Sexaholics Anonymous Vancouver

Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other, that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from sexual addiction. Our primary purpose is to stay sexually sober and help other sexaholics to achieve sexual sobriety.

The specialized nature of Sexaholics Anonymous can best be understood in terms of what we call the sexaholic. The sexaholic has taken himself or herself out of the whole context of what is right or wrong. He or she has lost control, no longer has the power of choice, and is not free to stop. Lust has become an addiction. Our situation is like that of the alcoholic who can no longer tolerate alcohol and must stop drinking altogether, but is hooked and cannot stop. So it is with the sexaholic, who can no longer tolerate lust but cannot stop.

Those of us recovering in Sexaholics Anonymous were driven here by many different forms of the same problem: the obsession of lust, usually combined with a compulsive demand for sex in some form.  We used some combination of pornography, masturbation, casual sex, dependency relationships, prostitution, fantasy, voyeurism, exhibitionism, and many other forms of sexual behaviour like a mood-altering drug. Very often we felt that we were the only ones struggling with this problem, that we were doing this, whatever it was, against our will. Whatever the details of our problem, we were dying spiritually – dying of guilt, shame, fear and loneliness.

As we came to see that we shared a common problem, we also came to see that, for us, there is a common solution: the Twelve Steps of SA (adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous) practiced in a fellowship and on a foundation of what we call sexual sobriety.

Sexaholics Anonymous is for those who know they have no other option but to stop, and their own enlightened self-interest must tell them this. If you identify with us and think you may share our problem, we would like to share our solution with you. (Sexaholics Anonymous, p. 1-4)

Copyright © 1989-2008 SA Literature. Reprinted with permission of SA Literature

We have a solution. We don’t claim it’s for everybody, but for us, it works. If you identify with us and think you may share our problem, we’d like to share our solution with you (Sexaholics Anonymous, p. 2).

In defining sobriety, we do not speak for those outside Sexaholics Anonymous. We can only speak for ourselves. Thus, for the married sexaholic, sexual sobriety means having no form of sex with self or with persons other than the spouse. In SA’s sobriety definition, the term “spouse” refers to one’s partner in a marriage between a man and a woman. For the unmarried sexaholic, sexual sobriety means freedom from sex of any kind. And for all of us, single and married alike, sexual sobriety also includes progressive victory over lust (Sexaholics Anonymous, p. 191-192).

The only requirement for SA membership is a desire to stop lusting and become sexually sober according to the SA sobriety definition.

Any two or more sexaholics gathered together for SA sobriety according to the SA sobriety definition may call themselves an SA group.

Meetings that do not adhere to and follow Sexaholics Anonymous’ sobriety statement, as set forth in the foregoing Statement of Principle, adopted by the General Delegate Assembly in 2010, are not SA meetings and shall not call themselves SA meetings.

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