Saturday Jun 14, 2025
ESSAY June 2025 - Dear ESSAY - Vince G., New Brunswick, Canada
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 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
A few years after the Flemish IG began, Luc brought up the idea of organizing a larger workshop or convention. We also looked to SA in the Netherlands for collaboration. This happened several times during workshops with old-timers. A few years ago, a tradition emerged: an annual Dutch-language convention, alternately organized by the Dutch and the Flemish IG.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
When I came to SA at the beginning of January 2021, started working the Steps, and got to know my Higher Power, I thought life would no longer be difficult. As long as we are sober and with God, it can only be good, right?
Well, not really.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
I have a lifetime of tears that are trapped like an ocean, deep within the inside of me,
The pain and the fears, and a lingering notion that one day they’ll all be set free.
But for now, as new tears are gathered and added deep behind an impenetrable wall,
The pressure increases as the stability decreases, awaiting the eventual fall.
I am stuck in a land where no man can stand the pain that is inside of me.
I am waiting to crumble or eventually stumble where darkness is all I can see.
Please God, may you enter, removing the winter that’s frozen like ice on my heart,
So the tears can start flowing, and I can start growing, where a new life’s beginning to start
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
As this headline suggests, I have lived through the deaths of my large childhood extended family, where I lived and thrived. Then, in midlife, my beloved husband died tragically. My circle shrank to my parents and grandmother, but in 2020, my cherished father and grandmother both died in lockdown, with all the severe trauma that involved at the time. Even my former acting-out partner will be dead by now.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
“Have you worked the Steps on this issue?” Sylvia asked me that question regularly when she was my sponsor. The question stays in my head, and it comes to the surface when my Higher Power knows I need help. Seven women received many wise suggestions from Sylvia as our sponsor or as our friend. We united in our grief to have an online memorial, a memorial on Zoom, and a memorial published in the June ESSAY magazine. Sylvia passed away in October 2024. One of the women interviewed me and Sylvia’s former sponsees and friends to paint a picture of her gifts of experience, strength, and hope.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Have you sought support to help you find the good in grief?
Jack’s in-depth article describes how unprocessed grief can greatly contribute to the addictive process. He explains how support in SA, especially from an understanding sponsor, helped him discuss the losses in his life and cultivate gratitude.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Sharing the wisdom of David M. to help us let go, grow, and remember.
Maynardism: The opposite of love is indifference. When one is angry or critical of another, that is not indifference. That is an expression of caring. Learning to accept caring in the form of judgment is important, though rarely pleasant.
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Saturday Jun 14, 2025
Sponsorship in Prison My name is Blue, and I am an incarcerated person serving a life sentence in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the crimes of sexual assault. This is the bad news. The good news is that coming to prison was the best thing that could have happened for me, because it forced me to take an honest look at myself and what I needed to do to transform and be healed.