Addicts often feel terminally unique. We're sure that no one used drugs like we did or had to do the things that we did to get them. Feeling that no one really understands us can keep us from recovery for many years.

But once we come to the rooms of Narcotics Anonymous, we begin to lose that feeling of being "the worst" or "the craziest." We listen as members share their experiences. We discover that others have walked the same twisted path that we've walked and still have been able to find recovery. We begin to believe that recovery is available to us, too.

As we progress in our own recovery, sometimes our thinking is still insane. However, we find that when we share the hard time we may be having, others identify, sharing how they have dealt with such difficulties. No matter how troubled our thinking seems, we find hope when others relate to us, passing along the solutions they've found. We begin to believe that we can survive whatever we're going through to continue on in our recovery.

The gift of Narcotics Anonymous is that we learn we are not alone. We can get clean and stay clean by sharing our experience, our strength, and even our crazy thinking with other members. When we do, we open ourselves to the solutions others have found to the challenges we face.

A lot of us come into the rooms lacking social skills and are too intimidated to join in a group activity. Commitments are filled, so we don't see a role for us. Or many are open and still we don't fit, or so we think. A member we don't know at all is sure we can handle the job of greeting people when they arrive at the meeting and helping to find seats for latecomers. But why would we want to get involved? Then people might expect us to show up and stay. Oh, that's how it works. That's how they get you.

And it does work. When many of us start on a path of service in NA, we're recruited by a member who's skilled at practicing inclusiveness. Maybe we're attracted by their enthusiasm for service, even a little intrigued by what makes NA tick outside the meeting. Some of the members doing service seem to be really enjoying themselves. Maybe it's not as tedious or serious as it sounds. They ask us to help with a particular task, note our skill in this arena, and suggest we join a committee. In that committee, they're inclusive, asking us, for instance, if we think conducting business this way or that will help to carry the message well. We participate as best we can, and soon the service "they" becomes "we." A place at the table has been set, and we're sitting at it.

We need each other's experience with the Steps to recover, and we need each other's diversity of ideas, perspectives, skills, and knowledge for our groups and activities to function and function well. When we have greater representation of voices, we learn more. We find value in enhancing our understanding and empathy for people new to our group or service body. We end up doing things we've never done before. In service, we join forces to create something for others, sharing our journey, sharing space, and sharing tasks.

Including others helps us to belong even more.