IP #19
Self-Acceptance:
http://www.na.org/admin/include/spaw2/uploads/pdf/litfiles/us_english/IP/EN3119.pdf
The problem
The lack of self-acceptance is a problem for many recovering addicts.
Many of the problems we experience in ongoing recovery stem from an inability to accept ourselves on a deep level. We may not even realize that this discomfort is the source of our problem because it is often manifested in other ways.
The Twelve Steps are the solution
Self-acceptance permits balance in our recovery. We no longer have to look for the approval of others because we are satisfied with being ourselves. We are free to gratefully emphasize our assets, to humbly move away from our defects, and to become the best recovering addicts we can be. Accepting ourselves as we are means that we are all right, that we are not perfect but we can improve.
This Information Pamphlet was one of the first ones I read when I got to Narcotics Anonymous. In the beginning, it was one of the first things to help me break through my false pride and inflated ego. Also, it was probably one of the first readings that provoked feeling in me.
Today this reading takes on new meaning for me, I understand that nothing outside of me will satisfy or fix the inside of me. When I find myself being very critical of others, shopping too much, going out to eat too much or traveling too much, I am not ok with me. When I see these behaviors I know that it is time to look inward.
Who Is an Addict?
p.4, Narcotics Anonymous
When our addiction was treated as a crime or moral deficiency, we became
rebellious and were driven deeper into isolation. Some of the highs felt
great, but eventually the things that we had to do to continue using
reflected desperation. We were caught in the grip of our disease. We
were forced to survive any way we could. We manipulated people and tried
to control everything around us. We lied, stole, cheated and sold
ourselves. We had to have drugs regardless of the cost. Failure and fear
began to invade our lives.
One aspect of our disease was our inability to deal with life on life’s
terms.
Before I found the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous, I had learned how to
survive by trying to make the world around me conform to the life I was
living. Therefore, when I read this in the Narcotics Anonymous basic
text it helped me to see through my denial and begin to see how deep the
disease of addiction had taken me. However, even more than that, it
showed me that I was not the only person that had experienced this and
that there may truly be some help or even a solution to my new found
problem.
Dwayne M.
(photo via me, taken with Instagram from my iphone)
Dwayne has been so helpful in providing me lots of good recovery information from the NA program. I am so grateful that he has been so willing to step up to the plate and spread the message of NA recovery through our blog. I have gotten to know Dwayne just a bit more because of this and he is a great guy. I thought it would be fun for you to get to know him a bit more as well. I caught him in action at work in the Inquiry Call Center!
“I have been working for La Hacienda for a little over 3 years. My employment at La Ha has been totally the workings of my Higher Power; all I do is suit up and show up. My experience working for La Hacienda has been one of growth and faith.
I have been clean and serene for 16 years (not always serene); my clean-date is 3/12/95. I am a person that has a loving passion for Narcotics Anonymous literature. I have not been able to find anything that can describe the way I think, feel, and act so precisely. Through the process of recovery I have been able to evolve into a fully whole and wholly free human being. I use to live to use and use to live. By working the Steps and Traditions of Narcotics Anonymous I have been able to learn how to live a new way of life. (The NA Way)” - Dwayne M.
DJQT2CKZVUPE
Preface to the First Edition
“The full fruit of the labor of love lives in the harvest, and that always comes in its right season…”
The material for this book has been drawn from the personal experience of addicts within the fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous.
Pg. xxi
“Being a member of Narcotics Anonymous” – In the beginning this statement really helped me to understand that recovery is a process and not an event. Reading that first sentence and knowing that people had been where I had been, lived like I lived, done what I had done, and felt what I had felt, gave me that first bit of Hope that was needed to help me to keep reading the literature.
Dwayne M., La Hacienda, Inquiry Call Center
“When at the end of the road we find that we can no longer function as a human being, either with or without drugs, we all face the same dilemma. What is there left to do? There seems to be this alternative: either go on as best we can to the bitter end (jails, institutions or death) or find a new way to live. In year’s gone by, very few addicts ever had this last choice. Those who are addicted today are more fortunate. For the first time in man’s entire history, a simple way has been proving itself in the lives of many addicts. It is available to us all. This is a simple spiritual, not religious, program known as Narcotics Anonymous.”
Narcotics Anonymous: Basic Text, Chapter 8, page 87
Thanks Dwayne in our Inquiry Call office for sharing!!
