Saturday Jun 15, 2024
ESSAY June 2024 - He Is in Charge - Irori, Saitama Prefecture, Japan
ESSAY Magazine (An International Journal of Sexaholics Anonymous)
The mission of ESSAY is to serve as a source of information, experience, strength and hope to sexaholics, both inside and outside the rooms of Sexaholics Anonymous. Our vision is to provide a high-quality “meeting in print” that gathers together members from around the world. It can serve as a portable “extra meeting” especially for loners and for members who don’t have access to many meetings. In addition, Essay serves as an outreach tool to carry the message to those who have not yet found SA. We strive to include a mix of stories and shares from a wide variety of members, including men and women, prisoners, and international members. In addition, ESSAY provides Fellowship announcements and information on subjects such as new meetings, Fellowship events, and our service structure. We hope that all of the articles we publish will offer useful information and provide experience, strength, and hope to all who suffer from the disease of sexaholism. Fellowship actvities such as international conventions, regional events and local events appear in the Calendar section. Each issue has a theme and various sections to share sexaholic stories and practical tools. In addition to letters and group news, ESSAY offers short, edited articles written by members about recovery and our solution. The Practical Recovery Tools section features members sharing on the topic, “Exactly how I did it.” Submissions may also include meditations, poetry, and humor. ESSAY is guided by the principles of the Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts. Each issue contains the following statement:
Listen on:
Episodes
Episodes
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Dear ESSAY, we’d love to share the story of our Loving Chair with you all.
Jaime Daniel is one of the founders of our group. 12 years ago, he celebrated his 24th anniversary of sobriety in another fellowship where he received a small plastic chair as a gift. He donated that chair to our “La Liberación” group.
Since then, the chair serves as a reminder to us that our primary purpose is to keep our doors open to newcomers. For this reason, the voice of recovery takes precedence in our group. It is our wish that this voice gives hope to the person who hears the SA message for the first time.
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
When Zoom meetings started I was blessed to attend one or more meetings per day including for the first time a women’s only meeting. I didn’t have much experience attending meetings with other SA sisters. It was beautiful.
A daily meeting I attended regularly had a handful of regular sisters and we discussed starting an offshoot women’s only meeting. So “Bozos on the Bus Women” was created. It is a small meeting integral to my recovery. We share on topics that we’d likely not share in mixed meetings. We also laugh a lot. I feel very close to these women from all corners of the world, our commonality being sexaholics.
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
As a young girl, I dreamed of becoming a scientist. But life took a sharp turn when instead I became a lust addict. Accepting my struggle wasn’t easy. What I thought was innocent indulgence in pornography and fantasy spun out of control, and I came to feel completely powerless. I stumbled across SA on the Internet, but I was still under age, and I had to wait until I turned 18 to join the Program. And living in India, where we didn’t yet have face-to-face meetings, meant I had to rely solely on online support.
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
came into Sexaholics Anonymous at age 31. I am 55 today. I’ve seen a lot of women come and go. Based on behaviors I’ve experienced during those 25 years, I’d like to share some practical recovery tools how I treat the opposite sex at our mixed meetings:
I don’t exchange numbers with members of the opposite sex—especially if married.
I don’t touch another person without first asking permission.
I don’t invite a male member to spend time outside of the meeting—especially if married.
I don’t chat with members of the opposite sex on Zoom calls—especially if married.
I don’t comment on another person’s face, clothing, body, or overall appearance—I know that people who have been abused are especially very sensitive to this.
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Saturday Jun 15, 2024
Hi, I'm Karin W., a woman sexaholic, and on 27 June '23, I landed in SA. My sobriety date is Sept 1, 2023. I have a SA in-person home group, attend Zoom SA meetings, work the 12 Steps with a SA sponsor and do SA Correctional Facilities Committee (CFC) service work. Also, I'm committed to 'no' dating or getting into a relationship for a year, minimum. Before SA, I wanted to die.
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
There’s a saying, “Recovery is peace and serenity in the midst of the storm.” And Priscilla has known many storms. Today, after more than 30 years of sexual sobriety, she has tools to stay the course during storms.
Priscilla C., from Nashville, Tennessee, has been sober since February 7, 1993. She was sent to Sexaholics Anonymous by her therapist. “My forms of acting out were predominantly with married or emotionally-unavailable men. I’d had a series of relationships with people I worked with, and every time, I said I’d never do it again. I made sure it’d only be with someone out of state, but, of course, that was just part of my rationalization. I had an affair with a guy that I only saw twice a year, but we talked a lot on the phone. One time we agreed to meet in another state, but when we did, he seemed very distant. The next day he said he didn’t want to see me again—that he didn’t want the affair and that I forced him into it.
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
I’ve been sober since January 7, 2023. That day I took a flight to South Africa (SA), so I literally traveled to a new life since then. God has an amazing sense of humor!
FIRST STOP: Bogotá.
September 2014: One Friday night I called SA because I had done something that ashamed me profoundly. “Why can’t I stop? Why do my relationships not last? What is wrong with me?” I still remember the understanding male voice telling me there was a solution for me. However, the sobriety definition seemed too strict for me: “It is impossible for a young and pretty woman. Youth is a synonym for parties, boyfriends, and joy. By that time, lust was still my friend.”
Friday Jun 14, 2024
Friday Jun 14, 2024
A man… got blinds to the windows; what can’t stand daylight?His front yard looks desolate, a jungle downright!A man… day after day, an all nighter tooHis addiction to porn is the one trick he can do That man… lonely, neglected, afraid, feels rejected One day… he can’t stop the habit, it’s having him hooked He’s looking for havoc, it’s having him nooked