A Journey of recovery from fantasy addiction
Every Thursday 7pm AEST
WELCOME
Chairperson begins the meeting on time and announces:
“Welcome to Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous. My name is ……… and I am a grateful recovering sex and love addict. To protect you anonymity, please take a moment and check the display of your name and adjust if needed. Please keep your microphone off, unless you are speaking. Please turn your camera on when you first join and whilst you are sharing. This is for the emotional safety of others in the meeting”
“Please join me in the Serenity Prayer”…….
“God, grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can and, the Wisdom to know the difference. Your will, not mine be done”
Chairperson then ask’s someone to read the S.L.A.A Preamble
Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is a Twelve Step, Twelve Tradition oriented fellowship based on the model pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous. The only qualification for S.L.A.A. membership is a desire to stop living out a pattern of sex and love addiction.
S.L.A.A. is supported entirely through the contributions of its membership and is free to all who need it. To counter the destructive consequences of sex and love addiction, we draw on five major resources:
4 Steps. Our practice of the Twelve Step program of recovery to achieve sexual and emotional sobriety.
5 Service. Our giving back to the S.L.A.A. community what we continue to freely receive
6 Spirituality. Our developing a relationship with a Power greater than ourselves which can guide and sustain us in recovery.
As a fellowship S.L.A.A. has no opinion on outside issues and seeks no controversy. S.L.A.A. is not affiliated with any other organizations, movements or causes, either religious or secular. We are, however, united in a common focus: dealing with our addictive sexual and emotional behavior. We find a common denominator in our obsessive/compulsive patterns, which transcends any personal differences of sexual orientation or gender identity. We need protect with special care the anonymity of every S.L.A.A. member. Additionally we try to avoid drawing undue attention to S.L.A.A. as a whole from the public media.
“For the safety of Our group, this meeting is closed to outsiders and to those who are merely curious. However, anyone who thinks they may have this problem will be welcome, as long as the anonymity of those persons attending the meeting is respected”
“Can someone please read the Twelve Steps of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous”
THE TWELVE STEPS OF SEX AND LOVE ADDICTS ANONYMOUS
1. We admitted we were powerless over sex and love addiction – 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 a Power greater than ourselves, 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 sex and love addicts, and to practice these principles in all areas of our lives.
Chairperson Continues
“In order to provide a safe environment for everyone, we avoid cross-talk in our meetings. Cross-talk is interrupting someone when they are sharing, commenting on what someone shares, talking to someone directly in the meeting or, referencing what someone has said in this or another meeting. We also avoid excessive detailing of our acting-out behaviours and emotional outbursts”
“If there are any Newcomers present, WELCOME!!! Please introduce yourself using your first name only and sharing is optional. If you are new to S.L.A.A we have a page of information for Newcomers on slaa.virtual.org. The link will be posted in the Chat” (ensure link is posted in Chat box)
“TODAYS READING is Changing Definitions of Fantasy from the Fantasy v Reality Edition of the SLAA Journal available free at slaafws.org. Please read one or two paragraphs then pass:
ITS NOW TIME TO SHARE !!
We share for 3 minutes each on the Topic Recovery from Fantasy Addiction in SLAA. Can we have a timer?
If you are new to SLAA, feel free to share what has brought you to our Meeting.
Anyone may also use this time to “get current” about the struggle right now with fantasy addiction.
But please be mindful not to trigger other members into their own addiction.
Therefore please share very briefly on the nature of the Problem and focus on what Recovery Resources you plant to use.
We meet together to bond in the Solution, not the Problem, to help one another break free of Fantasy Addiction
MEDITATION
“Can someone please read the 10th Step Promises from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, adapted for our Group. This is not conference approved literature, but has been selected in Group Conscience of our Group”
And, we have ceased fighting anything or anyone – even Fantasy.
For by this time sanity will have returned.
We will seldom be interested in fantasizing.
If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame.
We react sanely, normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically.
We will see that our new attitude toward Fantasy has been given to us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes!! That is the miracle of it.
We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation.
We feel as though, we had been placed in a position of neutrality – safe and protected.
We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us.
We are neither cocky nor are we afraid.
That is how we react, so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
Chairperson will then take the time to thank speakers/ those who shared by listeing and those who did service for the meeting. Chairperson will then practise 7th tradition
The 7th Tradition: “We now pass the virtual basket according to our 7th Tradition which states that Every S.L.A.A group ought to be fully self supporting, declining outside contributions. All money collected is used for meeting expenses, literature costs and to continue to carry the message to others in need of recovery from sex and love addiction. We have a PayPal account for that purpose and the link has now been posted in the Chat box” (ensure link is posted)
“Are there any S.L.A.A related announcements? Fellowship wide news is posted monthly on our website. The link has been posted in our Chat box”
“A message about 13th stepping – 13th stepping is manipulating another person in recovery, especially a Newcomer, into sexual, emotional or romantic relationship. This behaviour is wholeheartedly discouraged in S.L.A.A.
“It is now time to close our meeting. Everyone is encouraged to make contact with other members after the meeting and/or during the week for support and encouragement. We have a WhatsApp Group all members are welcome to join. Please ask any of us for the link.
“In closing we would like to remind you that the opinions expressed here were strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you like and leave the rest. Also, anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our program. If we are to Recover, we must feel free to say what is in our minds and hearts. Therefore, who you see here, what you hear here, let it stay here
Who would like to volunteer to Chair next week? Thank you for your Service”
“Please join me in the 3rd Step Prayer”
“God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love and, Thy way of Life”