The Promises

1. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
   
2. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
   
3. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
   
4. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
   
5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
   
6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
   
7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
   
8. Self-seeking will slip away.
   
9. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
   
10. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
    
11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us.
    
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Are these extravagant promises?  “We think not.”  They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.  They will always materialize if we work for them.

The Traditions

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon S.A.A. 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 S.A.A. membership is the desire to stop addictive sexual behavior.  
   
4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or S.A.A. as a whole.  
   
5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the addict who still suffers.  
   
6. An S.A.A. group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the S.A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.  
   
7. Every S.A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.  
   
8. Sex Addicts Anonymous should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.  
   
9. S.A.A., as such, ought never to 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 S.A.A. name ought never to 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.
    
    

[Reprinted for adaptation by permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.]