I have a fond history with the slogans—you might say that they have saved my life. In early AA recovery, my home group was “old school,” no sharing in meetings until you had 1 year of sobriety. (We could ask questions.) So I was bored, same old shares, so I read the walls: The 12 Steps, The 12 Traditions, and SLOGANS! I came to enjoy meditating on them, applying them to the most important person in the room—ME. My best thinking got me here, so what about “think THINK think”? I was a bundle of nerves—so no way to Easy Does It! I deserved to be in prison, so I still really like: “But for the Grace of God. “ Even today I’m not as recovered as I would like to be, but I can Act As If I am sober or Fake It ‘Till I Make It. It Is Spiritual Progress Rather Than Spiritual Perfection, thank God.

It took 25 years of sobriety in AA before I hit bottom in my lusting addiction and was directed to SA. You might say that I keep coming back and I didn’t quit before the miracle happened. Wow, I think God was doing for me what I could not do for myself. I love Higher Power Surprises!

I have had some outstanding sponsors who have shown me that I Cannot Keep It Unless I Give It Away. I can Live and Let Live, Let Go and Let God, but I shall Try to Carry the Message to Other Suffering Sexaholics. For me, slogans are quick reference guides to sanity.

I am a complicated person with a complex disease, lust addiction. And I am clearly a slow learner—it took me to age 62 to drag my feet into SA, confused and denying, but my habit had me whipped. Thank God and SA there was/is a solution and an Attitude of Gratitude for me. Today I try to Keep It Simple. 

There are a few references in SA literature to slogans. The “Step Into Action“ book has a list in the Appendix A of 14 slogans. The Index to “The Real Connection,“ our book of Meditations, has a list of 26 readings using or referring to a slogan or slogans. I like some slogans from other fellowships like S-Anon that uses the 3 Cs: “didn’t Cause it, can’t Control it, can’t Cure it”; and they use “Awareness, Acceptance and Action.“ That’s a beauty of slogans—they don’t have to be Conference Approved, just approved, loved in my Experience, Strength and Hope—I “use it or lose it.”

I once searched the AA website for slogans, that was fun—lots of them. I recently did an internet search of Recovery Slogans and found 86! How many times have you heard, said or even modified “Keep Coming Back?”