Willing to Wait
I’m Bernd, a sexaholic from Munich, and I’m grateful to have been a part of the Munich team that organized (with God’s help) the German-Speaking convention this year. The convention was held in Zavelstein near Stuttgart. The theme for the weekend was “Honesty.”
At EMER’s first Regional Convention in Warsaw in 2013, five women met from five countries (Luxembourg, Ireland, Holland, Spain, Poland). We had never met before, and most of us were the only women in our home meetings. This was a wonderful experience, and we started two projects: a Women’s Skype meeting and an EMER Support for Women Committee.
On May 15-17, SA’s Europe and Middle East Region (EMER) held its third annual Regional SA Convention, with S-Anon participation, in Birmingham, UK. After our first convention in Warsaw in 2013 and our second in Jerusalem last year, our UK fellows took the initiative to host this annual event.
My name is Chuck, and I’m a recovering sexaholic. I’ve been sexually sober since June 3, 2013. When I was 12, I began looking at various magazines, seeking out pictures of women in them, and I would sneak them home to act out. At 13, while babysitting, I found pornographic magazines and began looking at women as sex objects.
He would tell anyone who would listen that SA saved his life. On March 10, 2015, Fenner U., one of SA’s longest-standing and staunchest members, went home to be with God.
My name is Jim B., and I’m a sexaholic in recovery. For the past three months, I’ve been working on my Fourth Step with the guidance of my sponsor. The journey has led me through the gamut of emotions, and it has given me a significant amount of insight into how my past characteristics have manifested themselves and impacted others.
There I was in an Israeli prison, walking through a security checkpoint to visit an incarcerated SA member. What an ordeal! First, I had to empty my pockets. Then I had to take off my shoes. After that, I had to take off my socks and walk barefooted on a tile floor where other barefoot people—from all backgrounds—had been walking.
When I was eight years old, my mother would ask me (her only child), “Will you help me by drying the dishes and stacking them on the counter?” I enjoyed the activity and felt I was part of the team.
As I type this, it’s 2:34 a.m., and I have reached a little over eight months of sobriety. I just experienced what I believe may be the first depths of recovery but I’m not sure. When I first entered through the SA doors and was shown how to surrender my lust by my sponsor, my life changed in that moment.
I came into SA in October 2014, on the advice of a friend in another Twelve Step program. I started working the Steps with a female sponsor (the only SA woman in my area), but the situation did not work out, so I asked one of the men in my home group to be my sponsor. But this did not work out so well either.
