WHAT IS SEXAHOLICS ANONYMOUS (SA)?

Sexaholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop lusting and become sexually sober. There are no dues or fees for SA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. SA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sexually sober and help others to achieve sexual sobriety. Sexaholics Anonymous is a recovery program based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous and received permission from AA to use its Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1979.

WHAT IS A SEXAHOLIC AND WHAT IS SEXUAL SOBRIETY?

We can only speak for ourselves. The specialized nature of Sexaholics Anonymous can best be understood in terms of what we call the Sexaholic. The Sexaholic has taken himself or herself out of the whole context of what is right or wrong. He or she has lost control, no longer has the power of choice, and is not free to stop. Lust has become an addiction. Our situation is like that of the alcoholic who can no longer tolerate alcohol and must stop drinking all together, but is hooked and cannot stop. So it is with the Sexaholic, or sex drunk, who can no longer tolerate lust but cannot stop.

Thus, for the Sexaholic, any form of sex with one’s self or with partners other than in a committed relationship is progressively addictive and destructive. We also see that lust is the driving force behind our sexual acting out, and true sobriety includes progressive victory over lust. These conclusions were forced upon us in the crucible of our experiences and recovery; we have no other options. But we have found that acceptance of these facts is the key to a happy and joyous freedom we could otherwise never know.

This will and should discourage many inquirers who admit to sexual obsession or compulsion, but who simply want to control and enjoy it, much as the alcoholic would like to control and enjoy drinking. Until we had been driven to the point of despair, until we really wanted to stop but could not, we did not give ourselves to this simple program of recovery. Sexaholics Anonymous is for those who know they have no other option but to stop, and their own enlightened self-interest must tell them this.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM A SEXAHOLIC? – Test Yourself

1. Have you ever thought you needed help for your sexual thinking or behavior?
2. That you’d be better off if you didn’t keep “giving in”?
3. That sex or stimuli are controlling you?
4. Have you ever tried to stop or limit doing what you felt was wrong in your sexual behavior?
5. Do you resort to sex to escape, relieve anxiety, or because you can’t cope?
6. Do you feel guilt, remorse or depression afterward?
7. Has your pursuit of sex become more compulsive?
8. Does it interfere with relations with your spouse?
9. Do you have to resort to images or memories during sex?
10. Does an irresistible impulse arise when the other party makes the overtures or sex is offered?
11. Do you keep going from one “relationship” or lover to another?
12. Do you feel the “right relationship” would help you stop lusting, masturbating, or being so promiscuous?
13. Do you have a destructive need—a desperate sexual or emotional need for someone?
14. Does pursuit of sex make you careless for yourself or the welfare of your family or others?
15. Has your effectiveness or concentration decreased as sex has become more compulsive?
16. Do you lose time from work for it?
17. Do you turn to a lower environment when pursuing sex?
18. Do you want to get away from the sex partner as soon as possible after the act?
19. Although your spouse is sexually compatible, do you still masturbate or have sex with others?
20. Have you ever been arrested for a sex-related offense?

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Many of us felt inadequate, unworthy, alone, and afraid. Our insides never matched what we saw on the outsides of others. Early on, we came to feel disconnected from parents, from peers, from ourselves. We tuned out with fantasy and masturbation. We plugged in by drinking in the pictures, the images, and pursuing the objects of our fantasies. We lusted and wanted to be lusted after. We became true addicts: sex with self, promiscuity, adultery, dependency relationships, and more fantasy. We got it through the eyes; we bought it, we sold it, we traded it, we gave it away. We were addicted to the intrigue, the tease, the forbidden. The only way we knew to be free of it was to do it. “Please connect with me and make me whole!” we cried with outstretched arms.

Lusting after the “Big Fix,” we gave away our power to others. This produced guilt, self-hatred, remorse, emptiness, and pain, and we were driven ever inward, away from reality, away from love, lost inside ourselves. Our habit made true intimacy impossible. We could never know real union with another because we were addicted to the unreal. We went for the “chemistry:” the connection that had the magic, because it bypassed true intimacy and true union. Fantasy corrupted the real; lust killed love. First addicts, then love cripples, we took from others to fill up what was lacking in ourselves. Conning ourselves time and again that the next one would save us, we were really losing our lives.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

We saw that our problem was threefold: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Healing had to come about in all three. The crucial change in attitude began when we admitted we were powerless, that our habit had us whipped. We came to meetings and withdrew from our habit. For some, this meant no sex with themselves or others, including not getting into relationships. For others it also meant “drying out” and not having sex with their committed partner for a time to recover from lust.

We discovered that we could stop, that not feeding the hunger didn’t kill us, that sex was indeed optional. There was hope for freedom, and we began to feel alive. Encouraged to continue, we turned more and more away from our isolating obsession with sex and self and turned to God and others. All this was scary. We couldn’t see the path ahead, except that others had gone that way before.

