Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   February 17                           Carrying the message, not the addict

        "They can be analyzed, counseled, reasoned with, prayed over,
    threatened, beaten, or locked up, but they will not stop until they want
                                  to stop."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 65

                           ----=----

   Perhaps one of the most difficult truths we must face in our recovery is
   that we are as powerless over another's addiction as we are over our
   own.  We may think that because we've had a spiritual awakening in our
   own lives we should be able to persuade another addict to find recovery.
   But there are limits to what we can do to help another addict.

   We cannot force them to stop using.  We cannot give them the results of
   the steps or grow for them.  We cannot take away their loneliness or their
   pain.   There is nothing we can say to convince a scared addict to
   surrender the familiar misery of addiction for the frightening uncertainty
   of recovery.  We cannot jump inside other peoples' skins, shift their
   goals, or decide for them what is best for them.

   However, if we refuse to try to exert this power over another's
   addiction, we may help them.   They may grow if we allow them to face
   reality, painful though it may be.  They may become more productive, by
   their own definition, as long as we don't try and do it for them.   They
   can become the authority on their own lives, provided we are only
   authorities on our own.  If we can accept all this, we can become what we
   were meant to be-carriers of the message, not the addict.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I  will accept that I am powerless not only over my own
   addiction but also over everyone else's.  I will carry the message, not
   the addict.