Supporting Women in SA
SA CFC
No one as a child growing up ever thinks they might one day end up in jail or as a sexaholic. Yet, that’s what happened to me. I am a female sexaholic, sober since January 19, 2020.
Discussion Topic
Kathy describes in great detail what has been making her grow relationally for the last 12 years. She talks about her lifelong passion to have healthy relationships and the many answers she has found in SA.
Dear ESSAY
I read with great interest the May issue on What Makes Meeting Strong? It made me reflect on the importance of SA meetings for my recovery, especially when the global lockdown could potentially have shut down SA meetings. Fortunately, our fellowship has responded strongly by using virtual meetings.
Editors’ Corner
Dear Essay readers, I was asked to introduce this special edition, as I had the wonderful privilege to chair last May’s worldwide online event “Supporting Women in SA.” You may have wondered why it is necessary to support women in SA or thought it is an outside issue or a controversial topic. Well, then this issue of Essay is for you.
International Joy by Serving at the Utah International Convention
I am grateful for the miracle of SA International Conventions where I have been blessed to meet so many who have recovered or are recovering from the addiction to lust.
Why a Convention to Support Women in SA?
SA is my home today, but it hasn’t always been like that. I came into the fellowship in 2008, after a few ineffective years in two other S-fellowships and with a lot of “over my dead body” ideas. I wasn’t even sure SA was for me, because I couldn’t identify with the strict boundaries of Sobriety Definition.
Working the Steps in Order to Dissolve My Spiritual Clots
I brought a friend into the program, and encouraged her to feel free to share anything with her sponsor. She said, “Anything?” And I answered, “Yes, anything and everything.” Then I shared more of my experience, strength, and hope with her. She asked if I could be her sponsor.
Step Four Helped Me to Face My Wild Elephant
Lust corrupted my childhood. I was violated when I was very young—an inappropriate act that distorted my perception of sexuality, reality, and love. For years afterward I went around with an aching, infinite emptiness inside me. I bandaged the pain with a blindfold and contented myself to live in darkness, like someone living down a deep water well.
Serving Others Has Brought So Much Joy
As a pre-school age child, I learned how to use a vibrator as a sex toy. That’s how it all began. I had never heard the word “sex” and knew nothing of sexual intimacy. But I knew what felt good, and was immediately hooked.
The Promises Are Real
I was exposed to men’s magazines at the age of seven and didn’t realize it was abuse. At the age of nine, I was sexually abused by another girl, who was 10, and experienced a lot of confusion. The confusion increased when I was sort of forcibly converted to Catholicism at the age of 11, which led to a whole load of guilt.
