Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA)
New Zealand
Our Program
[Adapted from Sex Addicts Anonymous – ‘the Green Book’]
“Attending SAA meetings starts us on a new way of life. But while the SAA fellowship supports our recovery, the actual work of recovery is described in the Twelve Steps.
Working the Twelve Steps leads to a spiritual transformation that results in sustainable relief from our addiction.
When we start attending meetings of Sex Addicts Anonymous, many of us are surprised to meet people who are enjoying life, experiencing freedom from the painful, compulsive behaviours that brought them to SAA. Listening to other members share about their recovery, we gradually realise that in order to make the same kind of progress, we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get sexually sober and stay sober. We have learnt from hard experience that we cannot achieve and maintain sexual sobriety if we aren’t willing to change our way of life. But if we can honestly face our problems, and are willing to change, the Twelve Steps of SAA will lead to an awakening that allows us to live a new way of life according to spiritual principles. Taking these steps allows fundamental change to occur and be sustained in our lives. They are the foundation of our recovery.” “These steps are our program. They contain a depth that we could hardly have guessed when we started. As we work them, we experience a spiritual transformation. Over time, we establish a relationship with a power greater than ourselves, each of us coming to an understanding of a Higher Power that is personal for us. The programme offers a spiritual solution to our addiction. The path is wide enough for everyone who wishes to walk it.”
Working the Twelve Steps leads to a spiritual transformation that results in sustainable relief from our addiction.
When we start attending meetings of Sex Addicts Anonymous, many of us are surprised to meet people who are enjoying life, experiencing freedom from the painful, compulsive behaviours that brought them to SAA. Listening to other members share about their recovery, we gradually realise that in order to make the same kind of progress, we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get sexually sober and stay sober. We have learnt from hard experience that we cannot achieve and maintain sexual sobriety if we aren’t willing to change our way of life. But if we can honestly face our problems, and are willing to change, the Twelve Steps of SAA will lead to an awakening that allows us to live a new way of life according to spiritual principles. Taking these steps allows fundamental change to occur and be sustained in our lives. They are the foundation of our recovery.” “These steps are our program. They contain a depth that we could hardly have guessed when we started. As we work them, we experience a spiritual transformation. Over time, we establish a relationship with a power greater than ourselves, each of us coming to an understanding of a Higher Power that is personal for us. The programme offers a spiritual solution to our addiction. The path is wide enough for everyone who wishes to walk it.”
The 12 Steps of Sex Addicts Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over addictive sexual behaviour - that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other sex addicts and to practice these principles in our lives.
The 12 Traditions of Sex Addicts Anonymous
1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon SAA unity.2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as expressed in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.3. The only requirement for SAA membership is a desire to stop addictive sexual behavior.4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or SAA as a whole.5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the sex addict who still suffers.6. An SAA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the SAA name to any related facility or outside enterprise lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.7. Every SAA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.8. Sex Addicts Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.9. SAA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.10. Sex Addicts Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the SAA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, and films.12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.