I have finally stopped crying tears of relief after finishing Conan Milner’s article on porn addiction. This behavior is much more dangerous than any number of atomic weapons could ever be. I have been married to a porn addict for forty years. After we had dated for five years, and we received this diagnosis. We have seen at least four therapists throughout our relationship and finally found one who was knowledgeable about this condition. As many addicts are prone to do, my husband hid his problem (or so he thought) until he became impotent and could no longer perform. He had never graduated to internet or film porn, real women, or any number of potentially illegal and destructive practices, but only used “acceptable” magazines. Many addicts have lost their jobs, their families, their friends, all of their resources, and even their freedom, when incarcerated, as a result of their acting out. My husband has refrained from acting out for almost 18 months, but still faces the deeper emotional and self-defeating internal threats from his behavior. This addiction has caused a vast problem in more marriages than we, as a society, can even begin to comprehend or believe. The fastest-growing demographic of new urology patients is men between the ages of 18 and 34—for impotence. One of the fastest-growing demographics for plastic surgeons is young women altering their genitals to resemble those parts shown by the female porn stars—because that is what young men want and expect to see. Porn shows sex without love, training this next generation of internet natives that this is what intimacy is all about. I am continuously astounded when parents don’t feel the need for parental controls on their youngsters’ (and I mean really young youngsters) cell phones, computers, and tablets. I am continually saddened to hear my friends state that they know no one who abuses the internet or other types of pornography, and certainly no one in their family would ever do such a thing. Please, Epoch Times, bring up this topic from time to time. There needs to be more aware of this life-destroying behavior.
I am not, in any way, prudish about sex, do not judge pornography, or feel the need to curtail freedom of speech. This, however, is an experiment gone awry, with no safety procedures in place, no predictions or studies to help us with results, and certainly not enough intellectual study happening to be of some warning to society.
Please feel free to edit, cut, rearrange any of my comments, if you choose to use this.
Thank you,
Ann Pa.
