The last of our six basic action steps involves understanding and address­ing the impact pornography use has had on your sexual attitudes and behaviors. As we discussed in chapter 2, exposure to porn often occurs early in a person’s life, so many porn users learned about sex from porn instead of appropriate sex education sources […]

Quitting porn can be emotionally and physically stressful. People who are used to using porn regularly and compulsively may experience with­drawal symptoms similar to those experienced by drug addicts who stop using cocaine or other hard drugs. Like recovery from prolonged drug use, it can take a period of time to completely heal changes in […]

Just as you need to be prepared to handle sudden unplanned exposures to porn, you also must be ready to deal with a desire to use porn, which can strike at any time. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten may work for some people, but this doesn’t work for most porn users. The […]

__ Cancel all subscriptions to porn (Web site, magazine, cable, cell phone, etc.). __ Change to a family-oriented Internet service provider. __ Change your e-mail address. __ Install cyber controls on your computer.* __ Move your computer to a public area in your home. __ Cancel Internet service altogether. __ Buy a new hard drive […]

Getting pornography out of your immediate environment is, of course, a very practical step toward recovery. Obviously if you want to quit porn, you will need to get it out of your house, your office, and any other loca­tions where you have typically used it. Just as a smoker who wants to quit needs to […]

If you have a serious porn habit and want to successfully quit porn, eventually you will need to participate in some type of ongoing treat — ment. Without the focus and direction of a treatment routine, it’s easy to lose sight of goals, become overwhelmed by stress, and slip back into old ways of thinking […]

• Consult with a mental health professional or pastoral counselor who can help guide you through an effective disclosure pro­cess. • Make sure that you pick a time when the person to whom you are disclosing is not distracted by something else. For example, turn off the phone and talk in a private setting that […]

“I have a problem with pornography and I want to quit.” When a porn user first says words like these out loud to another person, he takes a significant first step in climbing out of the porn trap. As we’ve seen in previous chapters, most relationships with porn thrive on isolation, se­crecy, and denial. By […]

We refer to the six action steps as being “basic,” not because they are particularly easy or simple to do, but because they are necessary in order to ensure success in quitting porn. Without these action steps you can’t make the kinds of thorough and systematic changes needed to assure that you can stay away […]

Porn recovery takes time, love, and understanding. It also requires truth and accountability and taking the right steps at the right time. —Mitch E very former porn user we spoke with for this book had a dif­ferent story to tell about how they quit. Some had phased out porn gradually, using less each week until […]