Editors’ Corner
Dear Essay readers: Welcome back to Essay — or, if this is your first time to read the Essay, welcome to your SA meeting in print online. We hope you will subscribe to Essay to benefit from our meeting in print every quarter.
Dear Essay readers: Welcome back to Essay — or, if this is your first time to read the Essay, welcome to your SA meeting in print online. We hope you will subscribe to Essay to benefit from our meeting in print every quarter.
These are the top ten things NOT to say to one’s Sexaholics Anonymous sponsor:
The trusted servants of the Fellowship have had a busy year. In the business meetings held this past week, the following actions were taken:
On 16th and 17th September 2017 two members of SA in Flanders manned this information stand at the Flemish Congress of Mental Health in Antwerp. More than 1,000 mental health professionals, including doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and addiction specialists attended this event.
I got married with only one week of sobriety in Sexaholics Anonymous. I had just started working with my sponsor, and he said that it might be a good idea to postpone the wedding until I had more sobriety and recovery—but he understood that it was shortly before the wedding and canceling would have been difficult.
Humor is a big part of my recovery. As the AA Big Book says, “We absolutely insist on enjoying life” (AA pg. 132). I have created a Step 12 & 4/8ths: take the actions of humor (or Rule 62) seriously:
I have a best friend. I’ll call him Lester. I met Lester when I was about 3 years old and we became close very quickly. Since then, we have almost always been together. Lester loves me more than a brother could, and he worries about me constantly. He cannot bear to see me in pain. If I’m sad, he immediately tries to cheer me up. If I am in conflict, he always takes my side.
Although I am not married, I have lived as if I were—not to any living breathing human being but to FEAR. Just as my addictions seemed to help me to cope with the dysfunctional world in which I grew up, Fear seemed to help me to manage and control my addictions.
Someone asked me if it gets any easier as time passes. I have to think about what that question really means to me. I have to think about what it is I’m actually measuring and comparing between my past and my present.
For the last five years, by the grace of God, I have not lusted when fully awake. When a triggering sexual image pops up, my eyes seem to automatically look away. I do not take that deadly first drink. Instead, I say a prayer. “I surrender my right to be comfortable! Please bless me so I can be helpful to other sexaholics.” Then I make a phone call.