Keys to S-Ateen Recovery

Over time, S-Ateen members learn to accept a number of new ideas:

• Sexaholism is a disease very similar to alcoholism. At first many of us could not accept this idea.  For S-Ateen members, it means we see sexaholics as sick people, not bad people. They are powerless over lust.

 
• The actions of the sexaholic are not a result of something we did or did not do, and we do not have the power to control a their behavior.

 
• The attempts of the non-sexaholic parent to control or ignore sexual addiction led to a decline in in their emotional health and may have enabled the sexaholic to continue to practice his or her disease.  The actions and attitudes of each parent concerning the sexaholism in the home affected every family member, including us.

 
• When we first come to S-Ateen, we, too, may be spiritually and emotionally ill.

 
• Growing up in a sexaholic home will influence many of our life choices, including our choice of a partner, unless we identify and address our own unhealthy beliefs and behaviors that we have learned through living with the family disease of sexaholism.

As we work toward full acceptance of these ideas, we begin to see our problems in a new light, and the awareness dawns that we do have choices concerning our own actions. This is the beginning of our recovery.

We remind ourselves that we are powerless over the behavior caused by sexaholism. We ask a Higher Power to help us to stop blaming and trying to control the sexaholic and other family members. The  sobriety of the sexaholic and the welfare of other family members are not our responsibility. We realize we cannot find serenity for ourselves if we continue to focus on someone else's recovery, so we commit ourselves to our own recovery.  With the loving help of other S-Ateen members, our S-Ateen sponsors, and the God of our understanding, we take positive action to make our lives more serene and fulfilling. We attend as many meetings as we can, get support from other S-Ateens, and begin to apply the principles of the Twelve Steps to our lives. We use the telephone, S-Ateen Conference-Approved Literature and the S-Ateen slogans. Eventually we reach out to help others and try to carry the message of our own recovery. We do these things in our own way, one day at a time - striving for progress, not perfection. This is what is meant by "working the program."