Are you ready for another caption challenge? We invite you to craft the perfect recovery caption for the cartoon below, centered on October’s theme, “Surrendering Shame.” If your caption makes us laugh, it will be featured in the October ESSAY edition. Don't miss out—the submission deadline is September 15. Send your entry to essay@sa.org. Unleash your creativity, and may the cleverest caption win!
The author of the article “The Availability to Dive” brings to light how beneficial it can be to live single while recovering. While it can also be challenging, the single life can give us the time needed to learn how to live without our drug and relate to others. This prepares those who plan to sober date at some point.
This period in his life has given him time to grow. Hi, I'm James D., and I’ve been incarcerated since January 28, 2022. I’ve been sexually sober since November 29, 2023—one year, ten months, and one day from the worst day of my life. That day, I experienced the first of many of the best days of my life: the day I entered sobriety.
Our next edition’s theme is “Surrendering Fear, Guilt, and Shame.” Coming into the Program, many of us experience fear of facing the guilt and shame that the addiction of sexaholism brings to those powerless over lust. The Fellowship helps us overcome this fear by walking with us through the process of finding a sponsor and working the Steps. In doing so, we discover that we are not the things the addiction said we were.
It can seem that being happy and single are two ideas that don’t fit together. What a great discovery to learn that our joy does not rely on a relationship or even marriage! It relies on following the will of God through working the Steps.
One of SA’s 18 committees that helps to carry the message and serve the fellowship is the Support for Institutions and Professionals Committee (SIP). Formerly, it was called the Hospitals and Institutions Committee. Our mission is still the same, to inform institutions and professionals as to how SA can help restore and maintain their clients’ mental, emotional, and spiritual health. This committee’s service is designed to take place at the intergroup and regional levels. Our International SIP Committee provides materials and guidance on how to reach local professionals and institutions. This article gives an example of how it can be done at the local level.
Greetings from India. I am Iris from India–grateful, recovering, and blessed lustaholic and sexaholic. My SA journey and sobriety began on May 25, 2021, one day at a time(ODaAT). I heard about ESSAY and its garden of recovery at the beginning of my SA journey. I was approached to be a part of ESSAY’s garden, and I blossomed through sharing 3–4 articles. ESSAY has been one of my very strong recovery tools. I am never sufficiently grateful for its birth in our SA world. I am grateful for the many articles of recovery and for ESSAY reaching many members virtually and in print.
She decided to give away what was freely given to her. As I reflect on my journey in recovery, I'm filled with gratitude for the AA Big Book and those who have carried its message. Working the steps as they're written in the Big Book has been the most transformative path to true freedom that I’ve experienced.
Participating in the Fellowship helped him to accept his disease and to laugh with those carrying the message to him. Ontario's SA Spring Retreat 2025, themed "Acceptance is the Answer", took place from Friday, May 23rd–Sunday, May 25th, coordinated by the Peterborough SA group.
As a result of working the Program, this member likes the man he is growing into. Before SA and recovery from chronic lusting and the acting out that followed, I was frequently lost in fantasy, on dating apps, or in an “intimate encounter.” The irony was, there was nothing intimate about it. This behavior eroded away my soul and made me feel deeply ashamed. It was also causing aggravation, fear, and intimidation–albeit unintentionally. Like any good ol’ sexaholic, I could not stop.
