Transcribed Talk from the SA/S-Anon International Convention — San Antonio, TX 1/12 – 14/18 Okay everyone. Wow! I’m Harvey A., sexaholic from Nashville, TN. I’ve been sexually sober thirty-three years and ten months. But there is someone in this room who has more sobriety and who is a pioneer of pioneers. To be a woman, and the oldest in sobriety basically, and to break these frontiers, Sylvia, would you stand? [Applause]
I left home at 21 and moved in with my boyfriend. I had been attending college full-time and had two part-time jobs, but I dropped out of school and work so I could spend more time acting out sexually. I felt a lot of shame, so I convinced my boyfriend to marry me. Sometimes we acted out by watching porn. When my husband wasn’t home, I would look at the porn and masturbate. We were both sex addicts, and we raged at each other daily. Lust killed our relationship.
I discovered lust around puberty through a porn magazine and quickly became addicted to masturbation and fantasy women in stories, pictures and eventually clips and movies from electronic sources.
I have to remember that my lust has not gone anywhere since I got into recovery. I’ve just been holding it at arm’s length. If I think I’ve got some sobriety so that now I can relax and I don’t need to work so hard to stay sober, my lust is right there ready to step back front and center in my life.
I am a technophobe, and clumsy at best when it comes to all the gadgets today. I miss the simple life of rotary phones and typewriters! I realize that technology neither caused my disease nor is responsible for my recovery.
On July 3rd, 2004, I left a family holiday party early to go to my first meeting. I even changed from shorts to long pants as I knew shorts were not supposed to be worn at meetings. My family assumed I was going to a church meeting, and I did nothing to correct them.
These are little gems of wisdom I have jotted down through the years. I keep them in my “Meeting In A Pocket” booklet from SAICO.
At the Jersey Strong conference in Newark in July 2017 there was an Old-Timers panel meeting. The speakers with 30-plus years sobriety included Dianne (1987), Margot (1986), Harvey (1984), Mitch (1985), and Tom (1987).
As a sexaholic, I have been blessed with five and a half years of continuous sobriety and recovery from lust. Much of my recovery is due to a high amount of service work in order to give back what has been so freely given to me. This includes attending International conventions when I can. I recently returned from the Jersey Strong SA/S-Anon/S-Ateen convention. The Saturday lunch S-Anon speaker was an S-Ateen instead.
Good morning recovery family. My name is Esty L. from Miami and I am a recovering sexaholic. My sobriety date is February 26, 2012 for which I am never sufficiently grateful. I am the fourth of 15 children. I grew up in a loving home with two devoted parents who did the best they could to provide me with a stable home.
