Dear Essay readers,

As we considered our options for the “old-timers” theme of this edition, we looked firstly at limiting ourselves to articles from members with 30+ years’ sobriety—all but one of these would be from the US, but thought this too narrow. Therefore, we decided to broaden the review, taking articles from members who are not simply sober for years, but that each of them would have either the longest sobriety or be a pioneer in his/her country.

An Irish old-timer shares what he has learned over the last 25 years; Masoud from Iran tells how he worked his Eleventh Step; Hubert from Poland saw that he had to change his attitude while sobriety has given Joanna, also from Poland, the peace and space to work on her problems; the longest sober member from Russia tells us how he would not have made it into recovery without the help of his sponsor; Atefeh, a female pioneer from Iran tells us about the notebook she uses to write to her HP. Stories of courage too from Venezuela and Australia; and from the US, stories of experience, strength and hope from members attending SA since its inception.

If each of these completely powerless sexaholics can stay sober, happy, joyous, and free for so many years while helping to build up SA in their respective countries, then all we have to do is to follow in their footsteps, a day at a time.