Dr. Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT
If you’re a porn addict, you’re struggling with an ongoing, escalating pattern of porn use that’s causing problems in your life. Your addiction is best identified based on the following criteria:
- You are obsessively preoccupied with pornography. Your use of porn has become a central life activity. When you’re with family and friends, even at fun events, you may want to leave so you can look at porn. The same is true with work and school.
- You have lost control over your use of pornography. You say you’ll only go online for a few minutes, but then you’re on for hours. It’s likely that you have tried to quit porn altogether, probably multiple times, only to find yourself back at it a few days later.
- You have experienced negative consequences related to porn use. These consequences may include an inability to form or maintain healthy romantic relationships, problems at work or in school, loss of self-esteem, loss of interest in real-world sexual activity, social isolation, depression, anxiety, loss of interest in hobbies and other previously enjoyable activities, financial woes, legal problems, etc.
If you think you or a loved one may be struggling with porn addiction, we suggest you take this anonymous 25-question sex and porn addiction screening test.
What Porn Addiction Looks Like
If you’re a porn addict, it is likely that, feeling shameful and remorseful, you have told yourself, “This is the last time I am going to use porn.” Then you probably deleted your stash of porn, deleted your memberships to porn sites, and canceled the credit cards you used to cover porn-related expenses. But then, a few days later, you were back at it, scrambling to reassemble your collection. It’s possible you’ve been spinning in this ‘delete and reassemble’ cycle for months or even years.
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If you or someone you care about is struggling with sex or porn addiction, help is available. For porn addicts, Seeking Integrity offers a low-cost online workgroup series. Click HERE for information. We offer a similar workgroup series for sex addicts. Click HERE for information.