Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   August 4                                    When is a secret not a secret?

   "Addicts tend to live secret lives....  It is a great relief to get rid
           of all our secrets and to share the burden of our past."

                                                            Basic Text, p. 32

                           ----=----

   We've heard it said that "we're as sick as our secrets." What do
   we keep secret, and why?

   We keep secret those things that cause us shame.   We may hold onto such
   things because we don't want to surrender them.   Yet if they're
   causing us shame, wouldn't we live more easily with ourselves if we were
   rid of them?

   Some of us hold onto the things that cause us shame for another reason.
   It's not that we don't want to be rid of them; we just don't believe
   we can be rid of them.   They've plagued us for so long, and we've
   tried so many times to rid ourselves of them, that we've stopped hoping
   for relief.  Yet still they shame us, and still we keep them secret.

   We need to remember who we are: recovering addicts.  We who tried so long
   to keep our drug use a secret have found freedom from the obsession and
   compulsion to use.  Though many of us enjoyed using right to the end, we
   sought recovery anyway.  We just couldn't stand the toll our using was
   taking on us.   When we admitted our powerlessness and sought help from
   others, the burden of our secret was lifted from us.

   The same principle applies to whatever secrets may burden us.    Yes,
   we're as sick as our secrets.   Only when our secrets stop being secret
   can we begin to find relief from those things that cause us shame.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:   My secrets can make me sick only as long as they stay
   secret.  Today, I will talk with my sponsor about my secrets.