My Experience As a Young Adult In Recovery
When I stepped into my first SA meeting I was about twenty-five years old. When I think back on what I had experienced up to then and how I was feeling at the time, I am astonished at myself today; at how the program has changed me; the extent to which it has helped me. It’s a miracle, a miracle which is still unfolding. I was less than six years old when I was visited – uninvited! – by lust. He was a rapist, nine years older than me; a relative who purported to be a friend. We were to play a game. And the game? Here, lust showed...
read moreI Joined SA As a 19 Year Old Girl
My first memories are of fear, resentment and separation. Lust first came on the scene when I was four, my mother moved with us to a foreign country without my father. During my first few months in this new place I was sexually abused by kids several years older than myself. I was terrified anybody would find out, I was sure it was my fault and I feel guilty for enjoying the physical aspect and all attention. We moved again and the abuse stopped, I blacked out what happened but it left something behind. When playing with dolls I...
read moreThe Root Was Lust
My name is Matteo and I’m a recovering sexaholic. Throughout my adolescence I was progessively consumed by same-sex behaviours and fantasies. I thought that the problem was being attracted to men. Acting out for 17 years shaped my whole thinking. “I was restless, irritable and discontented”. SA told me that actually the root was lust, and this was music to my ears. I began to detach from the lust one day at a time and stopped carrying around my wound as a trophy. I commenced living on a new clock: 24 hours. It was a totally...
read moreStaying Sober In My 20s Has Its Own Challenges
I was born in 1989 in Kurdistan, Iran, in a family with 3 older brothers and no sisters. The concept of women and girls was always a mystery to me. The only female that I had a real connection with was my mother. That was not my only challenge though. As far as I can remember, I was living a double life. There was a whole world inside my head, and another world outside me. And I was constantly trying not to let the outside world know what is going on inside my head. Fancy or real, I was feeling unloved and unworthy, and to make up for these...
read moreI had just turned 21
I had just turned 21 when I entered the SA fellowship. I immediately knew SA was the program for me but I didn’t feel comfortable in the local fellowship since everyone else was at least twice older than I was. Fortunately for me there was one other young adult at the meeting who was visiting the country. He became my very first SA sponsor and dear friend in the fellowship. Still I considered my age as an obstacle and even an excuse against some suggestions fellows gave to me. For instance, some fellows from my home group suggested...
read moreEssay interviewed old-timer Art B.
Essay: Thank you for your time, Art. Could we start by asking how old you were when you joined SA and the length of your sobriety? Art: I was 44. I’m 80 now, with 35 years of sobriety. When asked how does one stay sober for 35 years, I say: “One day at a time, keep surrendering lust, and one day at a time, don’t die!” I’ve been blessed with the gift of sobriety and with longevity. Essay: How long were you struggling with the addiction and what “remedies” did you try? Art: In early adolescence, I felt I wasn’t like other kids. I wasn’t...
read moreThe Wonderful Tool Of Bookending – Matan C., Israel
[From Essay, December 2020] My name is Matan C and I am a recovering sexaholic from Jerusalem, Israel; I am sober joyous and free from September 30th 2016 by the grace of a loving Higher Power, the 12 Steps and Traditions, my Sponsor and Sponees, my Family, this Fellowship and a wide variety of recovery tools, one of which I would like to share with you now. When I started my way in SA, my sponsor and other long time members (both living and via recording, non living) gave me a gift – they handed me a large toolbox filled to the brim...
read moreIt was and still is a miracle – Hans L., Germany
[From Essay, December 2020] My name is Hans, and I am a grateful recovering sexaholic. My sobriety date is the 10th of July, 2008, the Akron SA-S-ANON International Convention. That is when I accepted that I was powerless and unable to manage my life. My Higher Power, through this program, makes it possible for me to live. I had left my second marriage of 22 years and resumed a relationship with a woman I had been in love with prior to my marriage – and with whom I had a daughter. I broke my sobriety of more than 20 years. All this was...
read moreThe Antidote for Fear – Dennis T., Alaska
[From Essay, December 2020] Recently, I was waiting for some medical results, which, if negative, may have meant some serious consequences. Fear gripped me, but I did not share my feelings with anyone. Without even making a conscious decision to do so, I found myself back in self-reliance, relying on finite self instead of infinite God. At home, I began experiencing a series of “mini-disasters” in the kitchen with some canning and cooking I was doing. This didn’t normally happen – what was going on? In this frame of mind, I went...
read moreGrowing in Recovery One Day at a Time – Zalmi S., UK
[From Essay, December 2020] Football (or Soccer as they call it in the US) – what would we do without it. It is so exciting, so passionate,such a good topic of conversation, and so much more. As a teenager I was obsessed travelling around the UK following (worshiping?) my beloved Tottenham Hotspur F.C. As life moved on and I got busy with studies, marriage, kids I realised that (maybe?) there are more important things in life and I gradually lost interest. You know, an addict thing, it is either all or nothing. After finding SA in...
read moreEssay February 2021
