Narcotics Anonymous is a global, community-based organization with a multi-lingual and multicultural membership. NA was founded in 1953, and our membership growth was minimal during our initial twenty years as an organization. Since the publication of our Basic Text in 1983, the number of members and meetings has increased dramatically.
Today, NA members hold nearly 76,000 meetings weekly in 143 countries. We offer recovery from the effects of addiction through working a twelve-step program, including regular attendance at group meetings. The group atmosphere provides help from peers and offers an ongoing support network for addicts who wish to pursue and maintain a drug-free lifestyle.
Our name, Narcotics Anonymous, is not meant to imply a focus on any particular drug; NA’s approach makes no distinction between drugs including alcohol. Membership is free, and we have no affiliation with any organizations outside of NA including governments, religions, law enforcement groups, or medical and psychiatric facilities. Through all of our service efforts and our cooperation with others seeking to help addicts, we strive to reach a day when every addict in the world has an opportunity to experience our message of recovery in his or her own language and culture.
This site is hosted by the NA Greater New Brunswick Area Service Committee of New Jersey. We serve recovering addicts in this area and those who are visiting this area. If you need meeting information for other areas of New Jersey, visit Narcotics Anonymous of New Jersey. If you are looking for help beyond New Jersey, visit Narcotics Anonymous. If you are someone who is seeking recovering from active addiction in our area, attend our meetings and visit our subcommittee page to see how you can get involved.
If you serve one of our meetings and you have a meeting update, click on “Contact” and complete our form.
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Learn about upcoming events, group anniversaries, and meeting updates.
Find A Meeting
Find an Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the Greater New Brunswick Area.
Area Service Committee
Our Area Service Committee carries the message of NA recovery in our community.
NA Literature
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Frequently Asked Questions
Learn about NA and what you can expect at an NA meeting.
Subcommittees
Learn about our subcommittees and how NA members can get involved.
“What is our message? The message is that an addict, any addict,
Basic Text, page 65
can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live.
Our message is hope and the promise of freedom.”
Just For Today Meditation
August 14, 2026 |
Letting go of our limitations |
| Page 236 |
| “We don’t have to settle for the limitations of the past. We can examine and reexamine our old ideas.” |
| Basic Text, p. 11 |
| Most of us come to the program with a multitude of self-imposed limitations that prevent us from realizing our full potential, limitations that impede our attempts to find the values that lie at the core of our being. We place limitations on our ability to be true to ourselves, limitations on our ability to function at work, limitations on the risks we’re willing to take–the list seems endless. If our parents or teachers told us we would never succeed, and we believed them, chances are we didn’t achieve much. If our socialization taught us not to stand up for ourselves, we didn’t, even if everything inside us was screaming to do so. In Narcotics Anonymous, we are given a process by which we can recognize these false limitations for what they are. Through our Fourth Step, we’ll discover that we don’t want to keep all the rules we’ve been taught. We don’t have to be the life-long victims of past experiences. We are free to discard the ideas that inhibit our growth. We are capable of stretching our boundaries to encompass new ideas and new experiences. We are free to laugh, to cry, and, above all, to enjoy our recovery. |
| Just for Today: I will let go of my self-imposed limitations and open my mind to new ideas. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Spiritual Principle A Day
August 14, 2026 |
Surrendering Shortcomings |
| Page 234 |
| “In the Seventh Step, we take our surrender to a deeper level. What began in Step One with an acknowledgment of our addiction now includes an acknowledgment of the shortcomings that go along with our addiction.” |
| NA Step Working Guides, Step Seven, “Spiritual Principles” |
| The Steps are in order for a reason; each one prepares us for the next. We acknowledge that our way hasn’t worked when we surrender to Step One. Some members boil it down to a single acknowledgment: I need something different. This admission opens the door for us to recognize our need for restoration in Step Two and to make a decision in Step Three. With each of these first three Steps, we surrender a little more. In exchange, we gain hope and enjoy glimpses of freedom. Surrender takes on new meaning when we get to Steps Six and Seven. Sure, we were sick of some shortcomings, but others were still useful. We were rather fond of one or two that we believed defined us. Still other defects kept us safe; we may even credit some of them with our survival out there. To become entirely ready to release the whole list, we ask ourselves, “Are they still serving us in our new way of life? What would life be like without them?” The answer is always “a little freer.” With humility, we surrender our shortcomings to a Higher Power and ask for them to be removed. More than one sponsor has pointed out that “the Seventh Step doesn’t go on to say ‘and we lived happily ever after without them,’ does it?” Instead, this Step Seven surrender opens us to guidance and requires us to do some more work. Many of us find that we’re more receptive to the suggestions of our sponsors, trusted friends, and our own insights. When we start to feel ourselves reach for a defective reaction, we make an effort to choose a principled response instead. We surrender, again and again, deepening our commitment to living by spiritual principles and inviting them to counter our worst instincts. |
| Each time one of my shortcomings seems appealing, that’s when I can practice surrender. The gifts of surrender are available to me each day. |
| Copyright (c) 2007-2026, NA World Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved |