Nar-Anon Family Groups
A 12-Step Program for Family & Friends of Addicts
In this page: Twelve Steps | Twelve Traditions | Twelve Concepts of Service
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 and Twelve Traditions. 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.
Twelve Steps©
We admitted we were powerless over the addict — that our lives had become unmanageable.
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
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.
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.
Twelve Traditions©
Our group experience suggests that the unity of the Nar-Anon Family Groups depends upon our adherence to these traditions
Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends on unity.
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.
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.
Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other Nar-Anon Family Groups, or NA as a whole.
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.
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.
Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
Nar-Anon Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
Our groups, as such ought never to be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
The Nar-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
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.
Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.
Twelve Concepts of 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.
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.
The final responsibility and authority for Nar-Anon services rests with the Nar-Anon Family Groups.
The Nar-Anon Family Groups delegate to the service structure the authority necessary to fulfill the responsibilities assigned to it.
Effective leadership is highly valued in Nar-Anon. Leadership qualities should be carefully considered when selecting trusted servants.
For each responsibility assigned to the service structure, a single point of decision and accountability should be clearly defined.
Group conscience is the spiritual means by which we invite a loving Higher Power to influence our decisions.
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.
Regular, two-way communications are essential to the fulfillment of all these concepts and the integrity and effectiveness of our services themselves.
All elements of our service structure have the responsibility to carefully consider all viewpoints in their decision-making processes.
Any member of a service body can petition that body for the redress of a personal grievance, without fear of reprisal.
Nar-Anon funds are used to further our primary purpose to carry the message, and must be managed responsibly.
In keeping with the spiritual nature of Nar-Anon, our structure should always be one of service, never of governance.