Our addiction
Before coming to Sex Addicts Anonymous, many of us never knew that our problem had a name. All we knew was that we couldn’t control our sexual behaviour.
For us, sex was a consuming way of life. Although the details of our stories were different, our problem was the same.
We were addicted to sexual behaviours that we returned to over and over, despite the consequences.
Sex addiction is a disease affecting the mind, body and spirit. It is progressive with the behaviour and its consequences usually becoming more severe over time.
We experience it as a compulsion, which is an urge that is stronger than our will to resist, and as obsession, which is a mental preoccupation with sexual behaviour and fantasies.
In SAA, we have come to call our addictive sexual behaviour “acting out”
Source: from “Sex Addicts Anonymous - the Green Book” p3 para 1 & 2
Our program
Attending SAA meetings starts us on a new way of life. However, whilst the SAA fellowship supports our recovery, the actual work of recovery is described in the Twelve Steps.
Working the Twelve Steps leads to a spiritual transformation that results in sustainable relief from our addiction.
When we start attending meetings of Sex Addicts Anonymous, many of us are surprised to meet people who are enjoying life and experiencing freedom from the painful, compulsive behaviours that brought them to SAA.
Listening to other members share about their recovery, we gradually realise that in order to make the same kind of progress, we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get sexually sober and stay sober.
We have learnt from hard experience that we cannot achieve and maintain sexual sobriety if we aren’t willing to change our way of life. However, if we can honestly face our problems, and are willing to change, the Twelve Steps of SAA will lead to an awakening that allows us to live a new way of life according to spiritual principles.
Taking these steps allows fundamental change to occur and be sustained in our lives. They are the foundation of our recovery.
Adapted from: “Sex Addicts Anonymous - the Green Book”