When I think about pornography, I get excited! My heart starts racing, I breathe faster, my pulse pounds, and I get angry.
I’m angry because it seems I’m just waking up to the reality of how rampant pornography is in our culture, and how sneaky it is at slowly chipping away at our innocence, our relationships, men’s masculinity, and our ability to love and to be loved by real people.
Is it really a stereotype that all men use pornography? I guess I’m late to the party, but not sure I’m glad to be here. Really, all men? I couldn’t believe it, so I did some digging. Here’s what I found:
In a recent review, 20–33 percent of online users, an estimated 172 million Americans, reported using the Internet for sexual purposes (Cooper, 2004). Sex is the number one searched topic on the Internet (Cooper, 1998). Sexual websites are visited by approximately one third of all Internet users (Cooper et al., 2000), and of purchases made online 70% of money spent is toward sexually explicit materials (Cooper, 2002).
Wow. One third or about 172 MILLION AMERICANS check out porn online!
And at the same time, half of all marriages in this country end in divorce. I wonder if any of those 172 million Americans have ever been divorced, and if the porn had anything to do with it?
I don’t get excited in the sense that I’m happy and thrilled about porn. I get excited in the sense that I want men (and women) to know the effects of pornography addiction before it ever starts, because it is a life killer, a marriage killer, and has no positive role in our culture.
Here’s the big lie people use to justify using porn: “It doesn’t affect me.” Really?
Please, spend a few minutes here: http://www.yourbrainonporn.com/, and then lets talk…
- Physical changes in your brain.
- Constant need for novelty.
- Inability to be satisfied with “normal” sexual activity.
We might not be aware of the effects of porn when we start using, but they exist, and they’re closing in.
There is hope, and there is freedom to be had. One of the best recovery programs is SAA, which can be found here: https://saa-recovery.org/
If you are addicted to pornography, or any type of unhealthy sexual behavior that you want to quit, please do not hesitate to contact me, and to seek out other resources listed on the resources page.
Take care!
– Jake