BACK TO THE BASIC - Narcotics Anonymous

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BACKTOTHEBASICI believe that we as a Fellowship are guided by a greater consciousness, a lovingand caring God. By Antoinette W. Bishop of Hampton, VirginiaThis material is copyright protected and may be reproduced for personal useof any member of Narcotics Anonymous but may not be reproduced for sale orprofit.

BACK TO THE BASICTable of ContentsGetting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2Keep It Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Therapeutic value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Professional therapy treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33Seeking The Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Sponsorship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Sponsorship is not just for the newcomer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Recipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8Sharing Our Experience, Strength, and Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Basic Text Step Study GuidesStep One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192021232526272829313234Personal Inventory WorksheetsStep One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Step Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373838392

Step Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41Step Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Step Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Step Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Step Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44Step Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45Step Eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46Step Twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Basic Text Tradition Study GuidesTradition One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tradition Twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3484950505152535455565758

BACK TO THE BASICGetting StartedI believe that we as a Fellowship are being guided by a greater consciousness, aloving and caring God.The beauty about working the Narcotics Anonymous Program is that there is noright or wrong way to work it. Trying to explain working the program is notsomething that can be easily done. How can we adequately explain somethingthat can be done hundreds of different ways and still be right? Trying to explainit usually ends in complicating the heck out this very simple program. So I amgoing to share how it has worked for me and more than two thousands otherrecovering addicts like me who have used these working guides and obtainedyears of continuous recovery.We have to change our self-destructive drug induced behavior by changing ourpatterns of thinking. This can happen by daily practice of picking up the tools ofNA: The 12 steps, 12 traditions, literature, Serenity Prayer, phone numbers,sponsor, and slogans.These step and tradition worksheet study guides have offered many recoveringaddicts a successfully proven way to learn how to live and maintain a drug-freelifestyle. The inventory sheets were first written in 1982 before the Basic Textwas written on Step One, Two and Three. Inventory sheets for all 12 of the steps,the Basic Text Step Study Guides and the Tradition Worksheets were first writtenin 1985 and rewritten in 1992-1993. During the rewriting period, I tried onincorporate other addicts study work into the already existing work. I learnedthree shocking realities. Many addicts would not share their worksheets andclung to them in secrecy. While other addicts around the country who werewilling to share only had step work for steps One, Two and Three. And I foundno tradition worksheet at all.Old-timers can only share with other addicts what has worked for them. Theycannot guarantee that it will work for us too. Although we have a common4

struggle with the disease of addiction, we are also individual people who mustfind our own unique blend of solutions. We can learn what works for us only bytrying it out in our own lives. Ask others what has worked for them. The key iswillingness. The goal is to achieve progress not perfection. To stay on track it isimportant to remember to return again and again “Back to the Basic”. ManyRelapsers used these recovery-working sheets to help them to return “Back to theBasic” in their recovery. They started studying and working the steps andtraditions, attending meetings, talking to other addicts and realize that all theiryears of work has not be lost.For many of us who have used these guides 15- 20 years in our personal recoveryand with our sponsorees we have found a new level of recovery was beingoffered to us. Each time with daily practice in learning the principles laid out inthe first written program of recovery, the Basic Text, more and more was beingrevealed to us as we continued our journey on this wonderful adventure of life.HistoryMany of the suffering addicts I sponsored were just coming off kicking drugs athome, in the streets, in the hospitals, detox or treatment centers anyway,anywhere they could. For some of us our thinking was foggy and unclear, whilestill others suffered from brain damage. Some had grave emotional and mentaldisorders.Necessity is the Mother of inventions. This book was not a deliberate plan.January 1982, when I got clean, before the Basic Text was published, we workedsteps the same way as our predecessors in the AA Fellowship. After the BasicText was published a need to do something differently arose.Many addicts whose thinking had not cleared yet could not comprehend thesimple program as outlined in the Basic Text. They needed an aid to help themin studying the steps. That is how “Back To the Basic” (Text) accidentallyevolved from a series of questions and notes originally prepared by me, as a NAsponsor to aid in helping the newcomers I worked with to learn and apply the“Twelve Step” work suggested by the Narcotics Anonymous Program. I believethat the writing of this book was no accident, but in reality the results of beingguided by a greater consciousness, a loving and caring God.About three years into sponsoring fellow addicts I realized that something wasdefinitely missing in the recovery work we were studying. Many of us realizedwe were doing just find when we were alone until we had to deal with our5

