Sober Living

When trying to choose AA vs NA, you might find it more appealing to call upon the help of a Higher Power and focus on alcohol as being the main issue if you’re an alcoholic. Or, you might decide that you need to focus on your addiction (to alcohol or to another substance) as a whole and concentrate on yourself as an individual first. Either way, both AA and NA are excellent programs that were created to foster success for those who are struggling with addictions. These are people who have been where you are, and who want to invest in you the way others have invested in them. If you’re relatively new to the idea of getting treatment for your addiction to drugs and/or alcohol, you’ve probably wondered about whether you need AA vs NA. There are probably a lot of words that are used in recovery that you don’t recognize right away.

AA vs NA: Differences and Similarities You Should Know

NA was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1953 by a man named Jimmy Kinnon. The group was created by AA group members who saw a need for fellowship for people addicted to substances other than alcohol. Additionally, AA generally follows a Christian-based approach while NA follows a spiritual approach that can be adapted to any belief system. Ultimately, both AA and NA are effective resources for those struggling with addiction and should be considered when looking for help. Both AA and NA emphasize that success in recovery depends on individual commitment and active participation.

Are alcohol and drugs ruining your life?

You show up, listen to some literature being read out loud, and then the meeting opens for people to share. NA is run very similar to AA, with the 12 Steps being a cornerstone of the program. The biggest difference is that those in NA struggle with an addiction to a drug or drugs, as opposed to just alcohol. NA emphasizes the power of the individual, encouraging a reflective evaluation and personal responsibility for recovery. The role of a higher power is less prevalent in the NA program than in AA. Instead, NA focuses on personal responsibility first, then reliance on a higher power if the individual believes in one.

Narcotics Anonymous (NA) emerged in the 1950s, drawing from the foundational principles of AA but expanding its focus to encompass drug addiction recovery. By evaluating your addiction type, spiritual preferences, and accessibility needs, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your recovery goals. Whether you’re drawn to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, remember that both offer a place where you can find encouragement, share your story, and work toward a healthier, sober future. Anonymity is a fundamental principle in both AA and NA, ensuring a judgment-free environment.

The focus of the programs: Alcohol vs. Drug Addiction

However, if you’re struggling with drug addiction or other addictive behavior, then you may find NA more appealing. NA is often seen as more inclusive, particularly for individuals with poly-substance use disorders. Its broader scope makes it a good fit for those who struggle with drug addiction or a combination of substances. However, because NA is younger than AA, it may be less widely available in certain areas.

Support structures in AA and NA

Additionally, the 12-Step Program is used as the focus of both fellowships, but the type of addiction is always the main point of focus. Introducing the topic of the differences between NA and AA, this blog will provide readers with an overview of the two organizations and explain the distinctions that exist between them. We will explore the history, mission, and purpose of each organization, as well as the unique roles that each plays in providing support for individuals struggling with addiction. Finally, we will discuss the importance of understanding the differences between NA and AA in order to determine which program is best suited for the individual. Research has proven the efficacy of NA and its assistance in helping individuals maintain sobriety.

• Members can share their experiences with others suffering from similar addiction problems.
• Closed meetings are intended for individuals who identify as having an addiction or believe they may have a drug problem.
• Choosing between NA and AA should be guided by personal preferences and the specific support needed for one’s unique path to sobriety.
• Understanding personal needs, substance dependence, and the specific philosophies of AA and NA can guide individuals toward the most appropriate support group.
• In fact, there are many people who feel they could never have recovered from their addictions without them.
• Has a tradition of anonymity, and members do not have to share their full names or any personal details.

A significant historical milestone for AA was the publication of “The Big Book” in 1939. Knowing these differences can greatly affect an individual’s recovery journey. This article will break down the unique aspects of NA and AA, exploring their core principles and how they align with personal recovery goals. By reading this article, you’ll gain a better understanding of how each program works and be more prepared to choose the best path for your specific situation. We’re a nonprofit organization, a resource of leading clinical expertise, and the first Tennessee addiction treatment center to achieve certification from the American Society of Addiction Medicine. At Cumberland Heights, staff, alumni, and advocates walk with each patient through every step on the journey to recovery, helping them rewrite their story – a story of hope, healing, and happiness.

Meeting Structure

• Others may find NA’s inclusive approach to all forms of drug addiction more suited to their recovery journey, especially if they are dealing with multiple or non-alcohol-related substance dependencies.
• The focus in NA meetings is often on unity, personal responsibility, and staying clean one day at a time.
• By leveraging these shared elements, participants can build resilient support networks critical for achieving lasting recovery.
• This inclusivity makes NA a suitable option for those with poly-substance use disorders or addictions unrelated to alcohol.
• They involve acknowledging powerlessness over addiction, seeking help from a higher power or support group, taking personal inventory, making amends, and helping others in their recovery journey.

