Resources

About Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous

Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is a Twelve Step, Twelve Tradition 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:

  1. Sobriety – Our willingness to stop acting out in our own personal bottom line addictive behavior on a daily basis.
  2. Sponsorship/Meetings – Our capacity to reach out for the supportive fellowship within S.L.A.A.
  3. The 12 Steps – Our practice of the Twelve Step program of recovery to achieve sexual and emotional sobriety.
  4. Service – Our giving back to the S.L.A.A. community what we continue to freely receive.
  5. 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 renders any personal differences of sexual or gender orientation irrelevant.

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.

The Orange County Intergroup of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous is the local service organization that provides supporting services to SLAA meetings in Orange County and to individuals seeking information about SLAA Meetings in Orange County. Other services and information regarding SLAA on a national and international level are provided by our Fellowship Wide Services (FWS) office.

40 Questions for Self-Diagnosis

The following questions are designed to be used as guidelines to identifying possible signposts of sex and love addiction. They are not intended to provide a sure-fire method of diagnosis, nor can negative answers to these questions provide absolute assurance that the illness is not present. Many sex and love addicts have varying patterns which can result in very different ways of approaching and answering these questions. Despite this fact, we have found that short, to-the-point questions have often provided as effective a tool for self-diagnosis as have lengthy explanations of what sex and love addiction is. We appreciate that the diagnosis of sex and love addiction is a matter that needs to be both very serious and very private. We hope that these questions will prove helpful.

  1. Have you ever tried to control how much sex to have or how often you would see someone? 
  2. Do you find yourself unable to stop seeing a specific person even though you know that seeing this person is destructive to you? 
  3. Do you feel that you don’t want anyone to know about your sexual or romantic activities? Do you feel you need to hide these activities from others – friends, family, co-workers, counselors, etc.? 
  4. Do you get “high” from sex and/or romance? Do you crash? 
  5. Have you had sex at inappropriate times, in inappropriate places, and/or with inappropriate people? 
  6. Do you make promises to yourself or rules for yourself concerning your sexual or romantic behavior that you find you cannot follow? 
  7. Have you had or do you have sex with someone you don’t (didn’t) want to have sex with? 
  8. Do you believe that sex and/or a relationship will make your life bearable? 
  9. Have you ever felt that you had to have sex? 
  10. Do you believe that someone can “fix” you? 
  11. Do you keep a list, written or otherwise, of the number of partners you’ve had? 
  12. Do you feel desperation or uneasiness when you are away from your lover or sexual partner? 
  13. Have you lost count of the number of sexual partners you’ve had? 
  14. Do you feel desperate about your need for a lover, sexual fix, or future mate? 
  15. Have you or do you have sex regardless of the consequences (e.g. the threat of being caught, the risk of contracting herpes, gonorrhea, AIDS, etc…)? 
  16. Do you find that you have a pattern of repeating bad relationships? 
  17. Do you feel that your only (or major) value in a relationship is your ability to perform sexually, or provide an emotional fix? 
  18. Do you feel like a lifeless puppet unless there is someone around with whom you can flirt? Do you feel that you’re not “really alive” unless you are with your sexual / romantic partner? 
  19. Do you feel entitled to sex? 
  20. Do you find yourself in a relationship that you cannot leave? 
  21. Have you ever threatened your financial stability or standing in the community by pursuing a sexual partner? 
  22. Do you believe that the problems in your “love life” result from not having enough of, or the right kind of sex? Or from continuing to remain with the “wrong” person? 
  23. Have you ever had a serious relationship threatened or destroyed because of outside sexual activity? 
  24. Do you feel that life would have no meaning without a love relationship or without sex? Do you feel that you would have no identity if you were not someone’s lover? 
  25. Do you find yourself flirting or sexualizing with someone even if you do not mean to? 
  26. Does your sexual and/or romantic behavior affect your reputation? 
  27. Do you have sex and/or “relationships” to try to deal with, or escape from life’s problems? 
  28. Do you feel uncomfortable about your masturbation because of the frequency with which you masturbate, the fantasies you engage in, the props you use, and/or the places in which you do it? 
  29. Do you engage in the practices of voyeurism, exhibitionism, etc., in ways that bring discomfort and pain? 
  30. Do you find yourself needing greater and greater variety and energy in your sexual or romantic activities just to achieve an “acceptable” level of physical and emotional relief? 
  31. Do you need to have sex, or “fall in love” in order to feel like a “real man” or a “real woman”? 
  32. Do you feel that your sexual and romantic behavior is about as rewarding as hijacking a revolving door? Are you jaded? 
  33. Are you unable to concentrate on other areas of your life because of thoughts or feelings you are having about another person or about sex? 
  34. Do you find yourself obsessing about a specific person or sexual act even though these thoughts bring pain, craving or discomfort? 
  35. Have you ever wished you could stop or control your sexual and romantic activities for a given period of time? Have you ever wished you could be less emotionally dependent? 
  36. Do you find the pain in your life increasing no matter what you do? Are you afraid that deep down you are unacceptable? 
  37. Do you feel that you lack dignity and wholeness? 
  38. Do you feel that your sexual and/or romantic life affects your spiritual life in a negative way? 
  39. Do you feel that your life is unmanageable because of your sexual and/or romantic behavior or your excessive dependency needs? 
  40. Have you ever thought that there might be more you could do with your life if you were not so driven by sexual and romantic pursuits? For more information in English, please visit the S.L.A.A. website at https://slaafws.org/ 

For more information, visit a meeting and speak to a fellow member.

Literature Information

Literature is a key resource of recovery and SLAA approved literature is available from a number of sources.

  • You can order literature online direct from the Fellowship Wide Services (F.W.S.) web site. Click here for the F.W.S. Online Store.
  • You can purchase literature at the monthly Orange County Intergroup Meetings. See the Meetings page for the location, date and time of the next Orange County Intergroup meeting.

Regional SLAA Intergroup Chapters

Visit these regional intergroup websites directly to see more about them and their local meetings:

Visit Fellowship Wide Services here for a directory to all national and global intergroup chapters and meetings.

The sites listed below are only to provide individuals with the opportunity to learn about other Twelve Step recovery groups dealing with addiction to Sex, Love and Relationships. Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous neither endorses nor recommends these organizations.