Addiction to pornography has become a growing problem. A recent study by theporneffect.com shows that 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women admit to being addicted to porn.
There are three main struggles to the addiction to pornography: mind/emotional, body/physical, and spirit/spiritual. The emotional struggle of the addiction is where the person goes to porn to self-medicate some deep emotional pain like loneliness, anger, grief, sadness, perfectionism, or insecurity. Once you discover the substance makes you feel good you’re hooked. You slowly become numb to what you’re watching as if it’s a normal part of your life.
C.S. Lewis said that porn and masturbation “sends the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no woman can rival.”
The physical struggle works just like an addiction to alcohol or drugs. The body grows a tolerance and a dependence to porn. When a person views porn a chemical reaction happens in the brain. Dopamine increases while serotonin decreases. This creates great tension, which is released through masturbation. The combo of excitement, tension, and relaxation becomes a drug that dominates your body. Like any addiction, your body builds up a tolerance to the drug and you soon need more to get the same effect.
The last struggle is one of spirit. The addiction becomes a vice or a habitual sin. The act of masturbation and viewing pornography is a mortal sin – lust – one of the 7 deadly sins. Lust detracts from true love. The act destroys the temple that was meant for glorifying God.
Jason Evert asks us, “How many potential suitors have been too entrenched in laptop fantasies to bother with the demands of a flesh-and-blood partner? How many souls have lost sight of their religious vocations because of the spiritual blindness brought on by pornography?”
Regardless of where you have been or what you have done, rest easy, you have the same God who gave forgiveness to Rahab the prostitute, Peter the denier, Moses the murderer, and David the adulterer on your side. All you have to do is walk toward the Lord with open arms and He will run to you with His mercy. The only sin God can’t forgive is the one you don’t ask forgiveness for. The road to recovery is a hard one. You can’t think of purity as a destination, but a choice, sometimes a daily choice…sometimes hourly. The most important thing to remember is that you can’t do it alone. You’re going to need accountability partners, people you can fall back on.
Matt Fradd, a Catholic speaker, has 5 steps in his plan for recovery: prayer, become accountable, counseling, educate yourself, and patient perseverance. These steps can be done in any order to help achieve purity. I highly recommend Matt’s book “Delivered” that shares personal stories from his friends and also includes some things he recommends to help with recovery. I also recommend you check out websites like theporneffect.com and integrityrestored.com that offer even more tools to help. In closing, remember you’re not alone in this fight. Many are recovering from this addiction and many more are wanting to help. Keep your head up and keep fighting.
You can also check out the new Victory App, a great way to help keep yourself accountable (compatible now with Apple devices and soon to be released on Google Play).
“As iron sharpens iron so man sharpens his fellow man.” – Proverbs 27
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