The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions

The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions of SAA are the foundation and guiding principles of our Program of Recovery. They are important enough to us that we begin each meeting with a reading of them. The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions are as essential to the recovering sex addict as air and water are to life itself.

The 12 Steps and 12 Traditions below are taken from the official ISO of SAA website, www.saa-recovery.org.

The 12 Steps of Sex Addicts Anonymous

  1. We admitted we were powerless over addictive sexual behavior - 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.

© ISO of SAA, Inc.

The Twelve 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.

Adapted from "Alcoholics Anonymous," Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., Third Edition. © ISO of SAA, Inc

JUST FOR TODAY
(I Have a Choice)

  1. JUST FOR TODAY I will try to live through this day only, not tackling my whole life problem at once. I can do something at this moment that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

  2. JUST FOR TODAY I will try to be happy, realizing that my happiness does not depend on what others do or say, or what happens around me. Happiness is a result of being at peace with myself.

  3. JUST FOR TODAY I will try to adjust myself to what is - and not force every thing to adjust to my own desires. I will accept my family, my friends, my business, my circumstances as they come.

  4. JUST FOR TODAY I will take care of my physical health; I will exercise my mind; I will read something spiritual.

  5. JUST FOR TODAY I will do somebody a good turn and not broadcast it. I shall do at least one thing I don't want to do, and I will perform some small act of love for my neighbor.

  6. JUST FOR TODAY I will try to go out of my way to be kind to someone I meet; I will be agreeable; I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously, criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything, and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.

  7. JUST FOR TODAY I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests - hurry and indecision.

  8. JUST FOR TODAY I will stop saying, "If I had time." I never will "find time" for anything. If I want time, I must take it.

  9. JUST FOR TODAY I will have a quiet time of meditation wherein I shall think of God as I understand God, of myself, and of my neighbor. I shall relax and seek truth.

  10. JUST FOR TODAY I shall be unafraid. Particularly, I shall be unafraid to be happy, to enjoy what is good, what is beautiful, and what is lovely in life.

  11. JUST FOR TODAY I will accept myself and live to the best of my ability.

  12. JUST FOR TODAY I choose to believe that I can live this one day…

THE CHOICE IS MINE!

 

©2010 Awareness Group of Winston-Salem