Anyone who has gone from thinking, “I can handle drugs” to realizing “the drugs now handle me” may be ready to face the question, “Am I an addict?” Recovering addicts in Narcotics Anonymous have asked that question and gone on find people who care and are willing to help.

Narcotics Anonymous is an international, community-based association of recovering drug addicts with over 70,000 weekly meetings in 144 countries worldwide. The Mid-America Region of NA serves dozens of groups located in the state of Kansas, as well as small parts of the states of Oklahoma and Colorado.

This region now has 76 groups with 281 meetings per week, according to the website, www.marscna.net.

Local meetings are listed on the Great Bend Tribune’s Support Groups page, which is published on the first Saturday of each month. The information is also available at the above website or by calling 620-603-0920 for an automated menu of meeting times and locations. There are also online meetings via Zoom, and these can be found on the “meeting finder” page of the website.

The Mid-America Region HELPLINE can be reached by calling 855-732-4673. Letters to the Mid-America Region of Narcotics Anonymous can be addressed to P.O. Box 3534, Salina, KS 67402-3534.

“Our message is simple; an addict, any addict, can stop using, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live,” says a Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet, “Welcome to Narcotics Anonymous.”

According to the website: “Narcotics Anonymous 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. These Narcotics Anonymous meetings are established and run by Narcotics Anonymous Groups.”

The website also provides access to events, literature, and a daily spiritual reading, available in English, Spanish or German.

It doesn’t matter whether our not you’re sure you’re an addict. “Am I an addict?” is a personal question only you can answer. The website has a self-questionnaire developed by recovering addicts that addresses this question.

In-person meetings are a great way to find help from people who care and can relate to the struggled of addiction or drug dependence. Many who attend their first meeting feel self-conscious but if you allow yourself time to listen (and maybe share), you can make up your own mind. As the saying goes, “Keep coming back – it work!”