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The Program
Sex Addicts Anonymous® is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other so they may overcome their sexual addiction and help others recover from sexual addiction or dependency.
Membership is open to all who share a desire to stop compulsive sexual behavior. There is no other requirement.
Our common goals are to become sexually healthy and to help other sex addicts achieve freedom from compulsive sexual behavior.
We are not affiliated with. Alcoholics Anonymous, nor are we a part of any other organization.
We do not support, endorse, or oppose outside causes or issues.
Sex Addicts Anonymous is a program based on the principles and traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. We are grateful to A.A. for this gift which makes our recovery possible.
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The Twelve Steps
The Twelve Steps summarize a methodology used to recover from sex addiction. They are a specific course of action designed to bring us into a relationship with the God (Higher Power) of the individual members understanding. Your sponsor will show you what to do. If you don’t have a sponsor we suggest you get one as soon as possible.
“It may seem incredible that these men and women are to become happy, respected, and useful once more. How can they rise out of such misery, bad repute and hopelessness? The practical answer is that since these things have happened among us, they can happen with you. Should you wish them above all else, and be willing to make use of our experience, we are sure they will come. The age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that!” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Ed, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001, page 132)
Here are the steps we took which are suggested as a program of recovery:
- We admitted we were powerless over addictive sexual behavior – that our lives had become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
- Made a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, ourselves and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
- Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong we promptly admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other sex addicts and to practice these principles in all our lives.
This miracle could be described by the promises of Step Nine. Often referred to as the 12 promises.
The Twelve Promises
“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development we are going to be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.” (Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Ed, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001, pp 83-84)
The Twelve Traditions
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on S.A.A. unity.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God as expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. The only requirement for S.A.A membership is a desire to stop compulsive sexual behavior.
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or S.A.A. as a whole.
5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the sex addict who still suffers.
6. An S.A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the S.A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.
7. Every S.A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
8. Sex Addicts Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
9. S.A.A., as such, ought never be organized, but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
10. Sex Addicts Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the S.A.A. name ought never be drawn into 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, TV, and films.
12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.
® Registered Trademark Sex Addicts Anonymous and the SAA logo are registered trademarks of the International Service Organization of Sex Addicts Anonymous, Inc.