SAA Three Circles for Addiction Recovery

The middle (yellow) circle is tricky. It represents the sliding slope that eventually leads to the inner circle. It's important to identify these behaviors so you can see the danger when they present themselves. Case in point... workouts at a gym are good for our physical fitness, but using it as a place to sexually objectify others take us down the wrong path. If the gym isn't safe, it's a middle circle and best to be avoided. If the gym is a place of prior acting out, it's an inner circle.

It's normal to have questions when developing your circles. Run them (and any later changes) by your sponsor or coach. Don't change your circles out of convenience.

A disciplined recovery begins with identifying your internal triggers, external triggers, and rituals so you can recognize them as warning signs before they lead to slips and relapses. A recovery coach can help analyze your middle circle behaviors for this purpose and explain how they relate to your emotional wellbeing.

Strugglers typically have underdeveloped emotional awareness skills, so they often miss the internal cues—their feelings and emotions—of dysregulation. Simply put, addictive behaviors are attempts at managing internal distress with external resources. So, it's crucial to know the signs of your own internal triggers.

Strugglers tend to have more awareness of their external, environmental triggers: the people, places, or events that introduce sexual thoughts or urges. It's common for them to repeat or ritualize a pattern of activity in this environment that leads to acting out (finding a reason to visit the gym at a certain time of day, for instance.)

Lastly, the Three Circles is an exercise in honesty. Don't give yourself wiggle room for a later slip excuse. Do the right thing now so your future self isn't penalized.