Narateen Principles

THE NAR-ANON/ NARATEEN
12 STEP PROGRAM

The Twelve Steps of Nar-Anon/Narateen are only suggested as a means to provide a framework in which the groups and individuals can find a common ground to build a foundation for recovery. As we seek out our own understanding of a Higher Power, it reveals a way of life for all regardless of their various beliefs or unbelief. Here is the answer to the question:

"How have we found serenity and peace of mind even though challenged with a loved one’s addiction?”.

In a very simple fashion:

  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.

  1. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  2. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  3. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  4. Humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings.
  5. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all.
  6. Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  7. Continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
  8. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the 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. 

NAR-ANON/NARATEEN
FAMILY GROUPS
THE TWELVE TRADITIONS

Our group experience suggests that the unity of the Nar-Anon/Narateen 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/Narateen 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/Narateen Family Groups, or N.A. as a whole.
  5. Each Nar-Anon & Narateen 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/Narateen Twelfth Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centres may employ special workers.
  9. Our groups, as such, ought never to be organised, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
  10. The Nar-Anon/Narateen Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never to 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 N.A. members.
  12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.