Hi, I wanted to share what’s going on in North Idaho. Our meeting (we named it Monday Miracles), turned two in September, 2002. At times it has been very challenging to my sobriety to bring SA to my town. Whenever I thought I was doing it, boy did things get bad (in the realms of my mind).
All my life I felt “different” from the other boys. I was sensitive and didn’t like to play rough sports. I spent most of the time with the girls. At age 12, I became sexually active with males and females. Since the first day, I used sex as I had been using food since I was seven: to medicate the pain of my early childhood abuse. It became so painful that I needed more and more lust to cover up my feelings.
For the last two years or so, I have had trouble reading from the Twelve and Twelve which contains the first quote. I interpreted “…something wrong with us…” to mean I was this cruel and evil person who ought to be ostracized by the human race for all eternity. I thought it was unfair to say that it was wrong for me to be sore because someone else committed hurtful actions against me.
I can hear my sponsor’s voice, passing on the words from his sponsor and his sponsor’s sponsor: “Things get worse; IT gets better.” I do not have to wonder anymore what IT is. For me, today, IT means life, serenity, acceptance, gratitude, living without expectations, finding the power to be useful and to carry out God’s will for me.
[Excerpts from the SA Correctional Facilities Committee Report from the SA International Conference July 2002 in Portland, OR] SACFC Committee Members are: Earl H., Southeast; Allen L., North Midwest; John C., Northeast; Keith S., North Midwest; William R., CFC Coordinator
Dear ESSAY, Last year at this time I picked up a newspaper and turned to Dear Abby for some unknown reason (I know now I was being led). I hadn’t read her column in 20 years. The column was about sex addiction and gave the SA website reference. After visiting the website and Passing or Failing (depending upon one’s point of view) on 18 of the 20 questions, I thought I should find out more about it. Like a true compulsive I ordered every piece of literature from the SA website.
Service work is the greatest gift you can give another sexaholic. This is the practical application of the Seventh Tradition in its purest form. We give money to keep the facilities going; we give of ourselves to keep the fellowship going.
Dear ESSAY Reader, With two new brochures (To the Newcomer and SA as a Resource for Professionals), a third one on the way (regarding Lust), and our collections of stories and practical experience in the two volumes of the Quintessential Essay, our Fellowship is entering a new phase of its growth. Our hope is that our literature will pass on the Twelve Step program handed to us.
On May 10, 2001 Sexaholics Anonymous held its inaugural meeting at the Parr Highway Correctional Facility in Adrian, Michigan. A year has come and gone, and SA continues to thrive at our facility. We now have two weekly meetings, one on Thursday evenings and the other on Saturday afternoons.
My addiction came visiting today, I didn’t let him in the door; I knew what to say!