Both AA and NA play crucial roles in the spectrum of recovery programs available today, each offering unique benefits based on personal circumstances and preferences. For those seeking professional help, West LA Recovery offers compassionate and comprehensive addiction treatment services tailored to individual needs. Their resources can also provide valuable information for individuals in recovery. If you’re considering reaching out for assistance, you can easily contact them.

Unlike AA, which explicitly focuses on alcohol, NA uses broader language, referring to addiction as a general condition rather than tying it to a specific substance. This inclusivity makes NA a suitable option for those with poly-substance use disorders or addictions unrelated to alcohol. AA has helped countless individuals worldwide in their journey to achieve and maintain sobriety. AA meetings can be found in many communities in the United States, making them accessible to those seeking what is the difference between aa and na help with alcoholism.

One study found that 59% of participants who attended 12-Steps programs (AA and NA) remained abstinent after two years, and 58% still attended meetings regularly. Neither AA nor NA is superior to the other, and each has different ways of achieving the same goal. The AA programs may suit you better if you’re struggling with alcohol addiction.

Effective oral dosage of synthetic mescaline is in the 200–400 mg range, with threeorders of magnitude greater than the equivalent dose of lysergic acid diethylamide(LSD) (Beyerstein, 2003;Nichols, 2004). Oralingestion of mescaline appears to have a longer half-life compared to other classicpsychedelics (i.e. 6 h), with peak effects occurring approximately 2 h afteringestion and a total duration lasting 8–12 h (Dasgupta, 2019; Nichols, 2004). Mescaline is metabolizedvia oxidative deamination by liver enzymes, with 87% excreted in the urine after24 h (Dasgupta, 2019;Monte et al., 1997),and animal models show that 28%–46% of mescaline is excreted in the urine unaltered(Cochin et al.,1951). Most users chew the button shaped seeds to produce the hallucinogenic effects, which can last for between 12 to 18 hours. Compared to the other psychedelics, there are few clinical trials exploring the effects of mescaline. Research suggests that this is likely due to its greater onset of action and duration.

• For many, mescaline produces an experience of depersonalization or the dissolution of the ego; everything, including oneself, feels unified.3 This experience can give rise to clear and connected thoughts, self-realization, empathy, and euphoria, each of which can feel profound and deeply meaningful.
• We believe that the most accurate information is found directly in the scientific source.
• Mescaline is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid that is the main psychedelic compound in a range of psychedelic cacti native to the Americas, including peyote, San Pedro, and Peruvian Torch.
• It is stillsupplied by pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and Sigma-Aldrich but istightly controlled, its uses largely limited to forensic analysis and criminal toxicology.It can occasionally be found for sale on the markets of the dark web, alongwith every other designer psychedelic imaginable.
• In a study of 24 hospitalized schizophrenics, one patient was able to return to her home after significant improvement in her condition.
• Our science team must pass long technical science tests, difficult logical reasoning and reading comprehension tests.

Publication types

NA participants in Peyoteceremonies commonly experienced reductions in chronic anxiety, heightened communitysatisfaction, and increased sense of personal worth (Wallace, 1959). Within the NAC, Peyote hasbeen used to treat chronic alcoholism within ethnically oriented residentialtreatment programs (Albaugh andAnderson, 1974). In Western communities, it has been suggested thatmescaline may play a role in the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)and personality disorders (Delgado and Moreno, 1998; Hartogsohn, 2017). Anonymous Internetposts by recreational users describe mescaline as a means of attaining spiritualtransformation, gratitude, compassion, and interconnectedness with the universe(Erowid, 2011, 2012). Although previousresearch suggests beneficial effects of mescaline, it is currently not approved as amedicine by any health authority, and the benefit/risk ratio of mescaline ispresently unknown due to lack of rigorous clinical research.

What Happened to Mescaline?

Along with MDMA, 2C-B, and others, this sets it apart from the tryptamine class of psychedelics, which includes psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. The effects of taking mescaline with other drugs – including over-the-counter or prescribed medications – can be predictable and dangerous. The top of the cactus above ground, or the crown, consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut from the roots and dried. These buttons are generally chewed or soaked in water to produce an intoxicating tea. The hallucinogen may also be ground into powder for oral capsules, or smoked with marijuana and tobacco.

Mescaline

Of the remaining 455, anadditional three were excluded because they reported being under the age of 18(exclusion criteria). The primary mechanism by which mescaline causes hallucinogenic effects is activating 5HT-2A serotonin receptors. All psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin, LSD, and DMT, share this mechanism 3, 18, 19.

