PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION
PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION
According to the APA Handbook of Sexuality and Psychology, an estimated 50-99% of men and 30-86% of women world-wide watch porn.
A pornography addiction is characterized as a growning compulsion to view pornographic content. Considered a behavioral addiction, porn viewing is incredibly easy to achieve, making it feel nearly impossible for most addicts to stop, however, there is hope.
While porn addiction is not classified as a disoder at this time in the Diagnositic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), it does quality as an Impulse-Control Disorder and process disorder as a set of maladaptive behaviors that may cause distress in various areas of your life.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I know if I have a porn addiction? If so many people are doing it, what's the problem?
The problem arises when watching porn becomes problematic, for instance, if it interferes with your relationships, work or social life. Some of the issues that may arise include:
- Spending more and more time viewing porn to the detriment of your relationships
- Not being able to stop or limit your porn viewing, despite trying
- Thinking about porn obsessively like how and when you're going to be able to watch
- Hiding or keeping secret, your porn watching, i.e., clearing your browser history, lying when asked what you've been doing
- Shame and guilt after you've watched porn for any length of time
How do I know it's excessive or when I'm going to want to do it?
Like most addiction behaviors, there are triggers apparent that lead you to watching porn like people, events or situations that make your compulsion more intense. Becoming self-aware as to what these triggers are, is important to your recovery, and something we can help you with.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Sexual addiction is a complex addiction but there is hope! As a trained Certified Sex Addiction Therapist (CSAT), I (Karen Kinder, LCPC, LMHC, CSAT) have completed training developed by Dr. Patrick Carnes which required attendance at multiple training modules and supervision with a CSAT Supervisor. It also requires ongoing education so that ASATs/CSATs such as myself are experts in providing sexual addiction therapy. It is a rigorous process designed to help me best help you.
Learn more about treatment for sex addiction including an initial (free) sexual addiction screening assessment; please visit SexHelp.com. IF you are a partner, take the Partner Sexuality Survey.
We specialize in helping you explore and discover the underlying cause of your porn addition. Like most addictive behaviors, you may experience triggers that precede your desire to watch porn. For some people, it's a particular person, a situation or a place. It's important to develop the self-awareness as to these triggers, which is something we address in therapy.
In some cases, we may find that your addition to porn is accompanied by sexual addiction, trauma in childhood, depression or anxiety. We help you explore other areas that may be contributing to, or exacerbating your porn addiction.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Please give us a call today at (217) 345-4642 or contact us via the form below so that see how we can best be of help. We look forward to hearing from you.