Narcotics Anonymous

The Narcotics Anonymous meeting which I attended was named 7 Days of NA which was located on 1212 North Wolfe Street at an organization called Dee’s Place. Just as the Alcoholic Anonymous meeting previously attended, the location appeared to be in a covert and quiet place to hold a support group. We entered through the rear entrance, which seemed to be staged that way to secure participants identity. As before at the last support group I attended, I searched around the room to see again, a 12 steps guide posted on the wall, a relatively thick NA ‘Basic Text’ textbook on the desk of the facilitator and this

For the self-help meeting in regards for my reaction paper, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meeting. NA is a nonprofit, community-based, 12-step recovery organization for recovering drug addicts (Bowens, 2011, p. 1). The meeting I attended took place outside on a Saturday afternoon at Magnolia Park in Garden Grove, California. It is an open-group tag meeting, where one speaker will tag another person to share and welcome for anyone to attend. It was very easy to locate the meeting, as it was right in front of the park’s only parking lot with members sitting in a circle on benches and lawn chairs. The meeting started at 12:00pm and ended around 1:30pm.

The content of this paper is an interview with Laura Crain from the McHenry County Substance Abuse Coalition. In the paper I touch on the history of the Coalition and how its evolved throughout the years. The coalition has a lot of involvement with the community in various counties. The work on a larger scheme rather than on a one to one basis. This interview covered the mission and goals set for the Coalition. Laura discussed with me the influences internal as well as external that affect the Coalition. Another thing we discussed was the struggles that come along with running an organization like this. I also touched on my personal experience and my thoughts regarding my internship.

“It is the mission of the Southwest Metro Drug Task Force to provide a comprehensive and multi-jurisdictional effort to reduce drug trafficking and its harmful consequences and to provide effective drug awareness education through the coordination and resource sharing of its participating agencies.”

Narcotics Anonymous is a support group using the same principles as Alcoholics Anonymous but designed for individuals addicted to narcotics (Fortinash & Holoday Worret, 2012). The programs emphasize both personal responsibility and mutual accountability by means of a social model recovery program which is peer-driven. Recovery Kentucky utilizes care and change as their foundation for the peer-driven model. Participants are often reminded the program is not just a pit stop for drug and alcohol use but a commitment to change the whole body, mind and spirit. They are required to attend community meetings and complete a twelve step program where the client will acknowledge the problem, recognize a solution and develop a plan of action that will support the ultimate goal of sobriety (MIC Program Description, n.d.).

Narcotics Anonymous is a support group program that assist in helping individuals, men and women, into recovering from drug related issues that affect a person mentally, physically, and emotionally. This type of program helps individuals who are drug addicts to stop their use, urge, and to overcome their drug addition issues. Narcotics Anonymous support group is known to be present worldwide in several locations that offers their assistance to drug addicts to recovery. Some individuals in this support group acts as “sponsors” helping the person he/she is sponsoring to remain drug-free. This support group not only pertains to individuals with drug related issues assisting others with the same problem, it also welcomes family members as additional

Since the 19th century, the illicit drug, heroin, has been a part of American society. When heroin was first discovered it was thought to be a wonder drug because of the euphoric feeling a person is said to feel after using it. However, once the debilitating effects of this highly addictive drug was realized the anti-drug law, the Harrison Narcotics Act, was enacted that restricted its use to medicinal purposes only. In 1920, heroin was banned altogether through the Dangerous Drug Act (Habal, 2011). Heroin for the most part was thought to have gone underground until the Vietnam War.

Last night, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. This was not quite a new experience for me, be my late father was an alcoholic and narcotics addict that died of cirrhosis later on in my life this is why I identified myself with them. Narcotics Anonymous is a fraternity or association where there a recuperating addicts and their main purpose is stay clean. Consequently, the member of this fraternity were well-groomed, yesterday was ice cream sticks day where they had a keyword written on a little piece of paper, such as “perseverance”. Anyone can be a narcotics or alcohol user.

The Narcotics Anonymous meetings I attended were held in community centers, the meeting formats were the same, the environments were clean however sterile concerning anything on the walls that referenced N.A. In the back of the room, a portable table was setup for literature, and coffee and tea. The seating arrangement was a huge circle; about 25-30 individuals attended each meeting. The members were all ages and from all socio-economic status’. They were welcoming, friendly, and everyone hugged everyone! Initially, I thought it maybe it was just the culture of Central Texas (as I am new here), conversely, in my research I came to understand that this is part of the DNA of N.A. (Narcotics Anonymous, 1992).

For example a member of the group mention how the group meeting helps her to be open and honest about a day by day struggle with temptation and addiction because the group members can relate to her bawl while she has to be silent about her emotions with her coworkers because of the stigma and the lack of understanding on the disease as well as the taboo of talking about it. Another example that aid me to understand the role of the group meeting is the fact that each member identified himself or herself as an addict by the time they mention their name which from my point of view relate to the fact of acceptance instead of denial about who they are, that even when years passed from the last time they used they are aware that they are still vulnerable to the drugs and that the support the group therapy provide is essential to stay clean as a member also mentioned that he was born an addict and stay an addict for many years but incompletely denial of it because he thought he could stop using drugs whenever he wanted to but failed each time until he finally join the group and follow the discipline and stipulations of the group

The word “epidemic” itself spreads fear throughout society, however fluctuations in drug use are considered epidemics, which may not instill fear into the general public. Due to the fact that the CDC considers opioid overdose as a national epidemic, it may be confused to what this “epidemic” entails. This is not saying that the misuse and rising overdoses due to opioid painkillers is not a serious problem, it just may render the severity of the problem. In addition, because the CDC does consider the rise of overdoses due to painkillers an epidemic, the access to treatment needs to be more widely available. Through one of the interactions I had during my time at the NA meeting, I was able to understand that many people feel as though they do not or did not have access to help. Dan Mangan (2016), writes, “[a] survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation also found that a large majority of Americans believe that lack of access to care for people suffering from substance abuse is a problem in the United States.” In this, those who work in medicine should take from my supporting observations and numerous studies’ that access to recovery programs need to become more widely available. If the United States is going to consider the use of opioid painkillers as an epidemic, action needs to be taken to assist addicts and educate the nation on the effects of these

The first meeting that I attended was a Narcotic Anonymous meeting. The meeting time was 7pm-8pm on September 13, 2016. The group was made up of 12 individuals, 4 females and 8 males. The overall feeling of the group illustrated positive energy. Each person gave the perception that they truly wanted as well as needed to be there. I did observe that most of the participants depicted a very high anxiety level based on their body language and the tone in their voices. There were no “new comers”, which is the terminology used for a person who is new to the world of Narcotic Anonymous. The dynamics of the group, included persons who were in recovery as well as persons whose addiction is still active.

Various levels of governments in different communities across North America have initiated programs to deal with the opioid epidemic and its effect. Some of these initiatives will be examined in more details below.

As being a family support attendee for my stepfather, the Narcotics Anonymous (NA) support group, this group main focus is to stay clean from drugs. The members of NA learn and expressed ways on coping, to staying away from drugs, and live a drug-free life with the help of their 12 Step Program. When present at the meeting, the support group was on Step Seven, reading about asking God to remove their shortcomings. Even though the support group is near the end of reading and using the 12 Step Program as part of their lives, an individual wanting to go into recovery is an attempt in making a change. However, the goal is to stay clean and away from drug to keep from having a relapse to alcohol and substance use. An onset to alcohol and substance

The group was open, but to fully participate in the group the member would be a recovering from addiction,