Welcome to the County Line Area
of Narcotics Anonymous
Serving: Agoura Hills, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village in Ventura County, California
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Serving: Agoura Hills, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village in Ventura County, California
NA is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem. We are recovering addicts who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. This is a program of complete abstinence from all drugs. There is only one requirement for membership, the desire to stop using. We suggest that you keep an open mind and give yourself a break. Our program is a set of principles written so simply that we can follow them in our daily lives. The most important thing about them is that they work.
There are no strings attached to NA. We are not affiliated with any other organizations. We have no initiation fees or dues, no pledges to sign, no promises to make to anyone. We are not connected with any political, religious, or law enforcement groups, and are under no surveillance at any time. Anyone may join us regardless of age, race, sexual identity, creed, religion, or lack of religion.
We are not interested in what or how much you used or who your connections were, what you have done in the past, how much or how little you have, but only in what you want to do about your problem and how we can help. The newcomer is the most important person at any meeting, because we can only keep what we have by giving it away. We have learned from our group experience that those who keep coming to our meetings regularly stay clean.
For more information on Narcotics Anonymous,
please go to the: Narcotics Anonymous World Services Website
August 14, 2026 |
Letting go of our limitations |
| Page 236 |
| "We don't have to settle for the limitations of the past. We can examine and reexamine our old ideas." |
| Basic Text, p. 11 |
| Most of us come to the program with a multitude of self-imposed limitations that prevent us from realizing our full potential, limitations that impede our attempts to find the values that lie at the core of our being. We place limitations on our ability to be true to ourselves, limitations on our ability to function at work, limitations on the risks we're willing to take--the list seems endless. If our parents or teachers told us we would never succeed, and we believed them, chances are we didn't achieve much. If our socialization taught us not to stand up for ourselves, we didn't, even if everything inside us was screaming to do so. In Narcotics Anonymous, we are given a process by which we can recognize these false limitations for what they are. Through our Fourth Step, we'll discover that we don't want to keep all the rules we've been taught. We don't have to be the life-long victims of past experiences. We are free to discard the ideas that inhibit our growth. We are capable of stretching our boundaries to encompass new ideas and new experiences. We are free to laugh, to cry, and, above all, to enjoy our recovery. |
| Just for Today: I will let go of my self-imposed limitations and open my mind to new ideas. |
The Steps are in order for a reason; each one prepares us for the next. We acknowledge that our way hasn't worked when we surrender to Step One. Some members boil it down to a single acknowledgment: I need something different. This admission opens the door for us to recognize our need for restoration in Step Two and to make a decision in Step Three. With each of these first three Steps, we surrender a little more. In exchange, we gain hope and enjoy glimpses of freedom.
Surrender takes on new meaning when we get to Steps Six and Seven. Sure, we were sick of some shortcomings, but others were still useful. We were rather fond of one or two that we believed defined us. Still other defects kept us safe; we may even credit some of them with our survival out there. To become entirely ready to release the whole list, we ask ourselves, "Are they still serving us in our new way of life? What would life be like without them?" The answer is always "a little freer."
With humility, we surrender our shortcomings to a Higher Power and ask for them to be removed. More than one sponsor has pointed out that "the Seventh Step doesn't go on to say 'and we lived happily ever after without them,' does it?" Instead, this Step Seven surrender opens us to guidance and requires us to do some more work. Many of us find that we're more receptive to the suggestions of our sponsors, trusted friends, and our own insights. When we start to feel ourselves reach for a defective reaction, we make an effort to choose a principled response instead. We surrender, again and again, deepening our commitment to living by spiritual principles and inviting them to counter our worst instincts.