My name is Peter and I am a sexaholic, addicted to lust. I am so grateful for technology, I thank God regularly for allowing me to be lust free when using it. In my disease I used the computer and telephone to enhance my acting out. It allowed me to live in a fantasy world.

Once I “woke up” and joined SA, technology took on a different use. Instead of spending hours lost in porn, I became lost in self-help and the 12 Steps. When I say hours, I mean hours. I am so grateful my job allowed me to only be present for a couple hours, then the rest of the time I would spend reading recovery material. I was using the computer and the internet to further my recovery, instead of living in active addiction. I attended a “Back to Basics” workshop and became more aware of Step 11, and working Step 11 through Two Way Prayer. Part of the process of the Two Way Prayer is sharing it with others. I used the computer and smartphone to share whatever message God was sending me each day.

There are so many different apps and methods of sharing by using technology. How does one pick? I went through many different apps, mostly chat to share daily recovery with others. Not only are there different apps, there are different hardware platforms as well. Most of us use our smartphones for connecting with others. I would say it has become the de facto standard of communication today.

A group chat with Text/SMS only works on specific hardware: All members in an Apple SMS message group can see all responses by the group members. Same goes for an Android SMS message group. Text/SMS falls apart when you try to mix Apple and Android; the responses become individual rather than group and you end up with many many separate messages.

Cross platform apps: Skype, Google Hangouts, LINE, WhatsApp. These apps use data, either cellular or Wi-Fi. They all work similarly yet each is different. LINE and WhatsApp only use your contact list, therefore no unsolicited requests to look at porn. A person can receive a request from someone else in a group they belong to that is not in their contact list. Most of the apps allow you to create groups of people to share with, similar to Text Messaging, except the app works on all smartphone platforms. Some of the apps, such as WhatsApp and LINE also encrypt communication so the conversations are private.

I currently belong to over ten WhatsApp groups with some of the groups larger than two hundred people from all over the world. It has helped me to stay connected in ways I never thought possible. I have even sponsored over WhatsApp when the distance was so great that face-to-face is impossible. I believe technology and specifically chat groups have opened up an entirely new frontier for those of us that are hard pressed to attend face-to-face meetings.

An up and coming technology is video conferencing. Again, using a smartphone or PC we can securely and safely connect with other members of SA. I have been involved in an international video conference, Geek Camp, using Jitsi.