Sexual Recovery Anonymous (SRA) is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop compulsive sexual behavior. There are no dues or fees for SRA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. SRA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy; neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sexually sober and help others achieve sobriety.
Sobriety is the release from all compulsive and destructive sexual behaviors.We have found through our experience that sobriety includes freedom from masturbation and sex outside a mutually- committed relationship.
We believe that spirituality and self-love are antidotes to the addiction. We are walking towards a healthy sexuality.
Welcome
Our program offers a path of recovery from sex addiction. Like all addictions, sex addiction interferes with the life process, and can even be life-threatening. SRA offers a way to stop compulsive sexual behavior through practicing the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. The list of statements in the section “Do I Belong in SRA?” will help you decide if you are addicted.
Why we came to Sexual Recovery Anonymous
The disease of sex addiction was destroying our lives, our self-esteem, our relationships, our careers, our family life, our physical and spiritual health. Many of us feared sexually-transmitted disease, physical assault or suicide.
Sex had stopped being “fun.” It could no longer fill the emptiness inside ourselves. We dreamed of romance and found only a nightmare. We could not stand who we were becoming and the pain we were causing ourselves and others. We could not go on living the way we were.
Though our individual behaviors may have been different, our feelings were similar: despair, shame, hopelessness, and anguish, mixed in with intense
excitement and forgetfulness. These feelings were always followed by still worse pain. We were starting to see the truth—our problem was progressive, it always got worse.
The illusion that the next time would “fix” us, that we would feel better and could then control our behavior, was revealed for what it was—a false promise. We began to sense that we were spinning downwards, out of control, toward a life of loneliness, misery, jail, insanity, perhaps even death. In these moments of clarity, we were frightened.
We could not stop or control our behavior by ourselves. Our lives had become unmanageable. Finally, when the pain grew great enough, we were ready to try anything, and we came to Sexual Recovery Anonymous.
Why We Stayed
For the first time we found people with whom we could identify and share the pain of our problem. Others actually understood and felt the same way. We were accepted for who we were.
We stayed because of the promise of hope. Later we stayed because of hopes fulfilled. We stayed to preserve a way of life and the positive feelings that were better than anything we had previously known.
When we came to SRA, it was suggested that we stop our destructive sexual behaviors. For many of us the initial healing came from complete sexual abstinence for a period of time. Many of us had never done this, and the prospect was unimaginable and terrifying. The thought of sobriety seemed painful, impossible, or just plain boring. Some of us felt that we would die if we didn’t have sex.
Then we saw sober women and men in our meetings. They had the same problem, but they had been able to stop. They seemed happy, or at least happier than we felt. They were able to laugh at their troubles. Somehow, they had found something which we wanted. We stayed to learn.
Learn More About Sexual Recovery Anonymous
Is SRA for you?
This page lists a series of statements made by members of Sexual Recovery Anonymous, describing their behavior and feelings around the addiction. Reading these statements may help you see if SRA is for you.
Find an in-person or online SRA meeting.
Read about SRA program tools
Sexual Recovery Anonymous offers an array of tools to help you “work” your program of recovery. Examples are: using the telephone to reach out to fellow addicts, reading SRA literature, going to meetings, and working the 12 steps. These are all suggestions of practices which members of SRA have used to help stay sober and recover, one day at a time.
Read SRA Literature
Sexual Recovery Anonymous literature includes in-depth commentary on the 12 steps, early recovery, tools, stories of recovery from SRA members, and literature for health care professionals and partners.
…Learn more at SexualRecovery.org
This is the website of the Sexual Recovery Anonymous General Service Board (GSB). Among other duties, the GSB handles SRA matters of policy at the national and international level, produces literature, provides guidance and assistance starting new meetings, and provides coordination across regional SRA groups.
