August 23

Our Literature speaks of our Living skills becoming, "reduced to the animal level" and an accompanying loss of conscience caused by our drug use. Conscience can be described as the use of our Morality to Guide our Actions. This animalistic state is associated with the compulsive nature of our disease.

We needed drugs and would let nothing stand in the way of our obtaining them. We react to situations immediately like an animal acting on instinct instead of taking time to think of the consequences of our behaviors. Our decision making process doesn't automatically change just from getting Clean.

We can even have similar behaviors with some time in Recovery, especially if we find ourselves becoming obsessive, in any area of our Lives. Narcotics Anonymous teaches us to put the I. ntellect before the E. motion. We Learn through Step One that we are powerless over our first thought, and that sometimes it comes from our disease.

Some members have said, "My first thought is always a felony. Through the N.A. Program, we learn to use a set of Spiritually Based Tools that can restore our Sanity and as a result, our conscience.

We gain a "pause button" which allows us to think before we act. We can call our Sponsors or other Recovering addicts with experience in the situations we deal with, who can Guide us toward a New Way Of Living. In the Fourth Step, we take Inventory of our Morality so that we can stop damaging ourselves by violating our own Beliefs. We learn to Trust and Rely on a Loving Higher Power to Help us Live beyond our defects of character and find Freedom from self.

This Power Helps our actions move toward Helping other addicts escape the hell we once lived. We no longer have to go through Life constantly trapped by the pain of problems we've brought on ourselves.