Welcome to the Dorset Area of Narcotics Anonymous website

We have created this website in order to better carry the message of recovery to the still suffering addict.
Recovery from drug addiction is possible in NA.
We are interested in what you want to do about your problem and how we can help

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Just for Today

October 28, 2026

Attitudes

Page 314

"We can also use the steps to improve our attitudes."

Basic Text, p. 55

Ever have a day when everything seems to be working against you? Do you go through periods when you are so busy taking people's inventories you can barely stand yourself? What about when you find yourself snapping at your co-worker or loved one for no reason? When we find ourselves in this bleak frame of mind, we need to take action.

At any point in the day, we can set aside a few moments and take a "spot inventory." We examine how we are reacting to outside situations and other people. When we do, we may find that we are suffering from a plain old "bad attitude." A negative outlook can hurt our relationship with our Higher Power and the people in our lives. When we are honest with ourselves, we frequently find that the problem lies with us and our attitude.

We have no control over the challenges life gives us. What we can control is how we react to those challenges. At any point in time, we can change our attitude. The only thing that really changes in Narcotics Anonymous is us. The Twelve Steps give us the tools to move out of the problem and into the solution.

Just for Today: Throughout the day, I will check my attitude. I will apply the steps to improve it.

Spiritual Principle a Day

October 29, 2026

Integrity through Personal Responsibility

Page 312

"Everyone makes mistakes; promptly admitting when we are wrong shows integrity and responsibility for our actions."

Living Clean, Chapter 6, "Work"

Perception is a funny thing. Self-centeredness shapes the way we experience our lives, magnifying our own wants and minimizing our responsibility and accountability. It can be like walking through a carnival funhouse filled with distorted mirrors or echo chambers--our senses deceive us. We have a hard time perceiving reality for what it is, especially when it comes to responsibility for our lives and our actions. Checking our perspective with other addicts helps.

Working the program--especially the daily inventory of Step Ten--helps us make our way through the funhouse of personal responsibility. As we come to terms with our powerlessness and unmanageability, we blame others less for the wreckage of our past. We begin taking personal responsibility. As we take inventory and ask for help letting go of our defects and shortcomings, we lose the need to make excuses for current actions and choices. We take responsibility for making past wrongs right, and we make a practice of checking our perceptions regularly. We shift our senses away from the carnival distortions and get a better perspective on ourselves and our lives. The Steps help us get better and better at being the type of people we can be proud of being.

When we make a wrong turn on our way through the funhouse and find a dead end, it doesn't do us much good to pretend we're not lost. We ask for direction, and we backtrack if we have to. We make mistakes because we are human; we correct them because we have integrity.

My disease distorts my view of myself and the world around me. I will use regular inventory to adjust my skewed perceptions so that I can find my way out of the madhouse of addiction.