June 1

“Sex Addiction is a disease affecting the mind, body, and spirit. It is progressive, with the behavior and its consequences usually becoming more severe over time.”

Sex Addicts Anonymous, page 2

Every morning I try to count my blessings and think about what I have to be grateful for in this life. Near the top of the list you’ll always find SAA and sexual sobriety. My sobriety is a gift of opportunity—the opportunity to live a normal life. However, my gratitude for my abstinence goes deeper than this. For, even as my sexual sobriety contains the seeds of a normal and even joyful life, so my acting out contained the seeds of its progressive nature. Had I not stopped when I did, who knows where my disease would have progressed.

I am one of the lucky ones. I found SAA and have given myself to this simple program. Without it, I would be an isolated, probably suicidal individual, on the edges of society and hating myself for what I had become, with a sick spirit and mind, and perhaps a sick body. But the paradox of SAA is that, from complete defeat can come victory, thanks to Step One and the eleven following steps. Just as my disease would have progressed, so my gratitude can now progress. Each year I move further away from the person I became—the only requirement is to try and apply a few simple spiritual principles.

–

Help me remember that abstinence is a gift from my Higher Power and all I need to do is surrender. Help me be grateful that I am sexually sober just for today.