The Twelve Traditions are guidelines for the life of individual S-Anon groups and for S-Anon as a whole. These principles arose from the experience of S-Anon groups and other long-established Twelve-Step programs. They are the means by which S-Anon maintains its unity and relates to the world around it.
- Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity.
- For our group purpose there is but one authority a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants – they do not govern.
- The relatives of sexaholics, when gathered together for mutual aid, may call themselves an S-Anon Family Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation. The only requirement for membership is that there be a problem of sexaholism in a relative or friend.
- Each group should be autonomous, except in matters affecting another group or S-Anon or SA as a whole.
- Each S-Anon Family Group has but one purpose: to help families of sexaholics. We do this by practicing the Twelve Steps of S-Anon, by encouraging and understanding our sexaholic relatives, and by welcoming and giving comfort to the families of sexaholics.
- Our S-Anon Family Groups ought never endorse, finance, or lend our name to any outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary spiritual aim. Although a separate entity, we should always cooperate with Sexaholics Anonymous.
- Every group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.
- S-Anon Twelfth-Step work should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.
- Our groups, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.
- The S-Anon Family Groups have no opinion on outside issues; hence our name ought never be drawn into public controversy.
- Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion, we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV and films. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all S-Anon and SA members.
- Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions ever reminding us to place principles above personalities.
(The Twelve Traditions reprinted and adapted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Permission to reprint and adapt the Steps and Traditions does not mean that AA is affiliated with this program. AA is a program of recovery from alcoholism – use of this material in connection with programs which are patterned after AA, but which address other problems, does not imply otherwise.)