In this episode, we hear from Paulette. Paulette reflects on 29 years of secular recovery, describing how she found her higher power in the fellowship of NA itself, adapted the 12 Steps to her own values, and built a meaningful, authentic life — earning her bachelor's degree at 60 — without ever believing in a supernatural god.

This share was recorded at the September 2025 New Mexico NA Convention where PAULETTE presented on the topic “Our Need and Capacity for Spiritual Growth is Infinite.”

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For more information on recovery from addition through Narcotics Anonymous 12 step program from a secular, non-religious approach, please check out secularna.org

** This podcast is not formally affiliated in any way with Narcotics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous World Services. **

Gary came into Narcotics Anonymous in 1987 after a therapist handed him a helpline number — not by choice, but by accident — and found himself at home almost immediately, despite rejecting the program's religious underpinnings. Over nearly four decades of uninterrupted recovery, he has built his clean life around sponsorship, service work, and a fierce commitment to keeping NA meetings safe for newcomers.

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For more information on recovery from addition through Narcotics Anonymous 12 step program from a secular, non-religious approach, please check out secularna.org

** This podcast is not formally affiliated in any way with Narcotics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous World Services. **

Coming into NA at age 46 after a lifetime of addiction, violence, and poverty, Anne Marie found in the rooms something she had never experienced: hope, acceptance, and the possibility of change. Over nearly 13 years of recovery, she discovered that special interest groups — secular, queer, women-only — provided the smaller, safer containers she needed to surface and integrate the parts of herself she had long hidden, ultimately reframing the program’s concept of god as the growing self-awareness that allows her to choose healing over harm.

Send us Fan Mail

For more information on recovery from addition through Narcotics Anonymous 12 step program from a secular, non-religious approach, please check out secularna.org

** This podcast is not formally affiliated in any way with Narcotics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous World Services. **