Is group counseling like Sexaholics Anonymous or others sometimes needed?

Group meetings can be very helpful. There's probably a small percentage of people here who attend them though because SA and SAA meetings are still not as common as other 12 step groups like AA, NA, or OA. The other thing is while it may look like people are achieving success on their own, the simple truth is they're not. They come here, share their struggles, talk about solutions, find AP's, and report relapses. This site, while not following the 12 Step model, still functions much like a SA and SAA group.

 

I was employed at a mental health facility a few years ago. Every day the patients would attend group therapy sessions with therapists. Many of these patients were addicts, ranging from drugs, porn, to alcohol. The one thing they all would tell me is how beneficial and life changing group therapy was. Many of them had never been exposed to it and once they got over the nerves/shame/shyness of opening up to a group of strangers, it was quite the spiritual awakening for them. It's one of the things I recall vividly of working there.

 

Which one(s)?

 

I'm a big advocate of SAA.

To be clear, SAA is not group therapy. SAA groups that act like group therapy tend to lack actual recovery. The point of SAA is to be a community working the 12 steps together. The meetings are helpful for people to share encouragement, experience, strength, and hope. The meeting focuses on what is working for people as they work the steps and recover. The focus is not on the daily problems of life, or the specifics of how you acted out (P, hookers, etc). It doesn;t really matter what you did, as much as where you are going.

Individual counseling is hugely helpful to people, but is not required for SAA and is not a feature of SAA. You have fellow 12 steppers who can listen, help you when you are triggered or struggling. These people are essential. I have found the rTribe app to be like a virtual 12-step community.

I have to say that what I see on NoFap varies more. It is not a 12-step group like SAA. There is more focus on here on the specifics of how people are acting out. More focus on life's daily issues. I think this site is a good start, but I also have seen some people enable each other too much (to be blunt). It is important we encourage each other after we relapse. But we also need to challenge each other more.

I think my main issue with posts here, is that many people set small goals, like 30 days, 90 days. They treat this like a porn diet. "I'll abstain for a while, then see if I can manage it better"

I would argue that if you've read all the science and literature linked here, its pretty clear that pornography is addictive and not something to be managed. How many people here have done a 90 day streak, then made some plan to occasionally use porn in a "healthy, measured" manner, but in short order end up back here, starting over.

 

This forum functions as my group therapy. Alcoholic anonymous wants members to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. I come here everyday and plan to come everyday for at least the first 90 days.

 

but then you would be addicted to that. just stop.