How To Help Someone With A Porn Addiction?
Porn is easily available on the internet, and once you start watching porn, you never know when it becomes a problem in your life. This could indicate the beginning of a porn addiction. It can alter your brain and change your behavioural practices. This is when the line between a healthy sexual life and an abnormal one becomes blurry. If your loved ones struggle to overcome this, it can put you in a tough spot. They often undergo feelings of guilt and shame. So how to help someone with a porn addiction? It gets easier for them if they feel like they have a safe space for them to speak about it. If you want to help with porn addiction, the best thing you can do is show them that you are there for them and offer your full support. What is Pornography Addiction? Porn addiction is a behavioural addiction that is marked by an ever-growing craving to view pornographic content. In the past, a person going through a pornography addiction would satisfy his or her craving for pornographic content by watching pornographic videos, magazines, and pictures. Now, the means available have since grown thanks to the internet, allowing unidentified access to limitless pornography at all levels of specificity. In addition to the internet, a range of other resources, such as social media, promote porn addiction by providing a platform to view pornography at any time. Several studies estimate that international rates of consumption of porn can range from 50% to 99% of men and 30% to 86% of women. Signs of Porn Addiction There’s no straightforward way to identify porn addiction, but there are some indications that point to problematic use. Like with other addictions, porn addiction creates difficulties in an individual’s life. Here is an informative article on what a porn addiction looks like. To decide whether or not you have a harmful relationship with porn, extreme usage usually replaces your daily activities, which can lead to a loss of control. Porn addiction may also damage relationships with friends and family. Some signs that you are a porn addict are – Spending heavy loads of money on pornographic material, sometimes at the cost of essentials Engagement in risky sexual activities Using porn as a coping mechanism for emotions like pain, anxiety, and sadness Always have the urge to watch porn anytime and anywhere Feeling irritation at being recommended to reduce porn consumption Unable to quit porn despite trying Experiencing guilt and shame following porn use Moving on to more extreme and violent forms of pornography to find pleasure Finding sexual intercourse to be less enjoyable Hiding porn habits from partners and others Research indicates that the greatest predictors for porn use include being a young man, negative mood states, frequent internet use, religiousness, and sexual boredom. Though there is no straightforward method for “how to deal with a porn addiction”, there are ways that your loved one can get the help they need. It can start with you! You can help with porn addiction by offering your support and being there for them. 6 Steps to To Help Someone With Porn Addiction One of the biggest difficulties with overcoming this addiction is that many people still assume it is normal behavior, despite the fact that it has negative consequences. Coming to terms with the fact that extreme porn viewing is indeed a problem and an addiction is the first step to recovery. Though there is no easy way to destroy the pornography urge, there are many ways how to help a porn addict. Steps to Help Someone Addicted to Porn Step 1 – Understanding Addiction can be seen as a symptom of an underlying mental health condition. When the suffering from these disorders causes shame and guilt, a part of our brain will often push us to try to numb and escape the overwhelming pain. When our sexual desires become obsessive, it is most likely because there is emotional pain that is fueling the addiction. To help someone get through porn addiction, it is best that not to look at porn addiction as a cause – but instead as a symptom. Step 2 – Change the way of living In order to deal with porn addiction, it is necessary to develop a recovery mindset and change your lifestyle accordingly, which replaces your desire for porn. And this directs you to live a life of purpose, achievement, association, and service. Especially as human beings, if we do not choose a healthy lifestyle, then we will be controlled by our sexual urges. Sexual media like porn easily become the pacifier that deprives us of our abilities. How to help someone with porn addiction is to empower them by listening and understanding them and giving them the space to open up, as well as getting them interested in volunteering, sports, activities, church, etc. Step 3 – Dont control them When you try to control them, it will actually increase the temptations, because negative feelings like shame, critique, and control are not the resolution to addiction but its reason. Addiction originates from a feeling of unworthiness and loneliness. Therefore, to help with porn addiction, we need to handle them with care and go through the process of loving, understanding, and showing empathy for the pain they carry inside. Step 4 – Self-care If you want to help your partner or any close member to quit porn, you have to first work on yourself. Learn mindfulness practices and make it a habit to engage in physical, mental, relational and, spiritual routines that improve your well-being. Bond with your family and plan fun activities together, make friends that help you feel needed, attend therapy if needed and begin your own recovery process. Step 5 – Set boundaries In most cases, porn addicts are oblivious to their damaging habits of tactics and manipulation. People are often trained on these tactics when they were young by those who were hurt and suffering. You can help