Local Fellowships Aid Anonymous Sex Addicts
By Connect Mason Reporter Edwin Mora
Sex Addicts Anonymous is one of six fellowships of men and women that focus on helping individuals overcome compulsive sexual addiction.
- QUIZ: Are You a Sex Addict?
- Check out local fellowship meetings below.
The fellowships are modeled after the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a self-supporting spiritual program where attendees share their experiences in order to overcome their addiction and help others recover from addiction as well.
SAA’s 12-step program is aimed at helping individuals ultimately take control of their addictive behavior following a one-day-at-a-time ritual.
“All four fellowships are extremely close in nature,” said Olin T., member of the D.C area intergroup for sexual addicts.
He helps coordinate the Northern Virginia SAA meetings. “We try to help individuals overcome their compulsive urge to involved in sexual activities and encourage them to help other sex addicts,” said Olin T.
Besides SAA, the other sex addiction fellowships include Sexual Recovery Anonymous, Codependents of Sexual Addicts, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous and the original fellowship, Sexaholics Anonymous.
According to Olin T., besides Sexaholics Anonymous which solely focuses on no sex, including masturbation, outside legal marriage, the other fellowships deal with a wide range of sexual addiction.
Most of the listed sex addiction organizations have local and online meetings and follow a similar 12-steps and traditions program.
Sober.com, an Internet directory for nationwide addiction clinics, defines sexual addiction as “a state in which a person has a compulsive physiological and psychological need for habitual sexual activity.” It also states that sexual addiction is becoming a major social problem similar to alcoholism and drug addiction.
The SAA fellowship’s website, also places sexual addicts in the same category of drug addicts and defines the person with a sex addiction problem as one who “experiences a sense of powerlessness over a compulsive behavior, resulting in their lives becoming unmanageable.”
It goes on to state that sexual addiction may start with “addiction to masturbation, pornography (either printed or electronic), or a relationship, but over the years progressed to increasingly dangerous behaviors.”
SAA is a self-supporting group open to everyone who has the desire to stop sexual addictive behavior. It is supported by voluntary contributions from members, which according to Olin T., usually means $1 to $2 per person. Monetary contributions are not necessary to become a member.
The SAA fellowship is not directly affiliated with AA, it only uses AA’s 12-step program as a model to treat addiction.
The number of how many SAA members there are in our area is difficult to figure since participants largely remain anonymous.