Can Pornography and Life co-exist?

I am addicted. I look at it at least once a day and frankly it concerns me. Sometimes I collect the stuff I download but I go through phases of cleansing/repent and delete it out of a futile attempt to kick my habit but always end up downloading again; sometimes the same pictures/videos as before. Now, I don't know how how many are like that but I can sympathise with people who are addicted to alcohol and nicotine going through the same withdraw.

Does anyone care to share their thoughts on the subject of life with and without porn? Could be edifying.

I'm also curious how people juggle their porn hobby and their life wth family, a wife and other responsibilities that life demands. In all honesty, I have never thought I would be in this situation 10 years ago but I blame the internet for my addiction.

Honestly, I compartmentalize my porn with other aspects in my life. If porn is taking over your life or hurting other aspects of your life, give it a rest. Porn can be like a drug, in fact there have been studies that pornography is like a drug, in that it's a quick fix, but doesn't satisfy the need. If you can honestly go a week without it, you're fine. If you start jonesing for it after 24 hours, you've got an addiction.

don't you mean - can life exist without porn?

I take it or leave it. I like looking at pictures of beautiful young women but it wouldn't bother too much if I couldn't.

Trying to break an addiction to porn must be hard. There are erotic images everywhere these days and you can't help seeing them. It is not like an alcoholic making a decision not to drink. You can't avoid it.

Fellow addict here, too. I see a lot of myself in your post.
I'd trade my porn addiction for alcoholism or drug dependence in a heartbeat, because help is more readily available and society's a little more accepting of these things.

Prosperox wrote:

I disagree. I can make a decision right now to delete all my porn bookmarks, format the drives I store my porn on, and turn my computer off. Or, I can install parental control software on my system and lose the password that lets me override adult content filtering. I can also pick up the phone and tell my internet provider to cancel my service. Throw my computer out the window. Look up escort services in the Yellow Pages... you get the idea.
And like the alcoholic who keeps pouring himself more drinks, you'll probably see me here for a long time yet.

nx wrote:
It's a lot harder to masturbate yourself to death then it is to drink yourself to death or OD on drugs. I'll admit there is a lot of stigma attached to porn addiction and most people are far more accepting of alcoholism or drug abuse but unless your a super hard core porn addict I doubt the impact is as life threating.

analfan wrote:

By no way am I or anyone here down playing the seriousness of drug or alcohol addcition but an addiction to pornography is as insidious as those two as your addiction becomes more and more deviant. Looking at a Playboy magazine simply has little effect now. What I"m ultimately afraid of is it may get out of hand and escalate to a level where it consumes your life. Some have a few hundred MBytes of porn while others have GBytes or Terabytes.

I'm not a full blown addict like some junkie who prowls the street for unspent cigarette butts to smoke; not yet. It hasn't sunk that low. What concerns me is I may find myself in a store and as I'm walking behind a woman, I do not see a woman doing her errands but someone who has made the unfortunate mistake of wearing trousers that reveal her panty line or ones that reveal her shapely ass. In the same breath, I may catch others who are much older looking at the same woman and presumably getting aroused and out of embarrassment look away feeling a little repugnant for doing that myself. Sometimes the urge are too strong and I find myself looking at the woman for longer than what is deemed necessary and have times been caught doing it.

What all this amounts to is the realization that it may spiral down to the point of no return. Are we a pervert or are we just rationalizing that all man are predisposed to being perverts but that some are more subtle than others? Do we begin to blame others for our behaviour? I often tell myself it is the not I who am at fault but others who consciously made them dress in salacious clothing and it's they who are sexualizing women.

This is not the first time I have brought this up for discussion on internet forums but in a more general discussion forum, people will chastise my views and say I am a sick pervert but here where we all share a common interest, so the opinions are obviously skewed and biased. It's almost as if they're saying normal people do not download porn.

Things were much simpler when I was a kid, I'll say that much.

i'm curious... this definitely seems to be a male problem... i have rarely heard of this happening to a woman...

for me, porn is like a picnic... i have a great time, but i don't need or go to a picnic every day...

my thoughts,
juliegirl

juliegirl wrote:

Here is a good WebMD article to read:

http://www.webmd.com/sex/features/sex-drive-how-do-men-women-compare


an excerpt:

Quote:

I think for some people who can compartimentalise their life it can co-exist.... For others who get so wrapped up in this fantasy porn land, sadly that fantasy can become reality and no longer see a woman or a man (depending on orientations) as a person but just another sex object. Then yet others can go through this and get over this addiction but have to live with the scars that it put on their mind and live with the consequences.

All in all i think it really has to do with the person as to whether they can handle it or not..

It's like being addicted to video games. Yeah, no one's died playing too many video games, I don't think, but it can be detrimental to the rest of your life if you are truly addicted. Really liking it and being addicted are two different things. If you hear about a movie DP, and think double penetration, you might be addicted to porn. If you hear about an ATM and think instantly about going ass-to-mouth, then you might be addicted to porn.

Blaming the internet for ones supposed porn addiction is like someone blaming McD's for being too fat. You dont have to walk into either place. If you still must blame the internet, cancel your service and delete your stash. Any other info you need can easily be obtained by TV, newspaper, radio or a phone call to a friend.

It sounds more like a problem of not having enough enjoyable things to do in your life versus an addiction to porn. If sexual cravings are so rampant, maybe its time to ask your partner (if you have one) to listen to your thoughts/desires. You may get a surprise answer of "its about time you asked". I hate sounding like a shrink, but it also seems like someone did a pretty good job of teaching you that liking sex "too much" or admiring the female form is something to feel guilty about. Nonesense.

Your point of ogling a woman in a store.. It doesnt require the appetite of a porn addict to admire an attractive woman, particularly one who's dressed a certain way with the hopes of getting the look you've given them. I think its pretty safe to say any man will be doing the same and the woman may actualy take it as a compliment. Taking that glance doesnt make you a deviant, it makes you normal, unless you've been trained/taught to feel otherwise.

Good luck in finding the guidance/help you need if porn does in fact become the most important aspect of your life.

I'm addicted to porn but I do not get confused about it and real women. I don't treat females as if they were sex objects. Then again I might get laid if I did