Wanda B. and Joe C. – NA Speakers – “No Longer Alone, We Recover Together”

This speaker tape is of two excellent NA speakers, Wanda and Joe. They tell their story of how drug addiction left them isolated, lonely, and feeling helpless. Thankfully the twelve steps and the program of Narcotics Anonymous was introduced to them and there lives drastically changed for the better. This tape is VERY well done and is SURE to be motivating and uplifting!

Letting go and doing the right thing for the right reason

I’m a “show me” person. I’m one of those people who had to get my own understanding. When I joined the area to do service work, I lead a group book discussion with experienced members and my sponsor. As I started doing those readings, started listening, and started applying and exercising the things that I was being shown and taught, I started realizing that I’m not alone anymore. I saw there was something bigger than me, it’s Narcotics Anonymous, and it is worldwide. When I want to do it my way, I need to go back to the book. I need to find out what the book is suggesting, what my sponsor is suggesting, and because we like to put our own spin on things, I need to pay attention.  Anyways, I took my first commitment with region. I was a regional representative and when they questioned me they said, “What are you going to do when the stuff hits the fan?” I think I had a year clean, and my answer to them was that stuff had been hitting the fan since the day I got in the program so nothing is going to change.

I didn’t become homeless until after I came into recovery. I went to jail twice in recovery too. I had to live in my mother’s house, which was one of those houses where rules changed every single day. One day you can cook until seven and then stay up until eight, but you can’t make popcorn after six. You can’t watch TV after a different time depending on the day. Everyday, there was something different. How could she treat me like this? But thank God for Narcotics Anonymous because it taught me how to bend with the wind. I had to be a little flexible. I had to understand that I was paralyzed by the situation that I created for myself, but that I wasn’t hopeless and helpless. Tomorrow was another day. I got to go go talk to recovering addicts that I needed to talk to somebody spiritually grounded. I’m grateful that Narcotics Anonymous has taught me that I’m just not as powerful as I think I am but as powerful as I want to be.

I was traveling three four times a week on a train, and when I got off for work, I was walking around looking for a street mat, trying to find a place place to live. I could afford the housing in the Trenton area. I had a good paying job, but nobody at all would take my hundred dollar deposit to run a credit check. They wouldn’t even accept me. I’m honored to say that I was taking the steps that I needed to take at the time and knew something was going to happen in my favor. One of the other important things that I understood, and I learned about myself during that uncertianty, was that we addicts always want to know the outcome of things. We do not like uncertainty. We must have the answer. We want to know what’s exactly going to happen and how its going to happen. They told me to let go and “just do the right thing for the right reason.” With less than 48 hours to go and I would be homeless, a place finally came through. Thank God I did those things that were suggested to me, today I like my life and the way things worked out, it really is beautiful.