Lessons from N.A.

Occasionally I go to N.A. meetings.  I do not go to these meetings because I have an addiction pertaining to the use of drugs or alcohol – I go because I support the participants wholeheartedly, including my aunt, who devote their lives to recovery.

From the N.A. meetings I have learned that the program does work. I have learned that addiction is a disease and if a person is serious in understanding their illness and the root cause(s) of their addiction, they can and often do find recovery. I have learned that it takes a tremendous amount of dedication, a higher power (of any kind) and a strong support system to aid in such a recovery. I have also learned that the process is by no means easy, and that the slightest perversion may send a person back into the whirlwind of their addiction.

I have gone to quite a few meetings with my Aunt. From the outside, nothing sets me apart from the rest of the people that surround me in the room, addiction is a disease and it does not discriminate. The room is cross-culturally decorated with faces of mothers, sisters, brothers, and cousins. They are faces of people just like you and I who have suffered through tremendous pain and found a way to cope with their pain, and to fill their inner void the only way they knew how; by using drugs.  

My first thought upon attending one of these meetings was: why do I enjoy coming so much? Is it like a tabloid? Is there a sick thrill in learning of the broken lives of people, and do I perhaps use it as some sort of confirmation of how “good” my own life is? No. You see, each time that I attend a meeting and listen to people who have the courage to share their thoughts, my heart is filled with an invariable sense of empathy, and my soul is nourished with hope that their lives can and one day will be given back to them.

I opened my aunt’s recovery book, and the passage read:  “Just for today I will seek encouragement from others. I will encourage others who may need my strength.”

With this a second thought occurred:

Many of the daily reflections taught in N.A. are teachings I believe we should all practice, reflecting on such things as encouraging others, acting positively, and putting “humility into action” is not reticent, only to be used by the drug addict. Perhaps we should all attend a meeting or two.

And lastly, when I go to these meetings I am not confronted by a drug addiction. What I am confronted by are real people who teach me through the sincerity of their voices, the humbleness of their hearts and their inner courage.  I am grateful for these meetings, I am grateful for my aunt’s recovery, I am grateful for a new perspective. I will continue to listen wholehartedly and intently to what each person has to share, learning more of life’s harsh profundities, in hope that one day I may be able shed light for someone who in be lost in spiritual darkness. My name is Jessica, and I will continue to support those who travel down the road of recovery.