The Greatest Amends You Can Make Is a Changed Life (Steve P., Melbourne, Australia)
This Aussie Old-timer …… I came into the SA movement in 1999 and by the Grace of God and numerous miracles have stayed physically sexually sober since that day. Whilst Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in Akron, USA in 1935 by two hopeless alcoholics, Sexaholics Anonymous did not come into existence until 1979 by Roy K (1927- 2009). Sexaholics Anonymous did not emerge in Australia until about 1988 in Wentworthville, Sydney and a group in Melbourne who initially met on a Park Bench and later rented a room at Kew Vic. All of the...
read moreIn SA, He Has Found a Loving God (Harvey A., Florida, USA)
I am Harvey A, a sexaholic from Nashville Tennessee. My sobriety date is March 8, 1984. I can hardly believe that I am now 80 years old and have been sexually sober for more than 36 years. When I began the SA recovery program, I had a full head of hair that had not yet turned gray. At 80, what hair I have is completely gray. My outward appearance has changed over the past 36 years. But it is the change in my inner self that I want to share with the fellowship today. My recovery story began when I was 44 years old. I had been married for 23...
read moreHow Did I Overcome/Survive Being the Only Woman in My SA Home Group (Tencha S., Texas, USA)
The long and short of it is, I just kept coming back. I started in SA as a young, widowed, single mom in June 2005. At that time there were 3 other women in my homegroup. Within a year, they were gone. My sponsor was one of them. She decided to go back out and try some more controlled lusting, my grand-sponsor moved, and the other woman quit coming because of health reasons. Thankfully, by this time, I had worked the steps and knew beyond a doubt that SA was where I needed to be if I wanted to continue living and be a healthy mom to raise my...
read morePracticing healthy interactions in SA (Kathy R., Oregon, USA)
Practicing healthy interactions in SA has been a passion of mine. Possibly since the beginning of my recovery. I have known near my entire life that I am not good at relationships. My longing to find how to be relationally “normal” has been a lifelong seeking. Coming to SA, although not immediately, I started finding answers. I saw others with more recovery acting normal, even men with women. I knew if I kept coming back, I too would grow relationally. How did I learn and grow? I kept coming back. I kept coming back not just to meetings, but...
read moreToday She Chooses Life and Love (Olga S., Alchevsk, Ukraine)
I am a recovering sex addict from Ukraine, sober since the fall of 2015. My problem is that I am completely unable to cope with the lust that manifests itself in objectification, fantasies, and an unhealthy obsession with one person or a group of people. I have lost control of my thoughts, feelings, and actions. I am now 57 years old, and from a very young age I tried to achieve success in everything I did. The desire to achieve success still helps me in my recovery from alcoholism, drug addiction, and sex addiction. The desire to succeed in...
read moreThese Years Have Been So Much Fun (Sylvia J., Oklahoma, USA)
People would tell me things I wouldn’t hear because I was always off in my head somewhere. My older sister was a very smart person and got good grades, while I didn’t do well with people and in school. My younger sister was very pretty and everybody thought she was adorable. So I felt like I was misunderstood all the time. I discovered when I got older that my problem was that I had ADD, because I would disassociate and not know what people said to me. I felt “less than”, but found I got lots of attention by flirting. I had lots of...
read moreHow and Where I Found My Sponsors (Marie-Paule C., Luxembourg)
I am a sexaholic from Luxembourg, sober since May 31, 2004. I went to my first SA meeting at a convention in Germany In 1995 and found my first sponsor there. I was in a lot of pain and went up, after one of the meetings, to one of the women and asked her to be my sponsor. She agreed. In the process of finding a sponsor, pain has been an important factor. It pushed me to reach out and to ask for help. Because of my pain, I became willing to do things I would never have done before: I talked to members I didn’t know; I went to as many...
read moreTough Love Changing Lives in Hollywood North
I came into SA in 1987 in Los Angeles. I attended meetings, went to international conferences, had three sponsors in succession, made as many as four phone calls every day and followed directions from those three sponsors. I was never sober for the first six years. People ask what changed. In 1993 there was a confluence of several factors. I was broken, I had no job and drove a car that was so battered that people couldn’t agree on what color it was. I had no hope for change in any area of my life let alone sobriety and I was...
read moreThe Melbourne Experience: Strong Meetings Need Committed Members
There is no doubt that if every SA meeting was conducted along the lines as prescribed in our White Book (185-187), our fellowship would have thousands of strong meetings globally and many, many thousands of members with strong recovery. However, the starting point is to ask, what is the purpose of meetings in 12 Step fellowships? I think there are three answers to this question: (1) Not only to get our secrets into the open – but also ourselves. Ours is mostly an addiction of hiddenness, secretiveness and privacy. In meetings we work in the...
read moreThe Chicago Experience of Building a Culture of Sobriety
Hi Mike, thanks for your time today in sharing your experience, strength and hope. Could we begin by asking your sobriety date and home group? Yes, June 3, 1984 and the Holy Innocent group in Chicago. For a long time previously it was at St Teresa. We have been on Zoom for about a year now; when we were face to face, attendance was around 55-60 and we meet for 90 minutes. Can you briefly describe what life was like before SA ? In my teens I became addicted to porn and masturbation. I was hooked from the very beginning and while I could...
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