“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free…” (Emma Lazarus) I sought for thirty years for relief from my addiction through my church. My guilt and shame were too great. I felt that no one at church would ever understand, much less accept me.
Many people lose their sobriety or relapse back into lust and sexual addiction. Most of us have learned that relapse is a process that happens over a period of time. Slowly we let our priority of sober and lust-free thinking and acting be replaced by other things. Then we become ripe for relapse.
“I am not affected by other people’s criticism because I am not affected by other people’s praise.” Praise is wonderful. There are few greater joys than the affirmation and applause of my fellows. But what happens when the cheering stops? Where do I find my sense of self-worth when others fail to notice my good deeds?
Hi, my name is Mike, and I’m a sexaholic. I can still remember the first time I said that at an SA meeting. My palms were sweaty, my heart was pounding, my throat had a lump in it, and I could hardly speak—pretty much the same reaction I used to get each time I approached a prostitute, or did any of my addictive sexual behaviors.
Dear ESSAY Reader, We keep working on improving our “meeting in print” with your help. Subscriptions to the ESSAY are now available through the SAICO website store, Publications page, at (www.sa.org) Our intention is to make copies of the ESSAY available on-line soon for reproduction in other formats such as the international A4 paper size. Check the SAICO on-line store for availability.
Currently there are a number of prisons across the country that have SA meetings. However, we do not have information on all of them.
This I need to learn.
As so often happens, some of my most profound revelations originate in the most insignificant things—that is, if I listen to that gentle voice of intuition and wisdom.
Have you been in recovery for a while and find you’re facing new, baffling difficulties that your current program isn’t adequately addressing? Or do you feel like your recovery has slowed down and you can’t shift out of first gear? If so, perhaps it’s time to revisit the Fourth Step.
My name is ____________________ (fill in the blank). I have a disease/disorder/dysfunction/addiction/mental illness (whatever you want to call it) where my brain tells me I should:
