HOPE
I've celebrated one year in Sex Addicts Anonymous. It has been the best year of my life, and my marriage is slowly getting back on track.
We can celebrate the first of the year knowing that people are recovering from sex addiction one day at a time. As with alcoholics and addicts, families are coming together, relationships are healing, and people are slowly picking up the broken pieces and beginning to live again.
We can dwell on those who are not getting help, but today is a time to celebrate the spiritual program that is helping to cultivate positive and creative human beings.
I believe in the 'Say Yes to Your Life' principle: If we choose, we may overcome most of the challenges that face us. Yes, we will certainly need help, but these helpers are also helped, and we all become a healing fellowship.
Today I continue to say 'Yes'
to my recovery.
BALANCE
Sex is like anything else: It can be valued or abused.
Spiritually, we know that anything can be abused: food, alcohol, work, prescription drugs. . . . The list goes on and on, and sex is no different.
When we speak about sex addiction, we are talking about a compulsive behavior that distorts who we are, distorts other people, and, if left untreated, can destroy any family or relationship.
A therapist said to me recently that you are open to abuse if you make a gift less or more than it was meant to be. It is in this sense that sex becomes abusive. It is an ingredient of love, affection, and friendship. However, it was never intended to stand alone.
I appreciate my sexuality in
the context of love.
OBSESSION
I'm impotent, but I still obsess about
pornography.
When we hear about sex addiction, we often think that the addict is a sexual athlete, having sex perhaps four or more times a day, with a potency that is enormous.
However, I have heard the preceding quotation many times. The individual often does not get an erection but is mentally compulsive about seeing sex around him. He becomes the codependent giver of pleasure, obsessed with the 'thought' of sex.
This person is so out of balance with the nature of a healthy sexual relationship that he often cannot see how his obsession concerning sex is destroying any intimacy he might have attained.
With his loved ones, even the stranger, he becomes scary, abusive, and almost fanatical.
I pray for a balanced sexuality.
©2009. Leo Booth. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Say Yes to Your Sexual Healing. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 |