• LSD took mescaline’s research crown from the 1950s onwards (see M. Jay Nature 497, 435–436; 2013).
• Read Third Wave’s blog about San Pedro journeys, set and settings, and recovery.
• In the century since it was first synthesized, mescaline has gone from scientific and popular sensation to virtual extinction.
• Some studies imply that LSD is 1,000 to 3,000 times more powerful than mescaline 36, 37.
• The mescaline molecule is related structurally to two hormones secreted by the adrenal glands, adrenaline and noradrenaline; both are catecholamine compounds that take part in the transmission of nerve impulses.

However, mescaline in the form of peyote is legal for religious use by members of the Native American Church (NAC). NAC is a religion that combines Native American beliefs and practices with Christianity and ritualistic peyote use 16, 17. The famous writer was introduced to mescaline after reading one of Osmond’s papers and requested a sample. Huxley then went on to publish his seminal book “The Doors of Perception,” which gave a detailed account of his experiences with mescaline and spurred public interest in the drug 9.

While all groups exhibited broad similarities, the Peyote subgroupreported consuming more doses compared to other groups. This might be due to thebitter taste of Peyote, which is known to induce nausea and vomiting (Erowid, 2009; Nolte and Zumwalt, 1999).It is possible that participants in the Peyote subgroup experienced emesis that canhave warranted repeated dosing to obtain desired subjective effects. Additionally,it is not mesclun drugs clear why the Peyote subgroup reported shorter duration of effects, butone could speculate if it could be due to lower net intake of mescaline (despiteincreased number of doses ingested), due to the alkaloid ratio of the cacti, dose,and experience of emesis. Finally, both San Pedro and Peyote subgroups reportedusing it in a ceremonial context administered by a shamanic practitioner, which isconsistent with previous knowledge about historical use of Peyote (Dasgupta, 2019). The intensity of acute subjective mescaline effects was examined across thesample and within each mescaline subgroup. There were no significant differences inthe ratings of the intensity of these acute subjective effects as a function ofa mescaline subgroup.

A lethal dose has never been identified, probably because it’s too high to be taken accidentally.9 In other words, to the best of our knowledge, nobody has ever died from a mescaline overdose. Drugs that affect a person’s mental state (psychoactive drugs) can also have varied effects depending on a person’s mood (often called the ‘set’) or the environment they are in (the ‘setting’). Mescaline is a potent hallucinogen found in the peyote cactus that causes visions and other sensory apparitions that aren’t real. This is due to the chemical reaction the drug has with neural pathways in the brain.

Medical Uses of Ketamine + New Research (incl. Depression)

In parallel with these developments, artists and bohemians — mainly in Europe — were testing mescaline’s creative potential. They administered it to writers, artists, philosophers; presented them with intellectual stimuli; and observed their responses. One British surrealist painter of the 1930s, Julian Trevelyan, found ingestion inspiring; another, Basil Beaumont, experienced “excruciating pain and fear”. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre entered a grotesque hell, whereas British writer Aldous Huxley tripped into a magnificent world of expanded consciousness, described in his influential 1954 book The Doors of Perception.

Mescaline is a hallucinogenic compound with a long history of traditional use. It’s found in many different cacti, with the most well-known being peyote. Mescaline produces similar changes in perception as LSD, but not quite in the same way.

Despite their differences in potency and effects, some researchers think that mescaline and LSD have enough in common that they are hard to tell apart. In fact, in blinded clinical trials, people were unable to distinguish which one they have taken 36, 38. Psychiatrists in the 1930s and 1940s became particularly interested in mescaline’s ability to mimic certain features of psychosis, a mental condition in which a person loses contact with reality.

Read more to learn about the potential dangers of mescaline and discover its possible effects on the body and mind. Finally, although we have compared mescaline experiences by mescaline type of use inthe present study, we do not intend for these data to be interpreted to mean thatfurther rigorous, clinical research are not needed. We cannot conclude thatsimilarities or differences observed in this dataset may have also been caused by avariety of additional factors, such as participant demographics, “set and setting”(i.e. contextual variables) that might co-vary with the type of use.

After identifying mescaline as one of the active alkaloids in peyote, he tested it on himself and was able to prove that it was responsible for the psychoactive effects of the cactus 1, 9. Peyote also contains other psychoactive alkaloids that may intensify the effects of mescaline 5. Mescaline is a hallucinogenic compound most notably found in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii). It is also found in varying degrees in many other members of the cactus family 1. In another study, researchers found that mescaline helped goldfish learn to avoid a shock more quickly.