How Did SCA Originate?

Several organizations called “S Groups” have embraced the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve step recovery program (and in some cases the AA twelve traditions). These groups have adapted this program towards recovery from sexual compulsiveness.

AA says it began in 1935. Of the half dozen or so currently running S Groups, the earliest origin date posted on the web is 1979.

A Los Angeles based organization called Sexual Compulsives Anonymous was formed in 1973. This group is still running. The Sexual Compulsives Anonymous International Service Organization, headquartered in New York, lists several other S-groups on its web site, but has no information about the Los Angeles organization. SCA ISO says it started in 1981.

The LA SCA founder presented documentation confirming the origin and early convocation of this group. We are publishing these letters, magazine and newspaper articles, and PR media as a professional courtesy to all S Groups who are interested in the history of sexual recovery programs.

Founder’s Personal Recollections

Want to know how the sexual recovery movement started? It was started by Sexual Compulsives Anonymous in 1973 in Los Angeles when I got Rev. Troy Perry to give us a place to meet and he announced the first meeting at his Sunday night service. Between 1973 and 1981, there were already a number of small SCA chapters flourishing in Southern California. They were reading the Twelve Steps at meetings and attempting to integrate them into their lives from the very first meeting in 1973. And we’d had a small brochure with the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions from the very first year. Cross talk was a problem and we tried to keep it down, but what are you going to do when a new group of sex addicts assembles for the first time? Granted, it was a real challenge to attempt to immediately get the discipline acquired that an orderly A.A. meeting might have, but the aim was that it become as much like a traditional orderly 12 Step meeting as possible.

Even though I wasn’t able to completely stop my sexual compulsive behavior, I did deeply believe that God had wanted me to start the group and I promised God that I would continue to go as long as one other person was there. Between 1973 to 1980, other SCA chapters started around Southern California and I would reach out for my own personal help from Exit at Melodyland and Desert Stream when (name deleted) first started it. And I went to the Second Exodus Conference in San Francisco where I was asked to talk about SCA. But on my return, I was not able to stay sexually sober. One Saturday about 1980, no one else was at the meeting that I was committed to run, so I quit going. I had been on medication for depression and I just felt burnt out. I did attend the following Saturday to tell the group I would not be around for awhile. So I dropped out of regularly attending SCA, the group I’d started, this group that had already inspired others to start SCA chapters. The next 25 years had me occasionally making feeble attempts to turn my life over to God, but I had not yet hit my bottom. When I would occasionally go to another SCA meeting, I’d wear dark glasses, hoping not to meet anyone I knew.

From starting Sexual Compulsives Anonymous in 1973 to fully embracing Sexaholics Anonymous’s and (name deleted)’s definition of sexual sobriety, it’s been a hard learning process. I met a (denomination deleted) monk in Sexaholics Anonymous who was practicing celibacy for six years in Sexual Compulsives Anonymous. He said that the other guys in SCA could not understand why he’d want to do that. It seems that few in SCA really want to give up lust, but instead want to put it into “containment” in a “sex plan.” Yet it is common to rewrite a “sex plan” whenever one is ready to attempt a stricter regime.

As they say in AA, “Half measures availeth nothing.” In 1973 and 1974, I was probably the first who started the, “Well, I’ll stop this bottom line behavior, but learn to substitute it with this other thing” mentality. And I knew that “the other thing,” too, was not total commitment. I knew that half measures would not work for me.

Finally early in 2005, I hit a deplorable bottom of outrageous acting out. I’ll not go into it, but the psychological ramifications were making me physically ill and nauseated during the acting out process. I went to a Sexaholics Anonymous meeting and started a total commitment of my sex life. Or should I say, as I’m single, stopped sex life. It’s been four years now.

The record of the beginning of the sexual recovery movement in 1973, the beginning of SCA, is posted here at scaorigins.com for those who have an interest. And for those who want hope.