I came to my first SA meeting while living in Tokyo back in 2002. Soon after, I moved back to the US, where I was in and out of SA for a few years. When I was relocated back to Tokyo in 2008, I was out of control again. I returned to the space where we used to meet, but no one was there. I was told the meeting had died off a few years earlier.

“Oh well,” I thought. “I tried. I guess I’ll just have to manage it on my own.” It never occurred to me at the time to restart the meeting. I thought that if I just worked the Steps in AA a bit harder, I would be okay. But things only got worse.

I got married, survived the earthquake, got a 20-year chip in AA, and buried my father who died from alcoholism. My house got flooded. I was acting out almost daily to numb the pain and stress. Then, while on a holiday with my wife, I went on a major binge that scared me. I realized that I was out of control and I needed to take action.

I went back to that church and got permission to restart the meeting. I sat alone in the room every week for three months, reading the Big Book and praying for fellowship. My old White Book was lost somewhere along the way. Eventually I found a few guys in AA who expressed an interest in SA. Only one of them stayed, but we had a meeting at last.

I thought we would just use the Big Book, but then we realized we could buy SA literature from the SA website. The folks at SAICO were kind enough to send us a start-up package. This was a lifesaver, and it included a copy of Sexaholics Anonymous. But when I opened it up, I found that it was in Spanish! So we used the publication called Member Stories in our meetings, and we identified. We finally ordered a batch of 20 White Books—which seemed crazy at the time since there were only two of us, but we saved a bit of money on the shipping by ordering in bulk, and I felt somewhat inspired, thinking of the old saying, “If you build it, they will come.”

We placed a notice on the Internet about our meeting, and we set up an email account. After a few responses, finally our third member showed up. The three of us carried on for about six months, with a few visitors here and there, and inquiries every week—but no one stuck around. Finally a new guy showed up but he couldn’t make the Saturday meeting, so we started a meeting on Friday nights.

Since then our fellowship has grown. Last week we had six people at the Friday meeting—a new record. There are 10 regular members now, and I recently went on a Twelfth-Step call for a guy who lost his job and got arrested because of this addiction. We are now planning to start a new meeting earlier in the week and are looking for a new meeting location. Some experienced SA members have recently relocated to Tokyo, bringing much needed support, and some of the Japanese members have started showing up as well.

Just a year ago, I was sitting alone in a room, praying for guidance, wondering what to do. At times the situation seemed hopeless. Now there are meetings to attend, members to call, Steps to work, and new meetings to start. This has been fun, and staying busy in SA keeps me out of myself and out of my addiction. It seems that my prayers have been answered.