic
Text, is a great miracle. A second is bound to be less difficult because now we
know it can be done.
6
We are free to approach any subject that needs consideration and discussion.
Whether it is about a helpful technique or an obstacle to recovery, we declare
our right to write. Recovering addicts write about their lives and their
recovery. This is the process of sorting out our lives and filling in the
blanks.
7
As in recovery, fear is the basic obstacle to the writing. It begins when we are
afraid to tell the truth. Truth telling may seem an all occasion remedy, but
that can be another illusion. There are frequent times when telling the truth
will be mistaken for it's opposite by the unlearned listener or will overburden
the more complacent members. These things take time - God's time.
8
We believe NA started to grow in the nineteen seventies because all members were
encouraged to participate and add our voice to NA. Reversing this, by leaving
people out, diminishes NA as a whole.
9
Handling these things "professionally" is not necessarily superior,
correct, or more efficient. Professionally means that either we don't care
enough to do something on our own time, or that we can't, so we pay someone else
to do it. However, in our case we care and we happen to be the only people in
the world who know what we do to recover on a daily basis. Professionalism
downplays the beauty and wonder of ordinary members writing recovery material.
This betrays the Spirit of NA. The writings of clean addicts expressing their
gratitude, concern for others and their commitment to improve themselves is
valuable evidence that our way of life is real. Without it, whining,
complaining, misrepresenting others and an endless rain of misinformation can
create the impression that where there is smoke there is fire. It is a
smokescreen in which those still suffering often get lost and sometimes die.
10
Professionals can only mimic what works for us. We have to discover the answers
and share them. Since recovery is transmitted experience, not theory, it doesn't
require the kind of talent that you have to pay for. Technical assistance should
not take precedence over accuracy. Not all our truths are pleasant or
convenient. The disease of addiction cannot afford to be honest. It cannot say,
"Give me all your money, all your love life, your offspring and I'll give
you a good feeling. True, it won't last long and it'll hurt a lot while you're
dying, but for a few moments, you'll feel great. In recovery the disease may
say, "Hold back, play it safe. Don't be too up front here. Wait for another
time."
11
We want to be fearless and thorough in recovery. Our disease gets away with this
enough of the time to water down the truth to the point where the truth no
longer has much power among the background noises. This is how we are at risk of
becoming weakened and divided.
12
This is a new effort to address our NA Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Much
has been learned through observation and discussion in recent years. Addicts who
are grateful to Narcotics Anonymous write this material and we want our
experience to be available to others through our writing as part of our Twelfth
Step, carrying the message.
13
That any addict can stop using, even for a time, is a miracle. That we can
arrest the disease of addiction by total abstinence extends that miracle in
time. We get the time back - we have a
choice now and use this time as we will. Many reach the point where we
make a conscious decision to align our will with the will of our Higher Power.
We do this by learning principles that allow us to discard and replace many of
our old ideas and ways of coping with life. This is a modern day testament to
applied spirituality. Personality change in human beings requires great
willingness, faith and courage.
14
Our way of life makes change possible. Many of the words we tend to use to
describe this process may seem confusing. We try to describe accurately the
feelings and new ideas that occur during the process to allow others to follow
our path and to confirm in a sense what we are learning. All this may require
learning, study, and evaluating new perspectives.
15
Among recovering addicts in Narcotics Anonymous, certain assumptions evolve.
Some of these elements allow us to enter recovery and get along with clean
addicts almost immediately. Some of these basics of recovery need to be
re-examined even by our long-term members.
16
We should try to avoid the clich�s that are employed by people outside the NA program in our writing of this book. We don't
want to dull ourselves or our message. One of our problems in recovery is our
appearance of normality. When we have stopped using, even for a short time, we
can look so good that someone may offer us drugs to celebrate! This makes it
hard for us to maintain the recovery practices that have worked for us. When we
were new at recovery, our pain served as reminder. When we get a little better,
we are apt to want to leave off some elements of our recovery. Social pressures
set in immediately which may force us to resume our lives as if we were
"normal". We addicts are anything but "normal".