Each new step of surrender felt it would be off the edge into oblivion, but we took it. And instead of killing us, surrender was killing the obsession! We had stepped into the light, into a whole new way of life. The fellowship gave us monitoring and support to keep us from being overwhelmed, a safe haven where we could finally face ourselves. Instead of covering our feelings with compulsive sex, we began exposing the roots of our spiritual emptiness and hunger. And the healing began.

As we faced our defects, we became willing to change; surrendering them broke the power they had over us. We began to be more comfortable with ourselves and others for the first time without our “drug!” Forgiving all who had injured us, and without injuring others, we tried to right our own wrongs. At each amends, more of the dreadful load of guilt dropped from our shoulders, until we could lift our heads, look the world in the eye, and stand free.

We began practicing a positive sobriety, taking the actions of love to improve our relations with others. We were learning how to give; and the measure we gave was the measure we got back. We were finding what none of the substitutes had ever supplied. We were making the real Connection. We were home.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. They are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

Our stories disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now. If you have decided you want what we have and are willing to go to any length to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps. At some of these we balked. We thought we could find an easier, softer way. But we could not. With all the earnestness at our command, we beg of you to be fearless and thorough from the very start.

Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas, and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. Remember that we deal with lust-cunning, baffling, and powerful! Without help it is too much for us. But there is One who has all power–that one is God. May you find Him now.

Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery:

THE TWELVE STEPS

STEP 1

We admitted that we were powerless over lust–that our lives had become unmanageable.

STEP 2

STEP 1

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

STEP 3

STEP 1

STEP 3

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

STEP 4

STEP 3

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

STEP 5

STEP 4

STEP 5

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

STEP 6

STEP 4

STEP 5

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

STEP 7

Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

STEP 8

STEP 7

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

STEP 9

STEP 7

STEP 10

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

STEP 10

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

STEP 11

STEP 10

STEP 11

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and the power to carry that out.

STEP 12

STEP 10

STEP 11

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to Sexaholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

OVERWHELMED?

Many of us exclaimed, “What an order! I can’t go through with it.” Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. Our personal adventures before and after make clear three pertinent ideas:

(a) That we were Sexaholics and could not manage our own lives. (b) That probably no human power could have relieved our Sexaholism. (c) That God could and would if He were sought!

WHAT ARE THE 12 TRADITIONS OF SA?

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on SA unity
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority–a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop lusting and become sexually sober.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or Sexaholics Anonymous as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose–to carry its message to the Sexaholic who still suffers.
6. An SA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the SA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every SA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Sexaholics Anonymous should remain forever non- professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. SA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Sexaholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the SA name ought never be drawn in to public Controversy.
11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, and TV.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

I HAVE MANY SECRETS, SHOULD I TELL MY SPOUSE/FAMILY?

SHOULD I COME CLEAN? A WORD OF CAUTION!

We suggest that newcomers to Sexaholics Anonymous not reveal their sexual past to a spouse or family member who does not already know of it, without careful consideration and a period of sexual sobriety, and even then, only after prior discussion with an SA sponsor or group.

Typically, when we come into the program, we want to share our excitement with those closest to us and tell all right away. Such disclosures might injure family or others and should be confined to the group of which we are a part until a wise course is indicated. Of course, if there is any chance we have put others in danger, we take immediate steps to try to correct that.

Few things can so damage the possibility of healing in a family as a premature confession to spouse or family where sacred bonds and trust have been violated. Unwittingly, such confessions can be attempts on our part to dump our guilt, get back into good graces, or make just another show of willpower. Great caution is advised here. Amends to family must begin with a sexually sober, changed attitude and behavior on a daily basis. Then, as we grow in recovery, we will find how to make direct amends. Help from sponsor and group is indispensable here. There’s always a way, if we really want to make things.

WHAT IS SEXAHOLICS ANONYMOUS (SA)?

Need help? Call us.

WHAT IS A SEXAHOLIC AND WHAT IS SEXUAL SOBRIETY?

HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM A SEXAHOLIC? – Test Yourself

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

HOW DOES IT WORK?

THE TWELVE STEPS

STEP 1

STEP 1

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 1

STEP 1

STEP 3

STEP 1

STEP 3

STEP 4

STEP 4

STEP 3

STEP 5

STEP 4

STEP 5

STEP 6

STEP 4

STEP 5

STEP 7

STEP 7

STEP 7

STEP 8

STEP 7

STEP 7

STEP 9

STEP 7

STEP 10

STEP 10

STEP 10

STEP 10

STEP 11

STEP 10

STEP 11

STEP 12

STEP 10

STEP 11

OVERWHELMED?

WHAT ARE THE 12 TRADITIONS OF SA?

I HAVE MANY SECRETS, SHOULD I TELL MY SPOUSE/FAMILY?

SHOULD I COME CLEAN? A WORD OF CAUTION!

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