I don't know how long this will last. I don't know if this is a permanent life change, though I do want it to be. But here are the results after a few weeks:
Testosterone: through the fucking roof
Confidence: at an all time high
Self respect: highest it has ever been
Bedroom performance: also really high
How did I achieve this? I will tell you right now, religious fundamentalism, aggressive prayer and fighting my desires was NOT the way. If beating yourself over the head with a Bible or whatever religious text you prefer helps you to walk the straight and narrow, fine. Far be it from me to criticize if that is what you want for yourself. It simply did not work for me. I lived a lot of my life as a pious pretender. When I stopped caring so much and just lived as an honest degenerate, life began to change for the better. I am considerably less insecure these days. I don't live in fear of something because someone said so in a book. I don't choose this out of obligation. I choose it because I want it.
I decided a few years ago to just follow Christ. I acknowledge the additional context, but following His example, loving your enemies treating others the way you want to be treated, loving my neighbors, all the golden rule stuff, that I placed above EVERYTHING else. And the results... speak for themselves.
Faith is a personal journey. Religious fundamentalists have failed to understand this because they think because they found the answers for themselves that they magically have all the answers for everyone else. You do not. Jesus is the authority. And while I am likely to consider the ideas of those Christians who actually have sold their possessions and picked up their cross, they too are still just mortal flawed men.
The dangers of porn are very real, but not impossible to overcome. Shaming people will not help. In fact, if anything humans have a tendency to over indulge when being shamed. Who are you to tell me or anyone for that matter how they need to live their life? Exactly. If Jesus comes back tomorrow, we'll figure out the rest from there. Though a lot of you are gonna be pissed when he starts forgiving people you thought FOR SURE were going to hell. Aside from the pedo elites, no one is worthy of damnation. If anything, you are for thinking someone else was for daring to live their lives as they saw fit. The only aggressors that deserve punishment are those who violate consent and that includes spiritual consent. If someone does not want to hear you, you don't get to force your opinion on them just because you think you are right. Consent is the only real rule and ultimate morality in this life. And just because you choose to consent to additional rules does not mean you are better than those of us who do not.
And that's how I made this happen. I found my own way. And that's what you, a struggling porn addict need to understand. If the shame tactics and accountabilibuddy systems aren't working, then you need to find something else. Overindulgence may be your salvation as it was mine. And no... I didn't get desensitized to sex. It doesn't work that way at least for me.
Good luck and don't feel bad if you fail. You're only human.
I wish it were that simple. And I think there's a lot of exploitation and horribleness to it that needs to be done away with.
However... if human trafficking is obliterated tomorrow and all the porn evaporates, fine. No complaints from me. My study of human behavior and history tells me as long as men and women desire boobs, there will always be a sex trade. Some of the people involved DO like that work, but I agree it would probably be much less if ethics laws were enacted and the exploitation factor reduced. If people want to sell their bodies, it's their choice. If we ban porn, we'll create an even worse black market than the one we have now.
In the world before Internet porn was readily available, people purchased or rented VHS tapes and DVDs.
As a kid, I remember finding porno magazines dumped in the woods on more than one occasion.
The main difference is people would be forced to pay for it, and this would reduce both availability and frequency of use for many.
They dumped porn in the woods on purpose for kids to find
In fact, they had a wank session in the woods and hid the evidence from their girlfriends/wives.
Used to be shameful behavior and men who knew better kept it out of their homes.
And that's the problem: shame breeds rebellion. Especially weaponized shame. All it does is prevent people from trying to act truthfully.
I learned more from sin by partaking and experiencing it than I ever did from assuming someone else's experience to be correct.
The truth is most people hide behind their religion as a means to try and control others and when others don't go along, they lash out.
Totally agree it's not going to stop. I was speaking in a perfect-case scenario type of world. If enough people just trying to be better humans stopped consuming this media it would lose market share and become more niche. I agree banning it won't work and the world's governments would not do that anyway. It's almost as if there is a satanic cabal running the world.
Well... Even still people have to choose righteousness because it's what they want for themselves not because the society wants it. The second religion becomes tyrannical it needs to be declawed like the cabal. The reason people rebelled is because they were robbed of their choice. Did Jesus ever force His ideology on anyone? No. People came to Him. He commands us to to love our enemies, treat others the way we want to be treated and to not judge least ye be judged. Ergo we need to respect and uphold people's right to choose their lives for themselves.
This is why America has the 1A and not any religious text as the law of the land.
There are many though who have never even heard about God or who Jesus is and what He did for us. It is our job to tell them.