Introduction
[From Sex Addicts Anonymous, pages 1-2]

We are sex addicts. Our addiction nearly destroyed our lives, but we found freedom through the recovery program of Sex Addicts Anonymous.  In the fellowship of SAA, we discovered that we are not alone and that meeting regularly together to share experience, strength and hope gives us the choice to live a new life. 
Our addictive sexual behavior was causing pain - to ourselves, our friends, and our loved ones.  Our lives were out of control.  We may have wanted to quit, making promises and many attempts to stop, yet we repeatedly failed to do so.  For each of us, there came a moment of crisis.  When we finally reached out for help, we found recovery through the program of SAA.
… SAA is a spiritual program based on the principles and traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Although we are not affiliated with AA or any other organization, we are deeply grateful to AA for making our recovery possible. ,,,
Membership is open to all who have a desire to stop addictive sexual behavior.  There is no other requirement for membership. [We experience it as compulsion, which is an urge stronger than our will to resist, and as obsession, which is a mental preoccupation with sexual behavior and fantasies.]  Our fellowship is open to all persons, regardless of age, race, religion, ethnic background, marital status, or occupation.  We welcome members of any sexual identity or orientation ….
… Desperation brought us together.  We found in each other what we could find nowhere else: people who knew the depth of our pain.  Together we found hope and the care of a loving Higher Power.  Our commitment is to help others recover from sexual addiction, just as we have been helped. …
OUR PROGRAM (and the Twelve Steps of SAA) (Excerpted from page 20-21)
… When we start attending meetings of Sex Addicts Anonymous, many of us are surprised to meet people who are enjoying life, experiencing freedom from the painful, compulsive behaviors that had brought them to SAA. Listening to other members share about their recovery, we gradually realize that in order to make the same kind of progress, we need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get sexually abstinent, and to stay abstinent. We have learned from hard experience that we cannot achieve and maintain abstinence if we aren’t willing to change our way of life. But if we can honestly face our problems, and are willing to change, the Twelve Steps of SAA will lead to an awakening that allows us to live a new way of life according to spiritual principles. … [Here are the steps we took, which are suggested as a program of recovery.]
The Twelve 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.
These steps are the heart of our program. They contain a depth that we could hardly have guessed when we started. As we work them, we experience a spiritual transformation. …The program offers a spiritual solution to our addiction, without requiring adherence to any specific set of beliefs or practices. The path is wide enough for everyone who wishes to walk it.
The Twelve Traditions of SAA
 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.)

DEFINING ABSTINENCE 
(Excerpted from pages 14-15)

Our goal when entering the SAA program is abstinence from one or more specific sexual behaviors. But unlike programs for recovering alcoholics or drug addicts, Sex Addicts Anonymous does not have a universal definition of abstinence.
Most of us have no desire to stop being sexual altogether. It is not sex in and of itself that causes us problems, but the addiction to certain sexual behaviors. In SAA we will be better able to determine what behavior is addictive and what is healthy. However, the fellowship does not dictate to its members what is and isn’t addictive sexual behavior. Instead we have found that it is necessary for each member to define their own abstinence…
…Since different addicts suffer from different behaviors, and since our sexuality is experienced in so many different ways, it is necessary that SAA members define for themselves, with the help of their sponsors or others in recovery, which of their sexual behaviors they consider to be “acting out.”
…Our program acknowledges each individual’s dignity and right to choose their own concept of healthy sexuality.
We have learned that our ideas of what is healthy and what is addictive evolve with experience. In time, we are able to define our individual abstinence with honesty, fairness, and gentleness. This process is a valuable exercise in our recovery. It requires us to carefully examine all of our sexual behaviors, decide which ones are healthy or addictive, and note those cases where we’re not sure. It is a way of taking stock of our sexuality that teaches us a lot about ourselves and our behavior.