Well explained there Mac. I enjoyed your expansion on your short stories. What fascinates me about porn addiction is that sobriety from it doesn’t equate to celibacy or total abstinence in the way substance sobriety does. With drugs or alcohol, the boundary is definite. Total, complete abstinence. No grey area. You shall not pass. Ain’t happnin. But with sex and intimacy, there’s a real biological need. Like, desire itself isn’t the issue. It’s how and why that desire is engaged with that makes the difference. The behaviour, not the biology, is what needs addressing, and I imagine maybe there’s more of a mental struggle in defining what is right and wrong in this…
Great perspective Adam. There’s an importance for all individuals that struggle with porn to understand what their line in the sand is or what the “red light” is in their sobriety. For me, consuming either images or video forms of porn and/or masturbating are red lines for me because I know how much this action has harmed my life and the ones closest to me.
I think the important thing for those who struggle with porn is to remove and detach porn as a healthy form of intimacy or sexuality and to instead see it for what it is, a poor imitation of love, affection, and intimacy -> something that is highly addictive and unrealistic.
I think when that detachment occurs, it is hard to go back to it because it loses its luster and becomes more of an obstacle to intimacy and love or even to being present in any moment.
Well explained there Mac. I enjoyed your expansion on your short stories. What fascinates me about porn addiction is that sobriety from it doesn’t equate to celibacy or total abstinence in the way substance sobriety does. With drugs or alcohol, the boundary is definite. Total, complete abstinence. No grey area. You shall not pass. Ain’t happnin. But with sex and intimacy, there’s a real biological need. Like, desire itself isn’t the issue. It’s how and why that desire is engaged with that makes the difference. The behaviour, not the biology, is what needs addressing, and I imagine maybe there’s more of a mental struggle in defining what is right and wrong in this…
Great perspective Adam. There’s an importance for all individuals that struggle with porn to understand what their line in the sand is or what the “red light” is in their sobriety. For me, consuming either images or video forms of porn and/or masturbating are red lines for me because I know how much this action has harmed my life and the ones closest to me.
I think the important thing for those who struggle with porn is to remove and detach porn as a healthy form of intimacy or sexuality and to instead see it for what it is, a poor imitation of love, affection, and intimacy -> something that is highly addictive and unrealistic.
I think when that detachment occurs, it is hard to go back to it because it loses its luster and becomes more of an obstacle to intimacy and love or even to being present in any moment.