Recovery Nation Web Site Offers Help For Sexual Addiction

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 16 Jun 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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In a news article in the Dayton Daily News in September 2007, Chris Tuell, professor in Addiction Studies at the University of Cincinnati described sexual addiction as "... a silent epidemic." The Health Based Recovery methods found at Recovery Nation are effective in helping individuals combat sex, love and porn addictions.

The Recovery Nation (RN) web site contains free self-help resources not found anywhere else. Each resource was built to assist in understanding sex, love and porn addictions to facilitate a permanent recovery and healing process. RN offers a comprehensive foundation of health-based education; a sincere community to provide objectivity and support; professional coaching for those who seek a more intensive, personal approach to recovery and healing; and, the collective thoughts and experiences of thousands.

RN is a Health-Based Recovery site. The focus is on value development, life management skills, emotional maturity, as opposed to the more traditional disease-based model geared towards managing addiction rather than life. RN uses an evolutionary treatment model that allows a far greater audience to apply their own values to recovery. It expands recovery from the common perception of a single transition (active addiction to lifelong recovery) to a much more robust and effective two transition process (active addiction to recovery; recovery to health). Health Based Recovery involves: A functional awareness of addiction, including the role of addiction as a life management tool, the finite role of emotions, understanding compulsive rituals and more. Practical, ongoing awareness of one's values, boundaries, skills and identity. Isolating the addiction from one's core identity. Developing the life skills needed to manage a healthy life. Developing the tools to permanently end the pattern of addiction.

The mission of RN is to provide the most effective information, tools and training available to those seeking to end their destructive sexual and/or romantic behavior. "The core of sexual addiction is not found in the rapists, stalkers and molesters so horrifically displayed in the headlines, but more so in the loving fathers, mothers, sons and daughters found in every profession, every religion, every economic status and every society," said Jonathan Marsh, founder of Recovery Nation. "When it comes to addiction recovery, achieving abstinence is not enough. Ultimately, recovery is not about behavioral change, it is about making fundamental changes in the way one manages life. It involves a process of altering one's core identity so that a life can be led based on values and healthy life management skills, rather than emotional gratification and deception."

A healthy, fulfilling life is attainable to anyone committed to ending the destructive patterns associated with sexual and/or love addiction. "Addiction is not a fate that must be fulfilled, but a pattern that can be changed. Taking responsibility for one's decisions, and taking pride in one's actions is a necessary part of living a healthy, fulfilling life," states Mr. Marsh. The transition to a healthy life requires the mastering of a series of basic life management skills (e.g. emotional management, decision making, goal setting, prioritization, time management and most importantly, value management). "The effects of addiction on one's core identity evolve from life long patterns of misperception and misinformation, rather than from reality, and so the development of an accurate awareness of ones' core identity is critical to transitioning into a healthy life."

Recovery Nation was founded by Jonathan Marsh who serves as its primary recovery coach. He has authored each of the site's workshops and has written extensively on addiction and recovery over the past ten years. Jon has facilitated Health-Based Recovery workshops internationally and throughout the United States. He has presented at the 2006 International Conference on Marriage and Family and has given numerous media interviews on the subject of sexual addiction. Jon's breakthrough work, He Danced Alone--provides a raw and harrowing look into the heart and mind of a sex/love addict. This book is offered free on the web site as an educational tool for select audiences. He has also authored Health Based Recovery: A Couple's Guide due for release in 2008.

A married father of four, Jon experienced a twenty-year sex and love addiction before making the transition to a healthy life. In the eighteen years since this transition, he has openly shared his experiences with the sex and love addictions, as well as his health-based path through recovery. He has facilitated more than seventy-five clinical workshops in addiction assessment and treatment throughout the United States and has coached over three thousand online workshop participants.

Recovery Nation