Tom struggled with sobriety for many years, and by his willingness to surrender to the grace of God, he enjoyed six years of sobriety. He is described by the members of his group in Phoenix as a source of wisdom, with a fatherlike influence.
First, I've got to take responsibility for myself. Of the dozen or so loners in foreign countries I know of who have not been able to stay sober and where groups have not formed, there is one fact in common: They never found their Dr. Bob. That is, they never found one other sexaholic who wanted sobriety. They tried to do it on their own or have it done for them in a ready-made group. They did not come to the desperate willingness to reach out to another and try to help them.
After a year and a half in the program, four months of sobriety, and working steps one through five, I began abstinence from a major trigger for me: television and movies.
My journey into sexual recovery started when, after a particularly sordid and degrading sexual experience, I discovered I had crab lice. When I realized this, there was a sinking feeling of terror in the pit of my stomach…. Waiting three months for the result of an HIV test, fearing the worst and wondering — knowing — what the reaction of my wife would be, was the most painful experience of my life.
The Second Australian SA Conference was held over the weekend of May. Some 16 members attended from various parts of Australia. The conference was a milestone for SA in Australia in many ways. One meeting was open to non-sexaholics.
The Wheeling, West Virginia-Steubenville, OH, SA groups (members of the Pittsburgh Tri-State Intergroup) recently hosted their Third Annual Spring Retreat on Saturday, June 1. It was a wonderful chance to spend a recovery-filled day with members of the fellowship.
In Madrid we are trying to live in the solution and not in the problem. Before the regular one-hour Sunday meeting where we read and comment on a piece of official SA literature “to relate our sharing to some aspect of what we have read,” we are having on a trial basis a half-hour Tradition meeting. We’ve already been through several items of Discovering the Principles and are going to start to read Guidelines for Group Recovery, which has just been translated into Spanish.
I was 44 years old, married for 23 years, a father of four children and a successful professional person. Yet there I was, leaving a porno store, disgusted with myself once again. It was hopeless. Anonymous sex had become a daily occurrence. I knew I was going to lose my wife, my children and my profession. I was ready to lose it all rather than fight it one more moment.
Two duly, newly elected bodies of SA share similar names, the Oversight Assembly and the Oversight Committee. This has resulted in confusion on the part of the members and those dealing with these two bodies.
Recently, I received the Essay containing an article which I found most helpful in understanding my own recovery from the deadly disease called lust and its main components — resentment, fear, criticism, hate, etc. “Spiritual Fornication” described very well what is happening to me in my relationships with others and how effective it is in shutting God out of my consciousness.
