Pure Life Alliance

Hope

The first thing to know is that recovery is possible. There is hope. Even in the most severe situations, recovery from sexual addictions and behaviors has occurred.

Commitment

The second thing to know is, it takes time. A lot of time. Sex addiction requires three to five years of recovery to be successful, which is higher than any other addiction currently studied. A mistake addicts often make is to stop recovery, thinking they are healed, once a few external behaviors go away. They leave and not long afterwards all the old behaviors return. On the other hand, other recovering addicts may feel like giving up after working for many months and still seeing very little improvement. The key is, recovery requires a long term commitment for lasting results to occur.

A decision to enter recovery is a serious commitment. There is hope, but it will take a lot of work.

Support Groups

For Men Only (FMO) - There are different approaches to recovery. Twelve-step programs have been adapted for sex addiction recovery and have shown positive results. Some programs and websites listed on this site are 12-step based. Pure Life Alliance uses a different approach, with support groups teaching about the addiction cycle as it relates to sex addiction and assisting recovering addicts in creating tools for preventing relapse and building an accountability network.

To learn more about our men's support groups, see FMO.

A Hidden Hurt (HH) - One aspect to recovery sometimes overlooked is the need for the spouse of the sex addict to get help as well. We have found that when the spouse and the addict both get help, the chances of survival of the marriage is far higher. The evidence is so strong that some of our recommended counselors will not see one partner in a marriage unless both are willing to receive counseling. Pure Life Alliance does offer support groups for spouses of sex addicts. We do not require spouses to join a group for the addict to be in a support group, but we highly recommend it.

To learn more about our women's spouses of addicts support group, see HH.

Counseling or Therapy

Often one-on-one counseling is needed to get around the issues brought on by disruptive childhood or past abuse. Support groups can provide basic information and accountability, but they are not equipped to deal with some deeper issues. Pure Life Alliance has a group of recommended treatment providers in the Portland, OR area listed on this website. It is important that you find a therapist who is trained in dealing with sexual addiction. A counselor without proper training could cause more harm than good in this sensitive area.

To learn more about finding a good counselor, see Finding a Good Counselor.