Welcome to NY Region Nar-Anon Family Groups

Do You Need Nar-Anon Family Groups?

To the concerned family member or friend:

If you have found evidence, or have even a vague suspicion that someone close to you may have a drug problem, we know how you feel. We know well what it is like to be alone with this problem. We remember the feeling of panic, frustration, and desperation that resulted from this discovery. We in Nar-Anon have shared this experience too.

For a while some of us tried to ignore it. We were too terrified to examine the situation more closely because - what would we do if we found what we feared was really true?

As the drug user's problems became worse and we became more frantic, our attempts to help only led to rebellion and frequently to hostility towards us or others. This resulted in our becoming still more upset and desperate, and we felt we too were being destroyed.

In the Nar-Anon program, we learned that drug addiction is a disease that we are not responsible for. The drug user needs help and so do we. We discovered many of our efforts to control or change the situation were often actually enabling or encouraging this person to continue a self-destructive pattern. It has been a great relief to learn more effective ways of coping with this situation, while at the same time gaining some peace of mind, hope, and help for a better way to live.

Many times, the drug user is simply not ready or willing to stop using, even when confronted with the facts. But we have learned there is much we can do to encourage their recovery. For the user seeking help, drug recovery programs are available. Nar-Anon is designed for us - the parent, spouse, child, brother, sister, or friend of the "user". Nar-Anon can bring new insight about our attitudes, behavior and emotions. It can be the source for regaining our own sanity and well-being. We learn that addiction is a family disease and we need recovery too.

We use first names only, as this is an anonymous program. There are no charges or obligations. The weekly meetings are held regularly throughout the year. You will not be urged to participate in group discussions, but may join in and ask questions if you wish. We do UNDERSTAND how you feel.

We are a Non-Profit, Non-Professional fellowship, sustained entirely through voluntary efforts and donations of our members. Attendance is welcomed without prior arrangements.

Twelve Steps of Nar-Anon Family Group

1. We admitted we were powerless over the Addict - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Nar-Anon Traditions

Our group experience suggests that the unity of the Nar-Anon Family groups depends upon our adherence to these Traditions.

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends on unity.

2. For our groups purposes there is but one authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants - they do not govern.

3. The relatives of addicts, when gathered for mutual aid, may call themselves a Nar-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of addiction in a relative or friend.

4. Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting other Nar-Anon Family Groups, or N.A. as a whole.

5. Each Nar-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of addicts. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of Nar-Anon, by encouraging and understanding our addicted relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to families of addicts.

6. Our Family Groups ought never to endorse, finance, or lend our name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim; but although a separate entity, we should always cooperate with Narcotics Anonymous.

7. Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Nar-Anon Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. Our groups, as such ought never to be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. The Nar-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all N.A. members.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.

We have no creed, charges, obligations, nor anything that would tend to hinder you; your progress can made in your own time, and in your own way. We merely invite your attendance in a common cause.

Do You Need Nar-Anon?

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