husbands, wives, children, and co-workers. Our first thought was to get rid ofthese people because we only felt bad when dealing with them. We werelearning to recover personally, but not learning to recover in the area of socialskills necessary to interact with other human beings. Something had to be doneabout this dilemma.The Basic Text stated that our living skills were reduced to the animal level andthat our spirits were broken and the capability to feel human was lost. From thisstatement I realized that we were learning to mend the broken spirit andlearning how to recover in our own skins, but we were not doing anything tolearn living or social skills. The missing pieces of the puzzle were found in thetraditions that teach us 12 principles for recovering in a group of two or morepersons. Hence the birth of the 12 Tradition work sheets study guide were born.We found out that if we applied these same principles in our family lives athome as we learned to practice them in the NA rooms, we began to developsocial skills and interdependence relationships.Sharing the history allows the newcomers and addicts with 10 or less years theopportunity to know how we did it using the first written program of recoveryfor addicts, the Basic Text. This book is also a reminder of how many us used theBasic Text before the message of Narcotics Anonymous was diluted by RecoveryTreatment Centers and other organizations that use a 12-step method as a part oftheir treatment, but do not adhere to the 12 Traditions of NA. This knowledgewill give the new generation of addicts a chance never afforded to them before.The opportunity to see HOW (Honesty, Open-mindedness, Willingness) we didit in the early day of the Basic Text is offered in this book.Keep It SimpleWorking the twelve steps and attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings has atherapeutic value, but it is not therapy. The purpose of working the 12 steps isto provide an individual with the means to heal themselves and their life, fromthe destructive violence power of addiction. The therapeutic value effect alsorefers to the restorative power of working the 12 steps and 12 traditions as wellas guiding us addicts to a more healthful, constructive, productive lifestyle.Working the 12 steps and 12 traditions provides a plan for corrective action thatfurther promotes healing recovery. This corrective action is necessary for usaddicts to renew ourselves mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.6

Professional therapy treatment is different and separate from the therapeuticvalue effects of the NA 12-step Program. Therapy is treatment; a cure; a remedyto underlining issues in an addict’s life. Often working the 12-steps enhances anindividual therapy, but the two, Therapy and the self-help NA 12-Step Programshould not be confused. They are each a valuable separate process with differentoutcomes and purposes.When the NA 12-Step Program lose the “KEEP IT SIMPLE” wisdom, gettingclean becomes overwhelming and too monumental for newcomers and oldtimers alike. That’s why the foundering predecessors of all 12-step programshad a vision. This was a vision of a 12-step plan that would be a simpleguideline for recovery. A simple plan that will work if you work it. It isimperative that we all remember how vital the “KEEP IT SIMPLE” is to thesuccess of our recovery program.Seeking The SolutionToday in recovery we are no longer seeking problems. Today we are seekingsolutions. What is the solution? First we must acknowledge the problem. Manynewcomers come into the rooms with 30 days clean and they have workedthrough all twelve steps and none of the traditions. Many older-timers complainabout this affect on our unity as a fellowship. While lots of old-timers manyyears ago stopped coming to meeting and giving away what was so freely givento them. They stopped showing the newcomer how to follow our spiritualprinciples and our traditions. Many believe that the message of NarcoticsAnonymous has been diluted by Recovery Treatment Centers and otherorganizations that use a 12-step method as a part of their treatment, but do notadhere to the twelve traditions of NA, the ties that bind us together.You will be truly amazed by the simplicity of the answer given by many oldtimers with 15 or more years clean. The answer to all the ills and healing of theconfused, diluted NA message and problems in NA service work isSPONSORSHIP. Sponsorship, you may say, that is too simple to work.In 2 or 3 years the newcomers will become the group service representatives(GSR), sponsors, subcommittee chairs, special workers, etc. We must get thenewcomers when they first come through the doors and through sponsorshipguide them through the 12 steps and the 12 traditions of Narcotics Anonymous.If we show them the way, they will rise to the occasion equipped to continue tocarry the message of NA, “That an addict, any addict can stop using drugs, losethe desire to use and find a new way to live”.7

Sponsorship is not just for the newcomerSponsorship is not just for the newcomer. Addicts with substantial clean timealso need a sponsor. Old-timers often find that while many expectations areplaced upon us, often our own needs are ignored and unfulfilled. Becauserecovery is an ongoing process, sponsorship also needs to remain an ongoingprocess.Here is the shared experience of one addict who has more than 20 years clean.In my Area, many old-timers with 10, 15, or more years clean have never workedthrough the entire Twelve Steps of Narcotics Anonymous. For example, oneaddict with 15 years only completed Step Seven. Many addicts with substantialclean time who have never worked all twelve steps share the same story. Everytime they got a new sponsor, the sponsor took them back to Step One.When I was looking for a new sponsor, I told my potential sponsors what step Iwas working at the time. Surprisingly enough, when I asked them what stepthey were on, none were working on any of the twelve steps of NA. Over half ofthem said that, after 15 or more years clean, they had never completed work pastStep Six or Seven. I was on my eleventh time working through all 12 steps ofNA, and had completed my written work on Step Eleven.Every addict I spoke to would agree to sponsor me only if I started over at StepOne. Why? Because they did not have a working knowledge of the 12 Steps ofNA. They could not give away something they did not have. Those who hadworked all 12 of the steps had done so once, many years ago. The mostmiserable human being on this planet is an addict who does not have any drugsand does not have any recovery either. Even though they were experiencinggreat emotional pain and suffering, many of them saw no need to work the 12steps of NA again. I believe that if you do not have a home group in NA, you are“homeless.” Some of these homeless old-timers would come to a meeting onlyonce a year to pick up their medallion, showing us meeting-makers that NAworks.Finally, I spoke with an addict who had less clean time than I did. I explainedthat I was on Step Eleven, and was willing to start all over again on Step Oneafter completing Step Eleven and Step Twelve. Wow! What a concept! Afterlistening to what I needed for my recovery, she agreed to work with me. Thatwas the closest I had to a “yes” answer, so I jumped at the opportunity. Todayshe is my sponsor and she is still working steps with me on a regular basis.Although the custom has never been written in any NA literature, the unwrittenrule etched in stone is “every time you get a new sponsor, no matter what step8

