 When you're getting clean and sober and picking the 12-step program, should you go with Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous? That's exactly what we're talking about in this video, so stay tuned. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem of focus on the solution. A question I get all the time from people trying to get clean and sober, decided to go into a 12-step program is, do I pick AA or NA? So, please do me a favor and share this video, because you might know somebody who is trying to make the choice, they don't know what to do. And there's a lot of questions, and I really encourage you guys to ask me questions down in the comments. I do a ton of groups where I just open it up for like literally an hour and just say, ask me questions about 12-step programs, because I'm here to educate people, dispel some of the myths, and maybe guide people in the right direction. Alright? So, real quick disclaimer, like I was doing these videos about 12-step programs, I am not affiliated with any of these programs. I am not a spokesperson. I am not the end-all, be-all. I am merely sharing my experience and some of my opinions, okay? Alright, so my personal experience, I've mentioned in other videos that I quote-unquote tried AA, and what I mean by that is I didn't try anything. I just sat in a room, zoned out, stared at a clock, right? So, this last time I got clean almost six years ago, I had actually never even heard about narcotics anonymous. So, when the guys in my sober living house were talking about narcotics anonymous, I'm like, huh, maybe AA didn't work for me, because I'm a drug addict, because part of my story is I started off with alcohol, but moved into prescription painkillers, right? So, I started going to narcotics anonymous meetings, but like, it didn't take long for me to start feeling different. Like, I have this brain, and a lot of us struggle with this, where it notices the differences rather than similarities. Our brain is trying to separate us from everybody else sometimes, and make us think that we're this unique creature. So, when I was hearing these stories in N.A., people were talking about slam and dope, and stealing and robbing, and the things they did, and I'm like, dang, that's pretty hardcore. So, my brain starts telling me, dang, Chris, you're way too much of a wuss to even be part of N.A. But then I didn't feel like AA was my place, because I was a drug addict, right? Well, I just want to make very clear, and this is something that we need to start doing, is noticing like, it's not what these programs are presenting to us. It's the way our brain's processing it. It's the way our brains are telling us what's right and what's wrong. So many of our thoughts are false, right? So, I was the problem. So, I just realized that I needed to pick a program, especially when I got to the point where I realized that I needed to sponsor and I needed to work the steps. So, which one did I choose? So, I was going to two to three meetings a day, okay, for like months and months and months. I was purely going to meetings just to get out of my own head and listen to other people that helped me out a lot. So, from my experience, okay, now listen, I got sober in Fresno, California, and I'm going to come back to this point in a minute. But, my experience with the two different types of meetings was this. In Narcotics Anonymous, the meetings I went to, I noticed a lot of people sharing about the problem but not much of the solution, right? Like, when I go into a meeting, I am waiting for someone to say something that can potentially save my life. So, when I go to a meeting and they're just kind of like open discussions or something like that, and someone's just kind of like complaining about their day. Now, don't get me wrong, complaining about your day, that's part of what we do in meetings. But, what's the solution? You know what I mean? Because sometimes I go to an NA meeting and like, man, like, I just felt bummed afterwards. I almost wanted to use. Now, when I went to AA meetings, I saw way more people sharing experience, strength, and hope. They gave me this hope. So, no matter how bad their day was, they were offering solutions. They were saying what solutions they were going to do. Like, after this meeting, I'm going to call my sponsor. I'm going to go make an amends to this person. I'm going to meditate, you know, whatever it is. And I was like, okay, cool. It just seemed like they had their stuff together just a little bit more. Now, I do want to make it very clear. 90% of the meetings I went to my first year were Narcotics Anonymous meetings. And you're sitting there like, but Chris, didn't you just say that you didn't like NA meetings as much? Yes, that's true. Now, why did I go to NA meetings more? I will be 1000% honest with you. There was better eye candy. I like checking out the ladies now. I didn't date any of them or flirt with any of them. But at least I knew if the meeting went kind of stale, I could at least check some chicks out, right? And like, I joke about this and I say this to my clients. Like, literally whatever gets your butt in the seat at a meeting, run with it. Like, there was one meeting I went to that had free food. I always went to that meeting. Like, whatever gets you there, go, okay? So basically, I saw more of a solution in AA. I like this, some of the structure and some of the format. So funny story is I ended up meeting my AA sponsor at an NA meeting. And that's a whole nother story about how to get a sponsor. But I ended up working the AA program. So now I just want to jump into some of what I see are the pros and cons of both programs. So the first thing I will say is my personal experience in Fresno, California was I didn't like the NA meetings as much. Now here in Las Vegas, the NA meetings are phenomenal. I can say with absolute certainty that if I would have gotten sober in Las Vegas, Nevada, I would have worked the NA program. Every time I've gone to an NA meeting here in Las Vegas, like, I am moved. Like, the people there, like they're the way they share and like the way they sponsor, like, this is just phenomenal. So like, I just want to make that clear because just where you are in your area, like maybe one meeting is better than the others. So some of