How the Chinook Area of NA Describes Who an Addict Is

Updated

The Chinook Area of Narcotics Anonymous (NA) describes an addict as "a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs." On its site, the fellowship doesn't use a clinical checklist or diagnostic criteria. Instead, it offers a short self-recognition passage built around how a person thinks and lives, and it frames addiction as "a continuing and progressive illness" that ends in "jails, institutions, and death." The description is meant to help someone decide whether they identify with it, not to certify a diagnosis.

The core definition on the site

The Chinook Area site asks "Who Is An Addict?" and answers in the first person, as a fellowship speaking about itself:

  • Life and thinking centered on drugs. The passage says members' "whole life and thinking was centered in drugs in one form or another—the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more."
  • Living to use. It puts the pattern plainly: "We lived to use and used to live."
  • Control by drugs. The summary line is that an addict is "a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs."
  • No second thoughts. "Most of us do not have to think twice about this question. We know!"

The emphasis is on the organizing role drugs play in a person's days and decisions, rather than on a specific substance, amount, or frequency of use.

Addiction as a progressive illness

The site frames the condition as "a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same: jails, institutions, and death." Two things follow from that wording:

  1. It is presented as a trajectory, not an episode. The described direction is toward worsening consequences, which is why the fellowship treats recognition as time-sensitive.
  2. The listed outcomes are the fellowship's framing, not a prediction about any individual. They describe where the pattern leads in the group's experience, and they are the reason the site pairs the description with an invitation to meetings rather than with a test.

What the description is and isn't

The site's description What it is not
A self-recognition passage written by members A medical or clinical diagnosis
Focused on control, preoccupation, and consequences A count of substances, doses, or days used
An invitation to attend meetings A referral to a specific treatment plan
Open to anyone who thinks they may have a drug problem A judgment about whether a particular person is an addict

The site states the fellowship is "dedicated to helping people who think they may have a drug problem or an addiction." That phrasing puts the decision with the reader: the description is offered so a person can see whether it matches their own experience.

How to use the description

If you are reading the page to decide something for yourself or someone else, the practical step is to compare the passage's three markers against actual experience:

  • Centering: Is getting, using, or finding ways to get more a main organizing activity of the day?
  • Control: Does use continue or escalate despite problems it is causing?
  • Progression: Have consequences been accumulating over time rather than resolving?

The site's own conclusion is that people who recognize themselves "know" without needing to think twice. If the markers don't fit, the page doesn't claim otherwise.

Where the description leads

The Chinook Area of NA serves Calgary and surrounding communities, including Airdrie, Canmore, Cranbrook, Didsbury, Drumheller, Fernie, Golden, Hanna, Invermere, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Okotoks, Sparwood, and Standoff. The site lists a phone line, 1-877-463-3537, and describes the fellowship's method as "helping each other get clean and stay off drugs by going to meetings." The site also has a page on "'NA Meeting Near Me' Apps," so meeting-finding tools are part of how it connects people to that step.

For someone weighing the description above, the site's implied next move is straightforward: if the passage sounds familiar, call the phone line or find a meeting in the area. The description exists to make that identification possible, and the meetings are where the fellowship says the help happens.