Saturday Dec 13, 2025
ESSAY December 2025 - A Lot of Courage - Nathalie V., Antwerp, Belgium
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 Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
He learned through the Program to be honest in every area of his life.
Rigorous honesty with myself is the best medicine for the disease because my disease comes out of denial—lying to myself and others. Before lust, I learned to fantasize and make up fun stories. I took that into my daily life when I discovered I could just lie to avoid trouble or to deal with uncomfortable things.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Completely exposed before God with a willingness for Him to take away her defects gave her a vital spiritual experience.
I have been in SA for five years, and am three years sober. I have been working through the 12 Steps with my sponsor, from the Step Into Action book. I am well aware that there are other methods in practice in SA, but I can only relate my own story (which I guess is rigorous honesty). It is a very detailed, painstaking method, and very deeply soul-searching, often quite painful, but extremely rewarding and beautiful nevertheless, and highly literature-based. This article is about my most recent, and extremely intense, Step work on beginning with Step Seven. The title reflects the almost white light experience Bill W experienced, but which had never happened to me, until now.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
His Step One was seeing reality for the first time without the lies and admitting to himself that he was addicted.
Rigorous honesty means the ability to share a feeling or situation with another person in a truly unbiased statement of fact. Addicts like to gloss over and shade the truth of events and characterize them from their point of view without consideration for the other party or the reality of the event.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
He stood at the turning point of his inventory and abandoned himself to God through complete honesty.
Hi guys, I'm Abhinav, a grateful recovering lust addict and sexoholic, sober today one day at a time (ODAAT) from August 15 of this year by the grace of God.
I started my journey with SA in April 2023, when a close person in my faith tradition suggested I attend a Twelve-Step program for my compulsive masturbation problem.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Practicing rigorous honesty has enabled him to grow in integrity in every area of his life.
When I was in a treatment centre to deal with my addictions, they asked me to write down three words I would want to be written on my tombstone. I wrote Honest, Courageous, and Loyal. In writing this, I realized that honesty was at the root of all three. When I pledged to be rigorously honest, it meant I pledged to avoid even the smallest distortions, whether those were exaggerations, omissions, or self-serving tweaks to reality. Particularly, this is true with all matters relating to my wife and is the cornerstone of my loyalty to her.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
He found he could give himself entirely to this program on a solid foundation of honesty.
When we read “How it Works” from the AA Big Book, I am encouraged by how little stands between me and recovery! Even being gravely emotionally and mentally disordered is not an obstacle (whew!). The one condition? To give myself to “this simple program” of the Steps.
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Roland mentions in his article, "The Pursuit," how honesty was vital in his new relationship with his wife. How important has honesty been in your recovery? Have you needed help in identifying when you have been dishonest?
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
Saturday Dec 13, 2025
After years of being dominated by lust, this member is living life on a spiritual plane as a result of practicing the Program, with deep love for sponsorship.
In my early childhood, I dreamed that something great was going to happen in my life. These were childish fantasies—on the level of a big castle, beautiful nature all around, a "prince," and a rich, heavenly life. As a child, I believed in my beautiful fairy tale.