Four trails, one common ground
All four grew out of the same need: a way to stop behavior that felt unstoppable. They differ in how they define sobriety, who they were built around, and how comfortable they'll feel depending on your life and relationships. Nobody outside you can tell you which one fits — but you deserve accurate information before you choose.
At a glance
| Program | Founded | Sobriety is defined by | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAA | 1977 | Each member, individually — a personal list of behaviors to abstain from | Open to any gender, orientation, or relationship status |
| SA | 1979 | A single fellowship-wide definition, adopted by the group conscience | That definition centers on marriage between a man and a woman — see note below |
| SLAA | 1976 | Each member's own "bottom lines," which can include love-addiction and avoidance patterns | Preamble explicitly states orientation and gender identity don't change the shared problem |
| Worth Recovery | — | Not applicable — it's a curated resource library, not a fellowship | Good for finding a therapist, book, or tool; not a meeting-based program |
Sex Addicts Anonymous (SAA)
SAA is a free twelve-step fellowship, modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous, for people whose sexual behavior has become compulsive. It isn't anti-sex and doesn't ask anyone to give up sex itself — the focus is on compulsion, and each member draws their own line around which specific behaviors are harming them. That personal definition, sometimes mapped with a "three circles" tool, is the center of the program.
Meetings run in person, by phone, and online, and many are closed to protect anonymity — open only to people with a desire to stop. The only requirement to attend is wanting to change. SAA describes itself as intended to be safe for people of any sexual orientation.
Related program for partners
COSA supports people affected by someone else's compulsive sexual behavior — partners, family, or friends. It runs alongside SAA but is its own fellowship. See it, along with S-Anon and COSLAA, on the Partners page.
Sexaholics Anonymous (SA)
SA is also a twelve-step fellowship for people working to recover from sex and lust addiction. The difference that matters most in choosing a program is SA's sobriety statement, adopted by its General Delegate Assembly: for married members, sobriety means fidelity within a marriage between a man and a woman; for unmarried members, it means abstinence from sex of any kind.
A note for LGBTQ+ readers
Because that definition is written specifically around opposite-sex marriage, some LGBTQ+ members have found it doesn't reflect their lives, and gravitate toward SAA or SLAA instead, both of which leave sobriety self-defined. That's not a judgment on SA, which works well for many people — just a fact worth knowing before you walk in.
Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA)
SLAA, sometimes called the Augustine Fellowship, widens the focus beyond sex to include love and relationship patterns — romantic obsession, codependency, fear of abandonment, and what the fellowship calls sexual or emotional "anorexia" (compulsive avoidance of intimacy). Each member names their own "bottom-line behaviors," which can shift as recovery continues.
SLAA's preamble states directly that the shared problem "transcends any personal differences of sexual orientation or gender identity," and its literature addresses the misconception that love addiction is a "women's" issue and sex addiction a "men's" one.
Related program for partners
COSLAA supports people affected by a loved one's sex and love addiction. More on the Partners page.
Worth Recovery
Worth Recovery isn't a twelve-step fellowship — it's a resource library built and maintained by someone with long-term personal recovery, listing therapists, books, and tools they've personally used. It's a good stop if you want a starting point for finding a CSAT-trained therapist or want reading recommendations, rather than a meeting to attend tonight.
Visit worthrecovery.com →