WHAT IS NAR-ANON?

The Nar-Anon Family Groups are a worldwide fellowship for those affected by someone else’s addiction. As a Twelve-Step Program, we offer our help by sharing our experience, strength, and hope. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of addiction in a relative or friend. Our program of recovery is adapted from NA and uses our Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts. 

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MISSION STATEMENT

The Nar-Anon Family Groups are a worldwide fellowship for those affected by someone else’s addiction. As a twelve step program, we offer our help by sharing our experience, strength, and hope. 

 

VISION STATEMENT

We will carry the message of hope throughout the world to those affected by the addiction of someone near to them.

 

We will do this by

• Letting them know they are no longer alone

• Practicing the Twelve Steps of Nar-Anon

• Encouraging growth through service

• Making information available through outreach encompassing public information, hospitals, institutions, and websites, and

• Changing our own attitudes

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NEWCOMER'S WELCOME

The Nar-Anon Family Groups is primarily for those who know or have known a feeling of desperation concerning the addiction problem of someone very near to you. We have traveled that unhappy road too, and found the answer with serenity and peace of mind.

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When you come into the family group, you are no longer alone, but among true friends who understand your problem as few others could. We respect your confidence and anonymity as we know you will respect ours. We hope to give you the assurance that no situation is too difficult and no unhappiness is too great to be overcome.

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NAR-ANON'S PRINCIPLES

We are a 12-step program designed to help relatives and friends of addicts recover from the effects of living with an addicted relative or friend. Our program of recovery uses Nar-Anon's Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions, and Twelve Concepts. The only requirement to be a member and attend Nar-Anon meetings is that there is a problem of drugs or addiction in a relative or friend. We are not affiliated with any other organization or outside entity.

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THE TWELVE STEPS OF NAR-ANON FAMILY GROUPS

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. Made 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.

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THE TWELVE TRADITIONS OF NAR-ANON FAMILY GROUPS

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 group 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 NA 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, films, internet and other forms of mass media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all NA members.

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

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THE TWELVE CONCEPTS OF NAR-ANON SERVICE

Just as freedom for the individual comes from the Twelve Steps and freedom for the group springs from the Twelve Traditions, so freedom for the service structure flourishes from the Twelve Concepts.

1. To fulfill our fellowship’s primary purpose, the Nar-Anon Family Groups have joined together to create a structure that develops, coordinates, and maintains services on behalf of Nar-Anon as a whole.

2. The final responsibility and authority for Nar-Anon services rests with the Nar-Anon Family Groups.

3. The Nar-Anon Family Groups delegate to the service structure the authority necessary to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to it.

4. Effective leadership is highly valued in Nar-Anon. Leadership qualities should be carefully considered when selecting trusted servants.

5. For each responsibility assigned to the service structure, a single point of decision and accountability should be clearly defined.

6. Group conscience is the spiritual means by which we invite a loving Higher Power to influence our decisions.

7. All members of a service body bear substantial responsibility for that body’s decisions and should be allowed to fully participate in its decision-making processes.

8. Regular, two-way communications are essential to the fulfillment of all these concepts and the integrity and effectiveness of our services themselves.

9. All elements of our service structure have the responsibility to carefully consider all viewpoints in their decision-making processes.

10. Any member of a service body can petition that body for the redress of a personal grievance, without fear of reprisal.

11. Nar-Anon funds are used to further our primary purpose to carry the message, and must be managed responsibly.

12. In keeping with the spiritual nature of Nar-Anon, our structure should always be one of service, never of governance.

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ANONYMITY

The experience of our groups suggests that the principle of anonymity, which is summed up in Tradition Twelve as “the spiritual foundation of all our traditions,” has three elements: anonymity as it applies outside Nar-Anon, anonymity within the fellowship, and anonymity as it contributes to our personal growth.

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