A Special Editorial Page Report

NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS HELPS ADDICTS REBUILD SHATTERED LIVES

As directed, I looked for a blond woman pushing a baby stroller. She turned
up as scheduled at Fort Lauderdale's 12Step House, along with 150 other
recovering drug addicts whose destructive motto used to be: ``We live to
use, and use to live.''

Now healthier guidelines drive these members of Narcotics Anonymous. Many
will say, solemnly and with fierce belief, ``I live in my recovery.''

In a sprawling building on Southwest 23rd Street, they gathered to
reinforce their sobriety in a process that can seem strange to a newcomer.
It's a noisy and varied group: 80 percent are white, half are female, two
men at my table just got out of jail. Professionals, menial workers, all
slices of South Florida's world were represented here on a sultry Wednesday
night in July.

Toddlers ran around, dodging the billiards tables, while folding chairs
scraped loudly across the floor. Friends embraced emotionally in this
fraternity and sorority of those who hit bottom and are climbing slowly out
of the abyss.

Celebration of success in starting the journey or staying clean brought
genuine applause. Three women were called forward to be given white plastic
chips, with an NA logo, signifying each one's surrender of her old way of
life on drugs.

Then came awards of different colored chips for 30 days of being drugfree,
for 60 day, 90 days for six months, nine months, a year. The climactic
award for ``multiple years'' went to a man who accepted his honor amid
shouts of congratulations.

The main speaker, a woman in her 40s struggling like the others to stay
clean, dwelled on Step 7 of the 12Step program. For an outsider, it's not
easy to figure out why ``working the steps'' is effective, but I eventually
concluded success doesn't depend on my understanding or anyone else's.

It's enough to realize NA and the 12 steps save lives. Which they do, and
which many highly educated professional therapists have accepted as fact.

The steps, originally conceived by an older organization, Alcoholics
Anonymous, are thought about or studied daily to help addicts overcome
their disease. The first step is the most critical: ``We admitted that we
were powerless over our addiction, that our lives had become unmanageable.''

In her intensely personal talk about Step 7 ``We humbly asked Him to
remove our shortcomings'' the speaker told in raw, colorful language how
hard it was to accept humility. She knew all about humiliation, having
suffered it repeatedly, but little about being humble until a wrenching
turning point.

At a holiday party, she picked up a book about addiction and was deeply
affected by it. She started to shake, to sweat, to cry, and fell to her
knees, asking God to take her defects for a day.

Since then, her life is better. Not perfect; she still gets angry, but not
as often.

One hurdle for newcomers is the concept of God, which in the 12step
approach has a broad definition. It can encompass a traditional view of
God, or can, for example, mean the beauty of nature, or a belief in
goodwill and peace.

NA members have turned over their lives to the care of God, as it says in
Step 3, ``as we understood Him.'' A spiritual component is important to
NA's success, but not a formal religious belief.

During ``sharing time,'' a male in his 30s said that four years ago he got
out of prison, convinced he would always be a screwup. With NA's help, for
which he was profusely grateful, he now is married, has a job and owns a
house. He thought none of that ever would be part of his life.

An outsider who listens carefully and lets the NA message seep into his
consciouness without fighting it begins to appreciate what is happening.
These recovering addicts have found a practical way to rebuild the ruins of
their formerly shattered lives.

That's why an organization with no dues, no hierarchy, no membership list,
no attendance records and no acceptance of money from anyone except members
has grown so astonishingly fast. In 1978 there were fewer than 200
registered NA groups in three nations; in 1983, the total had grown to
2,966 regular NA meetings in a dozen countries.

By 1994, NA knew of 19,822 weekly meetings in 70 countries. In Broward
County alone this year, 83 NA meetings convene every week weekdays,
weekends, morning, afternoon and night.

NA works. It's enough to realize that.