17
Our needs and abilities can be viewed as ordinary. Our own reactions to the
world around us show us how we are different. Our distortions of reality, which
we adapted to while in active addiction, continue along with us in recovery. These
distortions are part of what we call the �drug induced fog.� For most
practical purposes, this only means that our orientation is different than
normal. As we recover, we can gain or
regain the personal and social skills to work, cope with daily living, and
function in an effective and agreeable manner. Our
recovery process makes this possible and enhances these things over time.
18
Certain fears remain embedded in us. We have had the experience of finding
ourselves betrayed by our senses. We have sought pleasure and found pain. We
have moralized and proved personally insufficient. We have crusaded for various
causes only to find emptiness and a sense of time wasted. Our bodies registered
ecstasy and we awoke in the gutter. Therefore, we are careful to guard against
the search for, and acceptance of, momentary pleasure. Caution
can be cool.
19
Our recovery writing is our attempt to share with others what we have found to
be true in simple, direct terms, based on actual, personal experience. It is
brave because we attempt not only to make sense of our own recovery but also to
make a sincere effort to help other addicts get clean and begin to grow again as
human beings.
20
There are many forces against us in our effort. Many institutions exist because
our disease is so prevalent that it is hard to imagine a world without it. Our
disease takes so many forms other than addiction to drugs. We
are incredibly disabled by our addiction and thus finally seek recovery in NA. The
disability and degradation of our affliction may end us up totally worn out and
beaten by institutional experience�s of hospitals, jails, and treatment
centers. NA is the last option for many, the last house on the block, so to
speak.. Recovery would be a heck of
a lot of trouble for a non-addict to go through if they did not feel their life
was at stake.
21
It takes true commitment to move forward and do the right thing. Infighting,
greed, and petty jealousy constantly rip away at our efforts. These elements
take their toll. Those who criticize may devalue our freely given efforts.
Recovery writing in NA is a different form of commitment to recovery. It is one
in which the elements of greed and self-centeredness must be eliminated. There
is a saying that may apply here, "If a pickpocket meets a saint, he will
see only pockets."
22
Those who find a message of recovery in our meetings will surely experience some
of the curiosity and wonder we share. Those who look for flaws will see only
flaws. A successful piece of recovery writing enhances areas of personal growth
and has the internal power to leap from the page into our loneliness, despair
and pain. We have found success in these areas. Our writing has helped many
shake off the feelings and mindset that leads to relapse. Our energy seems to
come from our relationship with the thinking that accompanies relapse. In
relating, the reader suddenly realizes that others have turned back before
using. Only sharing what we have experienced personally has the power and energy
to do this.
23
There is a tendency among us to look for the dark, hidden meaning in things and
avoid the simple and obvious need we have to share. The lessons we learn may not
become ours until we share them. Information can feel like power. We can forget
that the learning we have found has a universal source that any sincere
individual can access at any time. Our sharing is only a reminder of what we
know to be true when we are in our right minds. The distrust that is a big part
of our addiction seeks loopholes and exceptions to these Principles.
24
If we fall into the trap of possessiveness, what we know becomes tainted with
greed and a lust for personal power. We who do this work seek to become aware
because we care. We learn so that we can pass on important information to those
who are in dying need of it. Often to counteract the negativity of our fear and
disbelief we have found that if we look at the brighter side, then the brighter
side becomes real for us.
25
Our loving gratitude is abundant. Caring and sharing is our way. We stand ready,
with God's help, to supply the needs, right the wrongs, and take on the
responsibilities required to insure the continuance and growth of Narcotics
Anonymous. NA is the miracle that any addict can get clean and stay clean by
following a set of written principles: The NA Twelve Steps and the NA Twelve
Traditions.
26
Therefore, in all sincerity, we undertake this work that others may benefit.
Possession of this work resides with the Spirit that makes us one in our
gratitude and effort. No service body, board, or any group of people inside or
outside NA should ever regard this work as their own legal possession. In the
exhaustive process of doing this work in the traditional manner, all should be
in order before the work is considered finished. After completion, we will allow
no further changes. If other points of concern arise, we will address them
separately in other writings. We don't want to foster close-mindedness, yet we
have learned that the tendency to personal preference is so strong in some of us
that efforts towards change would begin to defeat our efforts if any opportunity
existed.
