Published on 20 November 2024
Pornography addiction is a phrase that gets talked about on the internet a lot. To some people, it may seem like a joke. How can someone be addicted to porn? It’s not a physical substance like alcohol or drugs, but it can be just as harmful to your well-being. Until you actually experience a pornography addiction, you don’t know how negative the impact can be on your relationships.
The big problem is that it can even prevent you from having the fulfilling and intimate connection with your partner that you both deserve. There are ways to overcome a pornography addiction with the right tools and strategies. Overcoming this type of addiction in your life can be possible, so that you have a close connection both physically and mentally to the one you love. Let’s look at how porn addiction can hurt your relationship and ways to break the cycle of watching porn to help your relationship flourish. A better relationship is possible once porn doesn’t have a stranglehold on your life.
When you are watching porn all the time when you’re in a relationship, it can feel like a big secret between the two of you. One of the big problems with porn is that it creates an unrealistic expectation of what sex should be like in a healthy relationship. This can include the scenarios they are presenting in porn, but also the way that all the people involved in porn look with cosmetic and plastic surgery enhancements. It desensitizes you towards how your partner looks in real life. Porn is a fantasy. Reality is not. And when you expect that fantasy to carry over into your real relationship, that is where the dissatisfaction comes into play.
There are quite a few signs and symptoms of a true pornography addiction.
Unable to Stop Watching
Losing Interest in Sex With Your Partner
Spending Hours a Day Watching Porn
Blowing Money on Paid Porn Sites or Only Fans
Trouble With Arousal During Actual Sex
Hand or Wrist Pain From Frequent Porn Use
Using Porn to Cope With Anxiety or Stress
If you find that these signs and symptoms are affecting your life and relationship, it may be time to seek professional help to overcome pornography addiction. This is especially true if it’s affecting the quality, frequency, and intimate connection to your partner.
There are some strategies you can use right away to help heal porn addiction that’s affecting your relationships. The first thing you need to do is to be honest with your partner. Sit down and have a real conversation about how you are struggling to get away from a daily porn habit. The more they know, the easier it will be for them to support you in your journey to break free from porn.
Next, you want to find a friend who can help you be accountable. They can check in with you to see how you are doing, and to make sure you are staying away from watching pornography.
It’s also helpful to install anti-porn software on all of your devices. That includes all laptops, computers, tablets, and your smartphone. Think of it this way, if someone is trying to stay away from alcohol, they won’t have a full bar stocked with their favorite liquor bottles at home. Getting away from watching porn on your devices is easier when you have something actually blocking you from accessing those sites.
Find distractions and come up with a plan of other things to do when you are craving porn. That can be listening to music, going for a walk, seeing a movie, or even taking up a new hobby or creative outlet, like painting, cooking, or even something fun like building a Lego set. It may sound a little silly to get out some Lego bricks, but finding something that occupies your mind and hands can be helpful.
The next step once you have spent some time away from watching porn is to reconnect with your partner. There may be a period in the first 90 days of abstaining from porn, that your sexual desire level flatlines or just plain goes down. This will pass.
Just getting through this adjustment period will help to awaken some of that natural desire for your partner deep within you. Make a plan for regular date nights, where there doesn’t even have to be the end result of sex. Doing things together, talking, cuddling, and kissing can help to rebuild that healthy connection and intimacy in a relationship. Take it as slow as you need. As long as you are honest with your partner about how you are feeling and doing, they can be there to support you on your journey to get rid of a porn addiction.
The lure of porn isn’t going to go away anytime soon. It’s always going to be around lurking in the background, but once you make the commitment to rid yourself of watching pornography, you’ll be on the right track to keep a healthy relationship going. Keep in mind if you slip up, choose to resume abstaining from porn. That way, you’re more than likely to resume having healthy sexual intimacy with your own partner and not images on a computer screen. A real healthy relationship takes connection and work. When you overcome porn addiction, you’ll be amazed at how much better your relationship will be.
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