you are on, you must start over again on Step One.” As a hard and fast rule, thismay work for the newcomer, but in working with old-timers I discovered that Ihad to meet them where they were in their personal recovery and do whatwould work best for them, rather than what was easier for me as a sponsor. If Ihad not kept the same sponsor for ten years before she stopped going tomeetings, working on steps with her sponsor, finally relapsing on drugs, I mightnot have ever finished the 12 steps of NA either. There but for the grace of Godgo I.Continued sponsorship helps us to avoid the old-timer’s disease of “too manyyears, but not enough days.” Complacency, which causes many addicts with tenor more years to relapse, is our number one killer. We only get a daily reprievefrom this disease. According to our Basic Text, “when we stop working andliving these steps, the recovery process ceases.” Once again, our feelings becomeoverwhelming and the pain of living without the use of drugs becomesunbearable. The pain, hopelessness, desperation and despair return. Many of usrelapse on the drugs, some experience mental or emotional breakdowns, andsadly, some of us commit suicide. From our experience, we have learned that“our disease resurfaced and continued to progress until in desperation wesought help from each other in Narcotics Anonymous.” This is as true for theold-timer as for the newcomer struggling to stay clean.The Basic Text warns us “there is one thing more than anything else that willdefeat us in our recovery, this is an attitude of indifference or intolerance towardspiritual principles.” Such an attitude attacks us old-timers in a very subtle way,taking over our lives so gradually that it goes unnoticed. Before we know it, weno longer feel comfortable in the rooms of NA. If we old-timers no longer do thethings we need to do for our recovery, such as helping newcomers and workingsteps with our sponsors, our complacency affects us so adversely that some usjust stop coming to meetings, while others stay in the rooms but get sicker andsicker. Then some significant “life on life’s terms” event occurs, and we oldtimers find ourselves unconnected and unprotected because we feel the roomsare no longer a safe place for us. Sponsorship helps old-timers to safeguard ourrecovery with vigilance, lest we lose our spiritual soundness and attitude oftolerance to other addicts who have not yet learned how to practice spiritualprinciples in their new way of living without drugs.Without a sponsor, many of us do not stay clean based on a spiritual awakening.Instead, we stay clean by chance, fear, self-will, stubbornness, or addictiverationalization. At some point, these non-spiritual methods no longer work. Wedid not use accidentally, so why do many of us accidentally stay clean? We mustremember that “we suffer from a disease for which there is no known cure” butcan be arrested through the Twelve Steps of NA. Because this is truly a life and9

death issue, we suggest that we continue to apply this proven program ofrecovery that has helped so many addicts who have gone before us. This canbest be done with a sponsor.Sponsorship is important for the newcomer as well as the old-timer. Sponsoringnewcomers, and working with a sponsor ourselves, will help us to remain openminded and teachable. The longer we stay clean, the clearer our thinkingbecomes, but we still need support and direction. Not just anyone, but anotheraddict who knows us well enough to tell when we have slipped back into ourdisease, can best help us in our recovery.It is important that addicts are willing to be active participants in their ownrescue. Therefore, we suggest that as sponsors, old-timers still go to meetings ona regular basis, have a working knowledge of all Twelve Steps, and still write onthe Steps as part of their personal recovery program. Likewise, we suggest thatold-timers get sponsor who still go to meetings on a regular basis, have aworking knowledge of all Twelve Steps, and who still write on the Twelve Stepsof Narcotics Anonymous for their own personal recovery program. If we do notcontinue to move forward, we are in danger of moving backward.10

The RecipeRemember the steps are just a suggested way of finding a new way to live, notdogma. In NA we do not have to follow these suggestions or accept any specificbelieve in order to belong to NA. Through our hard won experiences we havelearned the therapeutic value of studying and writing on the steps to be aneasier, proven way to obtain the drug-free lifestyles we see enjoyed by countlessothers who have gone before us.In this section there are three set of recovery worksheets: A Basic Text StudyGuide for all 12 of the steps; Personal Inventory Worksheet for all 12 of thesteps; and a Basic Text Tradition Worksheet for all 12 of the traditions.

the Basic Text Step Study Guides and the Tradition Worksheets were first written in 1985 and rewritten in 1992-1993. During the rewriting period, I tried on incorporate other addicts study work into the already existing work. I learned three shocking realities. Many addicts would not share their worksheets and clung to them in secrecy.

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