Freedom

The freedom of Step 5: Just do it already!!

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The other night I had the wonderful experience of helping one of our group members do his 5th Step.  Step 5 is where you share the contents of your “Fearless written moral inventory” from Step 4.  Step 4 is daunting and isn’t called “Fearless” for nothing.  But it can be done and has been done by millions of people.  I’ve done it.  It was hard but totally worth it.  Then comes Step 5 where you share that inventory with another addict who has done their 12 steps and will understand.  I was super nervous to do my own and I was also nervous to do my first with another sponsee a number of years ago.  But since then I’ve grown to absolutely love doing them!!  They truly highlight God’s power to transform people — sometimes in an instant.  It is a real life miracle right before your eyes.

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Advice to those wanting to stop masturbating

Hi my name is Mike 21 Comments

If you are struggling with pornography addiction and are in the process of quitting you most likely are also struggling with masturbation.  If you would also like to quit masturbating, take heart — it can be done!  I’m not here to tell you that you should — that’s a decision for you to make, not me.  However, I will say that when you consider the root of any addiction is selfishness, I find it hard to imagine someone being successful at eliminating their selfish behaviors if they are masturbating — especially if it is combined with sexual fantasy.  In any case, if you’re interested here is what worked for me, some advice I received from my bishop, and additional tips I found on the web (as well as links to those websites for more info). Continue reading →

9 months of sobriety

Hi my name is Mike 2 Comments

This week in my SAA Primary Purpose 12 step meeting I celebrated my 9 months of sobriety since starting with my SAA 12 step group and finding freedom from my addiction (you can find a local SAAPP group here if interested).  We’ve restarted reading the AA big book using the question and answer study guide.  We all commented on one of the paragraphs in Doctor Bob’s introduction where he whole heartedly endorsed the method of the AA 12 step program as the best way to beat addiction.  What struck us most was the first key to recovery that he focused on was to share the message of your own recovery with others.  That you needed to work the steps and then go find other people to help them work their steps (this is effectively step 12). Continue reading →