27
Truth has no copyright. We borrow from all fields anything that might help our
people. We expect others to borrow from our experiences. Possessiveness would
undermine our spiritual integrity and deny our faith in our Ultimate Authority.
Our writing is an expression of our love. We pray to be willing, forthright and
honest even in the face of greed, jealousy and fear. We grant permission for
reprinting to members from within the Fellowship. Non-member individuals,
groups, or organizations are forbidden to copy our materials or use our
trademarks. Our literature belongs to our Fellowship and is a tangible form of
our common welfare. Our method is simple: All of us own our literature, and none
of us can sell our copyrights.
28
To change material after it has been subjected to the close scrutiny, study and
seemingly endless discussion that only the NA Fellowship can conceive of is like
touching up a masterpiece because you found a crooked line. It diminishes the
quality of the material by substituting work that may seem nicer yet lack the
core of inner strength our extreme processing creates. Critics should go to
their own studio and paint their own picture. Being clean, helping others and
living a better life on a daily basis has a value beyond what can be bought with
money. If our writing does not have the ring of truth and love for those who
suffer from our disease, it will be useless for purposes of recovery. It will
get old after one reading and will not even touch us at the times we need it the
most.
29
Individuals are free to write and publish whatever they like within the law of
the land. Our literature in NA must also be free. We want to pursue our recovery
process without the constraints others would place on us. Some of us may become
writers the same way others will find their places in the world.
30
Today, we want to give back some of what we received. Addicts coming to NA today
should know that they are loved by people praying to be used as instruments to
help them. Recovery is a wonderful thing and many of us feel that too much time
has been wasted haggling over how to write literature in NA. We will do better
to encourage addicts working individually or as groups and let the quality and
usefulness of certain pieces become self-evident. Bureaucracy has a deadening
effect on most processes involving spirituality. Bureaucracy must not bind the
free Spirit that is NA.
31
At any given point in our recovery, the
disease of addiction will seek to divide and destroy us if we allow it to take
control. Newcomers don�t
understand this at all. They may not even believe they have a disease. They are
clueless how it affects their thinking and relationships. Newcomers do not know
the disease is deviously working in their very own minds against their every
move towards recovery. Certainly they have no idea if or how it affects the
Fellowship or such an endeavor as this book. The newcomer simply thinks they
have a problem with drugs. Having had time to search our hearts for an
answer on these issues, our spiritual guidance is this: that we have to
keep the faith ourselves before we have anything to offer others. As long as we
can tell the truth in a plain, simple and honest manner, the way will
open to us.
Foundation Group of N.A.
Jan.7, 2000
Edited September 2001
1
Introductions are supposed to explain how to utilize or benefit from a book, so
we are at a curious juncture. To benefit from this book, we must first write it!
We want to share our experience through writing for the Fellowship and make an
important point: that it can be done and we can do it.
2
When we were writing the Basic Text, there were plenty of people who said it was
impossible, can't be done, or at least not the way we had it planned. We may
seem foolish, even a little crazy, to trust a bunch of addicts to write a book
about their �recovery.� In those days, there were many people who had little
respect for us. We had to earn respect by being respectable. Writing our own
literature let people know we were serious about our gratitude, serious about
our recovery, and serious about our willingness to love and care for the
newcomer.
3
Most of you have benefited from the Basic Text yet never expected to get to
write anything helpful. Well, the plan for this book is to sponsor writing from
the society of addicts recovering in NA. Chapter length pieces on any topic
within the range of things we experience in recovery can be included in the
book.
4
In particular, there are many among us being dismayed that some energy is being
exerted against the principle idea that our recovery is from 'just' drug
addiction. The exciting thing about NA, for us, has always been the relief we
have found from our addiction once we stopped using. Those of you who share this
belief might find some fascinating material to add about on over- spending and
other compulsions that have nothing to do with chemical addiction. Our serious
concern here is that our disease appears to mutate into other forms. Some of
these forms may be as seemingly non injurious as watching too much TV and others
that may be as totally devastating as any degree of drug' addiction. We must
count ourselves as free to write about these things lest a big part of our
program be lost forever to those who choose to live the NA way of life.