the pros and cons about AA, AA is the original. They're the source, right? I remember hearing one of my clients actually share. She's like, you know what, like, you know, when I was going to get drugs, when I was going to get drugs, I didn't want to go to the middleman. I wanted to go to the source. And that's something that I kind of found with AA. It was kind of my thought process. Like, this was the original. Literally every 12 step program is built off of and branches off of Alcoholics Anonymous. So like that big book, like I was able to get in there and like this was the original stuff. Now, a couple of the drawbacks of AA. One of them is, is that there is not a structured when it comes to step work. Okay. So like what that means is like there's no step working guide, which they have in narcotics anonymous. So if you have 50 people in the room and all have 50 different sponsors, everybody might work their steps differently. So sometimes when you're sharing back and forth and trying to get somebody's experience with the steps, like they might have worked their steps a little bit differently, although the overall experience should be the same if you worked it thoroughly. All right. One of the other drawbacks that I found for me personally, it was just something that kind of was for me. And I mentioned this in my last video about atheists and 12 step programs. There was, there was much more about spirituality and it really, it felt a little bit more religious and that might have been the way my brain was processing stuff. Now, as far as narcotics anonymous goes. So with narcotics anonymous, obviously they have the step working guide. So the structure is, is the same for everybody if you're working out that step working guide. So for example, me and like two or three of my buddies would go to like a Starbucks, work on our steps and all of them would be doing the same thing in their steps. And they're like, Oh Chris, what are you doing? And it was something completely different. And they were, so theirs was a little bit more structured. Now, one of the better things about NA that I did enjoy was they focused on spiritual principles more than spirituality. Now, what does that mean? Like this is something that was huge for me because the spirituality aspect was such a difficult thing for me to overcome. But in NA, they focused on just like being a better person. Like what are spiritual principles, right? Honesty, patience, tolerance, understanding, forgiveness. Like basically the good qualities of a human being. Like it is very difficult for someone to sit there and hear about spiritual principles and say, No man, that sounds like a terrible idea to be nice, kind, generous, being of service, helping other people. That sounds crazy. Like you can't really argue with that logic. You know what I mean? So the fact that they promoted spiritual principles, like do you do the right thing when nobody is looking? Are you being selfish, self-centered? Like what are these things? What are your motives? You know what I mean? And I really liked how they promoted that. At the end of the day, I will say this. Go to a bunch of meetings. Go to as many as possible. Go to a variety of them. Go to AA, go to NA. Try the other ones. Try crystal meth anonymous, cocaine anonymous, heroin anonymous. See where you feel comfortable. All right? Like I know dozens and dozens and dozens of alcoholics who work the narcotics anonymous program. I know even more people who are drug addicts who work the alcoholics anonymous program. There is nothing that says you can't work the other program. It's wherever you feel the most comfortable. I have a few minutes left, so let me just get this rant out of the way real quick. Whether you identify as an alcoholic or an addict is completely up to you. But please be respectful of the meeting you're going to. Like I see some people who are so thick-headed and stubborn and they go to AA. They're like, I'm going to say I'm an addict because that's how I identify. Like don't be a jerk, okay? For example, like if you came over to my house, which I hope you don't because that'd be creepy. Like if you came over to my house, I wouldn't ask you to take your shoes off. I have tile floors. I just don't really care. But if I go to your house and you ask me to take my shoes off. Am I going to go? No, I'm not taking my shoes off. I don't take my shoes off of my house. So I'm not going to take my shoes off of your house. Like you'd be a jerk if you did that. So please out of respect for the meeting, identify as whatever the meeting is. AA you're an alcoholic, NA you're a drug addict. Like that's just what we do, okay? It's purely out of respect. Now, sometimes when I was going to three meetings a day, I might go to two NA meetings and one AA meeting. And my brain is really messed up. It goes a million miles a minute. So I might accidentally say I'm an addict in an AA meeting. So the other part of this rant is like it is absolutely ridiculous. And I've never personally experienced it, but I've heard about it before. Like it is absolutely ridiculous to me when somebody in AA asked somebody who identifies as an addict or mentions drugs in a share to leave a meeting. Like that blows my mind, okay? Here's why. People are coming there to have their life saved. And you're going to ask them to leave a meeting over something that trivial, especially when in the big book, in the big books of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson talks about how he used drugs too. So this is something that I dislike about some meetings. But like I said, I've never personally experienced it. So please be respectful, but I don't think it's right to kick somebody out of a meeting for something that trivial. Okay? So anyways, like I said, please do me a favor and share this video. A lot of people have this question, which one do you pick? Like find which one works for you. All right? But if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you are new here, not only do I make videos about addiction recovery, but I make a ton of videos about mental health. Click that little round subscribe button and be sure to check out my entire Ask an Attic playlist right there. Okay? Thanks so much for watching. Don't over complicate things and I will see you next time.