Jimmy Kinnon

src: cametopasssoberliving.com

James Patrick Kinnon (April 5, 1911 - July 9, 1985), commonly known as Jimmy Kinnon or " Jimmy K. ", is the principal founder of Narcotics Anonymous (NA), the world's alliance to recover addicts. During his lifetime, he is usually referred to as "Jimmy K." because of the NA principle of personal anonymity at the public level. He never called himself the founder of NA, although the record clearly shows that he played the founding role.

Video Jimmy Kinnon

Mr. Crookshank

When Kinnon was seven years old, he befriended a local alcoholic who he called Mr. Crookshank. Kinnon often finds him drunk and beaten. One day he found Crookshank beaten and unresponsive. Kinnon ran for help. Over the next few weeks Kinnon did not see Crookshank and, after many questions, his mother took him to meet his friend. They went to the institution that Crookshank is now a resident. He is wheelchair bound and incoherent. After leaving the facility, Kinnon told her mother that when she grew up she would help people like Mr. Crookshank. Early life

Kinnon was born in Paisley, Scotland on April 5, 1911. He and his parents moved to the United States in the 1920s. For medical reasons he was separated from his parents on Ellis Island for three and a half days. She befriends the Russian family as she waits for her sister to be cleaned of medical problems. When the family was reunited they moved to Philadelphia. He never saw the Russian family again. When in Philadelphia Kinnon goes to private school and has plans to enter the priesthood. He started using alcohol and pills that started his year of addiction until he was clean in 1950. He never followed up with his goal of becoming a priest. He met his first wife, Agnes in Philadelphia and they had five children together.

Maps Jimmy Kinnon

Clean

Kinnon stopped using all the mood substances and changed his mind on February 2, 1950. He began attending Alcoholics Anonymous, a twelve-step program. While in Alcoholics Anonymous he meets other members who have struggled with addiction to substances other than alcohol. Anonymous Alcoholics often do not encourage members to talk about addiction other than alcohol. Jimmy sees the need to recover from more of the symptoms, ie substances used (alcohol, pills, etc.) by overcoming the thinking and attitude of the addict before, during and between uses. This is why, for NA, he changed the language Step 1 of 12 Step AA from "alcohol" to "addiction". Kinnon attended another group meeting called Habit Shaper Drugs but was disappointed with it.

src: i.ytimg.com

Narcotics Anonymous Formation

In the summer of 1953, Jimmy Kinnon and other members of Alcoholics Anonymous began holding their separate meetings, which they called Narcotics Anonymous. Kinnon and several others were given permission from Alcoholics Anonymous to adapt Step Twelve Steps, but Jimmy changed Step 1 from "powerless alcohol" to being "helpless over addiction." This is a significant focal change of the AA program, as NA focuses on recovery from addictive diseases rather than certain substances. Kinnon sees substance as a symptom of deeper core problems, (ie, thinking, obsession and compulsion) from which substance is used to obtain temporary relief. Anonymous Narcotics was officially established in July 1953 in Sun Valley, California. There is a different organization also called Anonymous Narcotics previously founded by a recovery addict named Danny Carlsen in New York City, but not following 12 Traditions and more a social service organization than Fellowship. It was dead in the mid-1960s and was never connected with NA Kinnon that started in Sun Valley.

src: 1.bp.blogspot.com

Literature

Much of the early literature of Narcotics Anonymous was written by Jimmy Kinnon and is still used worldwide today at over 70,000 NA meetings. He is a major contributor to the booklet and Little White booklets used throughout the 1960s and 1970s. From 1953 to 1977, Narcotics Anonymous was a safe place for addicts to meet in their NA meeting, to help each get and keep clean of all substances, including alcohol. From 1979 to 1982, hundreds of Anonymous Narcotics expanded this literature and created the Basic Text. Kinnon also designed the NA logo, Group Logo, Symbol Service and wrote a Thanksgiving Prayer and "Fruit of Harvest" statement found at the beginning of the NA book "The Basic Text". This book is the first known book written by restoring addicts to recover addicts. It was first published in 1982. 9.3 million copies of the Basic Text have been published since 1982, and in 31 languages. Currently in the 6th edition.

src: ih0.redbubble.net

Death

James Kinnon died of lung cancer on July 9, 1985, in California. Before his death, he said, if he has a headstone that he will read, "All we do is sow seeds and work and do this work, so that we and others can live in peace, in freedom and love." He was clean for thirty-five years at the time of his death.

src: multifiles.pressherald.com

See also

• Anonymous Narcotics
• Twelve Steps
• The Twelve Traditions

References

Further reading

• My Year With Anonymous Narcotics. A History of N.A. by Bob Stone. 1997, Hulon Pendleton Publishing, L.L.C., Joplin, MO, A.S., ISBN 0-9654591-0-1
• The Miracle Occurs: Anonymous Narcotics Birth in Words and Pictures , Revised, 2011, Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc. ISBNÃ, 978-1557768810

External links

• Narcotics Anonymous History (.MP3, RealAudio, and Windows Media formats)
  • The panel at Jimmy Kinnon, October 3, 2003, Nashville History Conference, format.MP3
  • Panel at Jimmy Kinnon, October 3, 2003, Nashville History Conference, mp3 format
  • Jimmy Kinnon's personal memory, Nashville History Conference, October 2003, format.MP3
• Anonymous Narcotics Official Website

Source of the article : Wikipedia