IN THE CURRENT MAGAZINE

I am an SA member and have been for some time a reserve soldier in one of the many warring countries on this planet. Often I get woken up by alarms. Sometimes I see rockets in the air. Friends of mine have been killed. Everything is scary and weird, surrealistic.

Jim Egan played a big role in my early SA years. I loved his shares, which were always a loving, humble meander. I’m grateful to have learned from his shares to be loving and humble myself. Always with a smile on his face, he also helped me feel comfortable at the SA International Conventions I attended.

There is a saying that goes something like this, “Not by argument will you change a person’s mind but by telling them a good story.” How true this is when speaking of Dave T. when he shared his experience, strength, and hope.

Roy K. saved my life, just as his inspirations and guidance have helped save most of our lives. Roy gave me hope, something I had lost a decade prior to meeting him. Roy helped me find my soul, my conscience, my humanity, my spirituality, and my Higher Power.

Two oldtimers who knew Jess L. personally share some of their personal experiences about this very inspiring member in this ESSAY interview.

At some point in 2011 I remember hearing about this fellow named David who was sober 25 years and could quote the Big Book, chapter and verse, and worked with a bunch of people as a counselor and as a sponsor. I got online and found a website where I could purchase old recordings from past SA conventions.

My name is David, I am a sexaholic. And by the grace of my Higher Power, my sobriety date is August 2, 1988, for which I can never be sufficiently grateful. That credit goes to my Higher Power, that's for sure. I was sitting at dinner and was figuring it's been thirty-one years, five months, and eight days. And every one of those in their own way has been a miracle. And that's a little bit of what I'd like to share tonight. I was told after my first year of sobriety that it keeps getting better. And that has been the simple description of my experience in Sexaholics Anonymous, that it keeps getting better.

I entered SA in August 2017, having heard of it a year earlier. My first meeting was on a Saturday morning in the city of Ghent, Belgium, where I live. It was in a messy but cozy living room of a presbytery. SA had been very warmly welcomed there by the old local parish priest who gave us the room when approached by a fellow in 2014. This Saturday meeting has been my home meeting for the last 6 years.

I want to share six affirmations I created on an app called “I AM,” that show on my phone screen throughout the day to a background of a setting sun at a beach. They help me to stay sober.

Some months ago, our Bonn group hosted a 12-Step workshop with 31 participants. It was a creative combination of Dave T.’s awesome string exercises., Nicholas S.’s brilliant 12-Step workshop, and the workshop leader’s live drawings on a flipchart.