Sex & Love Addiction

by Jay Parker

December 1, 1990, Jay Parker was arrested for exhibitionism. At the time he hoped it would remain a secret. On January 10, 1991, his whole world came crashing down when a front-page story in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1930461011
• ISBN13: 9781930461017
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Idyll Arbor
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Powerful Recovery Story

Sex and Love Addiction: My Journey from Shame to Grace by Jay Parker is a powerful recovery story. The reader gains insight into the harm that can be caused to the addict and everyone involved in the addict's life due to sex and love addiction. Mr. Parker describes the agony and life-dependent necessity of staying sober one day at a time. Powerful read for sex addicts and for anyone in relationship with a sex addict or anyone wanting to understand the progressive disease of sex and love addiction. Sex And Love Addiction: My Journey From Shame To Grace

IF YOU EVEN THINK YOU MIGHT NEED HELP , READ THIS BOOK !

SEX ADDICTION IS SO COMMON IN TODAYS WORLD ! IT IS SO EASY TO ACCESS AND BECOME ADDICTED, BEFORE YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT HIT YOU! THIS BOOK IS THE REAL DEAL. JAY IS THE REAL DEAL. HE WOULD BE THE FIRST TO TELL YOU HE WAS A JERK BEFORE RECOVERY,THAT'S THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF RECOVERY, THAT YOU BECOME A CHANGED,HEALED,{HEALING} WORK IN PROGRESS, PERSON ! JAY PARKER HAD TO SHARE HIS TRUTH WITH YOU, FOR HIMSELF AND FOR ANYONE HE COULD HELP. BELIEVE ME, ASK ANY NUMBER OF MEN ,FROM HIS MEN'S GROUPS ,OR WIVES WHO WERE SICK OF BEING VICTIMIZED,OR KIDS ,WHO MISSED THEIR DADDY OR MOMMMY.I BELIEVE THE MAJORITY WOULD TELL YOU THAT THEY HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED BY JAYS HONESTY,OPENESS AND HIS LOVE FOR HELPING OTHERS WHO ARE SUFFERING. JAY'S TRUTH IS THIS STORY. IT IS UGLY AT TIMES, IT IS ABRASIVE AT TIMES , IT IS ALSO INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT FOR THOSE WHO KNOW RECOVERY WORK AND THE WORKINGS OF AN ADDICT'S MIND.JAY LETS YOU IN COMPLETELY AND SHARES HIS SHAME AND FEARS AND DOUBTS. HE ALSO SHARES HIS RECOVERY PROCESS IN DETAIL,HIS NEW FOUND HOPE AND THE MIRACLE OF A NEW,AUTHENTIC LIFE. IT TRULY IS AN AMAZING JOURNEY, FROM SHAME TO GRACE. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK IF YOU QUESTION YOUR OWN BEHAVIORS OR THOUGHTS, OR A LOVED ONES. THIS BOOK CAN INDEED SET YOU ON THE PATH TO HEALING AND FOR THE PERSON WHO IS READING THIS RIGHT NOW, DON'T GIVE UP, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

It takes one, to know one...

I have seen counselors, therapists, and psychologists off and on since I was nine years old, when my family began it's long attempt to recover from sexual abuse. During that time, all 23 years of it, my addiction grew to be all consuming and kept me and my life out of controll and fully unmanagable - I was always without hope and became self-loathing for my ongoing failure in my wish to change the way I was. And then I met Jay Parker. Jay Parker is the only professional who has ever been able to help me address the source of my shame, and stop my acting out behaviors, and live healthily as I show up as an integrous man for the first time in my life (now 36). I never knew there was hope for me until I found Jay and he shared his own experience, strengh and hope with me. I wish I had met Jay so many years earlier. I thank God for Jay Parker today - he helps me be the man I always wanted to be, but never thought I could. I am saddend to read some of the hurtful statements and unforgiving accusations that speak to the past, and do not consider the present. Jay helps so many men and women - EVERYDAY. Thank you Jay for teaching me to be vulnerable - without sexualizing it; to be happy - without sexualizing it; to be mad, glad, sad and/or afraid - without sexualizing it! You are a gift!

Why I published this book

This book is a story of hope and redemption. It is Jay Parker's story of how he battled, and is continuing to battle, the demons inside him that made him want to expose his genitals to 20-something women. Jay is a recovering exhibitionist. And like all recovering addicts, the siren song of the addiction will never go away, but sometimes it gets quieter. This is a story of how he is winning the battle. I've known Jay for a long time. When we first spoke in the mid-1990s, he had a driving urge to tell his story. I looked at Jay and saw a man who still needed to be an exhibitionist, but he was far enough along the path to recovery that he was trying to keep his disease within society's legal and moral bounds. We signed a contract to publish the book 2 September 1997. The book was huge. It was full of hate and retribution for the people who brought his story into the open. While Jay admitted he had committed illegal acts, it still seemed that he felt the real crime was that people around him wouldn't leave him alone. They shouldn't take away his livelihood "just because I was an exhibitionist." Somehow that seemed unfair. I took all that hate, almost a third of the book, out. In the current book what was left went through page 234. But I wasn't ready to publish the book yet. It had an ending point, but I wasn't convinced that Jay's story was over. The next revision was about Jay's time in Seattle and his divorce. It was full of hate and recrimination about how his wife had somehow not done what she was supposed to do. Jay was recovering so his wife should, too. A lot of that was taken out. But the story still didn't seem finished, so I still wouldn't publish the book. Chapter 37, the last chapter in the story, came in the mail in 2004. I read it and said, "Now the story is done." When I talked with Jay, he was a different. The drive to exhibit himself seemed to be gone. He was content to put the book out and go on with what was really important, his work of helping other men with sexual addictions straighten out their lives. He had gotten to a place where the hate that drove him was gone. I think it is important to note that Neal Farmer, the man who wrote the newspaper article that caused Jay's downfall in December 1990, was at the party where we launched the book. So this is a story of hope and redemption. Jay is successfully fighting his demons. He is not who he once was. I believe other addicts who have enough desire, enough hope, and enough support can make the same journey. I published the book to let them know.

The true story of one man's recovery from exhibitionism

Sex and Love Addiction: My Journey from Shame to Grace is the true story of one man's recovery from exhibitionism, fueled by sex and love addiction. Now a licensed addictions counselor and one of the first specializing in Internet addiction and related sex and love addiction issues, his story spares no graphic detail in how addiction seized control of his life, and his long, slow struggle to reclaim himself and his purpose. A testimony of the forces both within and without needed to make the journey to recovery, Sex and Love Addiction is a profound yet ultimately hopeful personal memoir and highly recommended reading, especially for those who are having to deal with sexual addiction issues within their own lives and families.