Last Updated on 22 September 2026
As we use the Twelve Steps of SLAA in our recovery, many of us experience higher levels of self-esteem, and receive unexpected blessings we would not have known how to ask for.
- We come to experience the gift of recovery and a personal dignity bestowed by a Power greater than ourselves.
Source: “the gift of recovery” and “the experience of personal dignity … bestowed by a Power greater than ourselves.” Preface, p. ix.
. - We begin to find self-respect and more encompassing satisfactions in family, career, and community.
Source: recovery is contrasted with addictive substitutes for satisfactions “founded first and foremost on self-respect, and later realized in family, career and community.” Preface, p. viii.
. - We become available to authentic experience of ourselves and others, rather than compulsively pursuing sex or romantic intensity.
Source: addiction can prevent “the underlying need for authentic experience of self and other.” Preface, p. viii.
. - We rely on God, or another source of power beyond our own resources, for guidance in recovery.
Source: the Preface names “reliance upon God or some other source of power beyond one’s own resources for guidance in recovery.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We learn to acknowledge the true source of our problem: addiction to the activity itself.
Source: the Preface describes “admission of the true source of the problem (addiction to the activity itself).” Preface, p. vii.
. - We gain the willingness to inventory our character defects honestly and share that inventory with another person.
Source: the recovery principles include willingness “to inventory one’s own character defects and share this inventory with another.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We become ready to confront our basic character flaws and make restitution to people we have harmed.
Source: the Preface identifies “a readiness to come to grips with basic character flaws and make restitution to others.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We make the principles of recovery a continuing way of life.
Source: the Preface identifies a “commitment to these principles as a continuing way of life.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We affirm our personal recovery by putting that commitment into action through sharing it with others.
Source: the Twelfth Step is “the affirmation of personal recovery” through taking the commitment “into action by sharing it with others.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We find and express true love as we share recovery and allow one person to touch the soul of another.
Source: “true love, which is of God, and makes it possible for one person to touch the soul of another, is found and expressed.” Preface, p. vii.
. - We can maintain recovery by reaching out to help another sex and love addict.
Source: the Preface states the underlying mutual-help principle: “one alcoholic could maintain recovery by reaching out to help another one”; it then applies the message of hope and recovery to SLAA through the principle of “carrying the message.” Preface, p. viii.
. - We are returned to sanity and usefulness in human society and community.
Source: the Preface describes SLAA members who had been “returned to sanity and usefulness in human society and community through this program.” Preface, p. viii.
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Twelve Blessings of Recovery
Adapted from recovery principles and language in the Preface of Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous: Basic Text (1986), pp. vii–ix. Note, this is not verbatim SLAA literature.
