Narcotics Anonymous

Just For Today - Daily Email Service

   March 21                                               A treatable illness

     "Addiction is a disease that involves more than the use of drugs."

                                                             Basic Text, p. 3

                           ----=----

   At our first meeting, we may have been taken aback at the way members
   shared about how the disease of addiction had affected their lives.   We
   thought to ourselves, "Disease?  I've just got a drug problem!   What
   in the world are they talking about?"

   After some time in the program, we began to see that our addiction ran
   deeper than our obsessive, compulsive drug use.  We saw that we suffered
   from a chronic illness that affected many areas of our lives.  We didn't
   know where we'd "caught" this disease, but in examining ourselves we
   realized that it had been present in us for many years.

   Just as the disease of addiction affects every area of our lives, so does
   the NA  program.   We attend our first meeting with all the symptoms
   present: the spiritual void, the emotional agony, the powerlessness, the
   unmanageability.

   Treating our illness involves much more than mere abstinence.  We use the
   Twelve Steps, and though they don't "cure" our illness, they do
   begin to heal us.  And as we recover, we experience the gift of life.

                           ----=----

   Just for today:  I will treat my illness with the Twelve Steps.