5
So, consider yourself free to write for this book. If your writing is sincere
and accurate, at least you will benefit to some degree. Your efforts may be a
runaway best-photocopied, eternally underground recovery piece. It may become a
booklet. It is hoped that if enough good members go for this humorous, yet
sincere, approach to getting some new material into print, many of the chapter
length pieces can be compiled into a single book to help carry our message.
6
One thing that is not humorous: This material is meant only to help addicts and
is given freely. It should never be seen as mere property and no addict anywhere
should ever be made to suffer by our efforts to help.
7
With the background for this work nearly complete, please let me first lay out
the events in sequence that led lead up to this work. This is the method that we
would like to recommend to my various friends around the Fellowship for its
completion.
8
Remember that one of the ways we have survived is by using our imagination and
acting on hunches. We think this is a good method and one that might even work
if applied to other writing tasks. We believe, by personal experience, this is one way God creatively works in
our lives.
9
To start with, we wrote our Basic Text in the years between 1977 and 1982. As
was our intention, we surrendered the material to the main World Service
Conference that then moved the material into the safekeeping of our World
Service Office.
10
We are ready to begin a new work. There is trouble with going through what used
to be the approved channels with this work. An alternative route had to be
developed. We are asking you to accept this document as the basis for the new
work. We will open chapters experimentally and develop them as recovery themes.
We will then have them work-shopped by various members throughout the
Fellowship. We will distribute the various chapters informally and let the
result be compiled into a final manuscript. This way, no one area or region
could control the material much less know in advance, or in passing, how the
material would come out. We will only take into account the needs of the addicts
seeking recovery as well as the valid experience of our membership.
11
The resultant chapters should number around twenty. There might be several
chapters on relationships and two or three on employment in recovery. There
might be new chapters developed for �What is NA� and �Recovery and
Relapse� The NA member making available the material would determine the cost
of the material. Members could pick and choose, and in many cases, do better
themselves. We would publish and circulate informal lists of available
materials. Our natural ingenuity and competitiveness would likely keep the costs
down.
12
After we achieve sufficient momentum, we may arrange a more formal method. With
or without this formalization, the Fellowship would retain both the rights to
print and the rights to copy the materials in all versions. This might mean that
there were multiple versions of similar material in concurrent usage.
13
If and when the Fellowship wants to compile the material into a single volume,
there are several ways it could be handled. Perhaps some large Fellowship
regions would want to serve by printing �standard forms�. It might even be
possible to entrust World Services to do this, if we could avoid the instability
of the eighties At any rate, we would see a growth of new ideas and
recovery experience in print with a minimum of hassle and expense. No one
version would be the final word. We don't recommend using this anonymous effort
to grind personal axes, yet your feelings are important. Remember to respect our
reader. Share the way you would in a meeting and let the value of your sharing
show itself. Like our personal recovery, the writing would take on its own
colors and word choices. Some material might have an intellectual appeal. Other
material might be rather raw and coarse. All would depend on its usefulness to
perpetuate itself. May the God of your understanding be with us as we proceed to
extend our message of recovery in writing.
Foundation Group of N.A.
Jan. 7, 2004
[7.1.04]
Reprinted from the
N.A. FELLOWSHIP USE ONLY
Copyright � December 1998
Victor Hugo Sewell, Jr.
NA Foundation Group
P.O. Box 213
Cleveland, Ohio 44022-0213
[email protected]
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All rights reserved. This draft may be copied by members of Narcotics Anonymous for the purpose of writing input for future drafts, enhancing the recovery of NA members and for the general welfare of the Narcotics Anonymous Fellowship as a whole. The use of an individual name is simply a registration requirement of the Library of Congress and not a departure from the spirit or letter of the Pledge, Preface or Introduction of this book. Any reproduction by individuals or organizations outside the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous is prohibited. Any reproduction of this document for personal or corporate monetary gain is prohibited.
Last update August 28, 2004