The city of Detroit has a rich and varied heritage. It was the birthplace of the American auto industry and brought on the age of assembly line manufacturing, which led to unprecedented growth of the US economy. Detroit became known as the Motor City.
On February 15, 2014 the English-speaking Taichung group held its first SA retreat, entitled “It Works If You Work It.” Five of us active members were present. This was a great milestone for us, to have our first gathering outside of regular meetings since our group began in January 2010.
May 2014 was an unforgettable month in the history of SA Israel and SA’s EMER Region. In only 10 years, SA Israel has grown from a few loners to more than 300 active members; more than 50 meetings in English, French, and Hebrew (with five new meetings opened this month alone); a fully paid-up and redecorated “SA Meeting House;” the hosting of EMER’s 2014 Regional Assembly and SA/S-Anon Convention with nearly 300 participants in attendance from all over Europe and even a handful of members from the US and Canada—and all of this followed by a remarkable International Recovery Camp on the shore of Lake Galilee!
In the early years of establishing SA in Iran we did not know how to stop our problem and recover from sexaholism. Members of other Twelve Step programs who had long-term sobriety joined SA and gave us recommendations from their own fellowships to help us to recover from our sexual behavior.
In the Spring of 2001, a fellow was struggling with staying sober from lust. He had tried many ways to stop, including using spiritual tools—but he could not stop. Then in the Fall of 2002 he met another man who also wanted to stop.
Recently, while attending an SA meeting, I was having a dialogue inside my head as someone read aloud “The Solution” (SA 61).
Even as a child I had a sensitivity to noise. I came from a large family, and our house was always noisy and chaotic, with everybody talking at once. There also was a lot of yelling. I used to escape to the woods near our house for some peace and quiet. I liked to listen to the quiet rustling of the trees and hear the soft singing of the birds.
My tale begins over 12 years ago. At the time, I observed that—as I walked from my car to a downtown SA meeting—I would often notice the women coming toward me or even across the road or on the sidewalk, and smile at them. Sometimes what I noticed about them turned to fantasy, and I would have to surrender this during the subsequent meeting.
One of the ways I continued in my addiction and acting out was by going to SA meetings (no, that is not a typo!). That was because “going to meetings” was all I wanted to do to stop acting out. I wanted an “easier, softer way” (AA 58). I wanted to design my own program, and that meant just going to meetings.
While I was growing up, our family attended church twice on Sunday and again on Wednesday nearly every week. This gave me a good exposure to God and to the church. I didn’t always enjoy attending church, but something was planted within me. I believed in a punishing God, but at least I believed in God.
