The Bay Cities Area of Narcotics Anonymous serves as a vital resource for individuals and families affected by addiction throughout the coastal South Bay region of Los Angeles County. By coordinating local NA groups, maintaining accurate meeting information, and supporting area-wide service efforts, the Bay Cities Area helps ensure that anyone seeking recovery can easily find help. The area supports meetings in these communities Carson, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Long Beach, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Signal Hill, Torrance, Torrrance, Wilmington, strengthening connections between members, promoting unity, and fostering a safe, consistent message of recovery for the broader community.
Admit no weakness, conceal all shortcomings, deny every failure, go it alone--that was the creed many of us followed. We denied that we were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable, despite all evidence to the contrary. Many of us would not surrender without the assurance there was something worth surrendering to. Many of us took our First Step only when we had evidence that addicts could recover in Narcotics Anonymous.
In NA, we find others who've been in the same predicament, with the same needs, who've found tools that work for them. These addicts are willing to share those tools with us and give us the emotional support we need as we learn to use them. Recovering addicts know how important the help of others can be because they've been given that help themselves. When we become a part of Narcotics Anonymous, we join a society of addicts like ourselves, a group of people who know that we help one another recover.
Early in our exposure to Narcotics Anonymous, many of us believe that mere abstinence will be enough. We tell a member who asks us if we've started working with a sponsor yet, "Oh, I'm fine as long as I'm not using. I don't want to do the Steps and have a sponsor and all that."
The member asks, "Well, weren't you willing to do things you didn't really want to do to feed your addiction? So why not apply that logic to staying clean and read about the First Step?" Reason tells us that these are not parallel issues; we understand what we got out of getting high but are uncertain about what Step One would do for us. We don't say this, however, because we are sure this member will have an answer to that too.
"Okay, then," the member says, wheels turning. "How about this: Are you willing to become willing?" As it turns out, we are--because we keep coming back.
Most of us do find that willingness to begin the next phase of our journey. For some, we quickly saw the evidence of recovery working in other members' lives. We actively wanted to move forward and were willing to do whatever it took. For others, willingness came when our discomfort outpaced our resistance. For still others, we found it only after going back out and using more.
Working on Step One and staring straight into the mirror of our unmanageability can elicit intense emotions: shame, regret, remorse, anger, fear, and doubt. In response, a member said, "The stuff of our past can either be weight or be fuel." We don't want to be weighed down anymore, so we become willing to explore our burdens. We learn how to convert the pain of our past into fuel, and we use that fuel to propel ourselves further down the road toward freedom.
