About the Sex Addicts Anonymous 12-Step Recovery Program

With as much media as drug and alcohol addiction receives, it can sometimes be eye-opening that recovery programs exist for dependence on activities instead of substances. These behavioral addictions can be just as dangerous as substance abuse. Sexual addiction impacts men and women, gay or straight. If you or a loved one has become addicted to sexual behavior, Sex Addicts Anonymous has a 12-Step recovery program that could help. The program relies on principles similar to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) (these are outlined in the Big Book of AA), and it is designed specifically to address whatever root causes are fueling your pattern of destructive sexual activities.

How Does Sexual Addiction Happen & Progress?

Sex Addicts Anonymous explains that many sex addicts experience a progression of increasingly dangerous or obsessive behaviors over time. Like many other addictions, a sexual addiction can begin as a way to hide from stressful life situations. Sometimes, it stems from increased sexual behavior with an existing partner, which gradually leads to sexual activities outside of a primary relationship. If you are concerned that you might be a sex addict, ponder some of these questions Sex Addicts Anonymous has posed to determine dependence:

Be careful to evaluate yourself or your loved one objectively; a healthy enjoyment of your sex life is not the same as an addiction. If you have determined that a problem exists, the Sex Addicts Anonymous 12-Step recovery program can represent your pathway to freedom from dependence.

About Sex Addicts Anonymous

Be careful to evaluate yourself or your loved one objectively; a healthy enjoyment of your sex life is not the same as an addiction.

Like other addiction recovery programs, Sex Addicts Anonymous offers participants a safe environment to explore their behaviors, determine root causes and begin to work toward recovery. People who attend meetings in person, on the phone or through video conference sessions are assured of the confidentiality that surrounds what they share and what they hear from others. A Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting is a judgment-free zone, where attendees can learn from one another, and occasionally speakers are invited to share their own experience and recovery stories.

The 12 Steps of the SA Program

Sex Addicts Anonymous bases its recovery program on a series of Steps adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous. The only changes made were to ensure that the language was consistent with a sexual addiction, but the path itself includes the recognizable milestones used in many other addiction programs:

• Recognizing the inability to overcome addictive sexual behavior
• Believing that a higher power can help restore an addict to normal sexual behavior
• Deciding to invite a higher power into the sex addict’s life
• Evaluating the extent and depth of the sexual addiction
• Admitting to all that the sexual addiction exists
• Becoming ready for a higher power to intervene
• Asking a higher power for help recovering from the sexual addiction
• Listing all others who have been negatively affected by the sex addict’s behavior
• Making amends to those listed to the fullest extent possible
• Continuing self-assessments throughout recovery from a sex addiction
• Improving a relationship with a higher power and carrying out life accordingly
• Experiencing a spiritual awakening and beginning to assist others in their recovery

How to Achieve Ongoing Recovery From Sex Addiction

Freeing yourself from the mantle of addiction is, unfortunately, not as easy as attending a few meetings, making a few changes and being pronounced recovered. Addictions take time to build and just as long, or longer, to overcome them. Sex Addicts Anonymous asks people who join their fellowship to begin by attending six meetings in a row. Addicts can be paired with people in recovery who have reached the 12th Step and are ready to help others. Sex Addicts Anonymous has written and compiled a large body of literature that addicts new to the process can and should read. These texts can help addicts learn more about their own compulsions and navigate their pathways to healing.

Sex Addicts Anonymous also recognizes that meetings may not be readily available in all areas. They offer support group options include phone meetings and video conferencing to people not able to attend an in-person event.

In addition, Sex Addicts Anonymous recognizes that different programs may better suit different people, including those whose lives have been impacted by a sex addict. They point out that additional opportunities are available through other organizations, like:

• Sexaholics Anonymous
• Sexual Recovery Anonymous
• Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous
• Sexual Compulsives Anonymous
• Codependents of Sex Addicts