A lot of people around the world view porn. Pornographic material is widely available, and it’s estimated to be worth as much as $97 billion. While there are paid services available, and there is a lot of porn that is free. Because of this, the risk of becoming a porn addict is very real. However, while addiction is a possibility, so is addiction recovery, and it is possible to help someone with a porn addiction.
Tips to Help Someone With a Porn Addiction
It’s important to make a plan to help, as recovering from addiction isn’t often spontaneous. Some of the ways to help someone with porn addiction include:
Talk to Them
The very first thing to do when trying to help someone who watches porn too much is to talk to them about their porn consumption. This can be quite awkward, as consuming porn is usually a private matter, but it’s a vital step in helping someone you love recover.
Listen
As you talk to a loved one who is addicted to porn, you also need to listen. They may have their reasons for their porn habits, and they may get defensive. Whatever they have to say, you need to listen. You don’t have to believe them, but you do have to let them say their piece.
Take Care of Yourself
As much as you may want to help a loved one quit porn, you also have to learn to take care of yourself. While another person’s porn use is generally private, it may make you uncomfortable, and you may have to set healthy boundaries in your relationship with them.
Educate Yourself
If you want to help a person you know stop watching porn, then you need to better understand the nature of the addiction itself. Educating yourself on the nature of sexual addictions can help you gain perspective on it and develop ways to best help a loved one.
Stick With Them Through the Hard Times
Behavioural addiction, or any addiction, can be isolating. Many people who struggle with addiction of any form can find themselves with strained relationships, in part because loved ones distance themselves. If you want to help a person recover, then it’s important to be there for them to provide emotional support as well as practical assistance.
Don’t Try to Control Them
While you may be tempted to control a loved one’s behaviour to some extent, you have to realise that people with porn and sex addiction are their own persons and are free to act on their impulses. Trying to control them may only make them more resistant to changing their behaviour or seeking addiction support.
Believe That They Can Change
People with porn addiction, or any kind of addiction, will generally need encouragement to change their behaviour. If you don’t believe that a loved one can change their behaviour, they may sense that, and it can discourage them from changing.
Create a Supportive Environment
To help someone overcome porn addiction, it’s also best to create a supportive environment. Many people who struggle with this behavioural addiction may feel deeply ashamed of their behaviour, either because of their attitudes towards porn or because of their inability to control themselves. Creating a supportive environment will not only encourage them to change but also alleviate some of the shame that they may feel.
Encourage Professional Porn Addiction Treatment
Porn addiction may be difficult to break without professional help. As such, to help a loved one, you may have to get help from a therapist or an addiction specialist. Furthermore, you can encourage your loved one to seek help for their porn addiction.
Help Them To Find a Support Group
Other than professional treatment, another way to help address a loved one’s porn addiction is to encourage them to find a support group. This can help them find people who have been through the same struggles with excessively watching pornography. It can show them that they are not alone in their struggles. This can help alleviate feelings of loneliness.
Stage an Intervention
One of the most important things that can be done to help a person seek porn addiction recovery is to stage an intervention. This can help a person understand the impact of porn addiction on the people around them and can be instrumental in helping them realise that porn addiction isn’t harmless and that they need professional help to change their relationship with porn, especially if it has already created serious consequences on their daily lives.
Talking to Someone With Pornography Addiction
Talking to someone who has a porn addiction can be difficult, not the least of which because porn itself is an awkward topic of conversation. But recovering from porn addiction will often require a difficult conversation. First, you need to set the time and place to have the conversation. It needs to be a place where all parties feel safe and comfortable. It should also be quiet and free of distractions.
When talking to a loved one about their porn addiction, it’s best to do so without any judgement. As mentioned before, many people can be ashamed of their behaviour, and shaming someone isn’t going to encourage them to change their behaviour. Rather, they may fall deeper into addiction to cope with their shame.
Signs of Porn Addiction
It can be hard to identify addiction to porn, largely because porn consumption is something that people do behind closed doors. If you’re a partner to someone who may have a porn addiction, there may be changes in your intimate life. They may either want to try new, more daring acts in bed, or they may lose interest entirely as watching porn supplants their need for intimacy.
There may also be financial difficulties. While a lot of porn is free, some services allow a person to subscribe to specific creators for a fee. These services also allow subscribers to send gifts or donations to the creator in addition to their subscription fee. While subscription fees are generally low, additional gifts or donations can be exorbitant.
You Can Help a Loved One Overcome Porn Addiction
There’s nothing inherently wrong with watching porn. It can be an effective form of stress relief, and it’s not an illegal act, and it doesn’t often impact anyone else. However, problems can arise when a person’s pornography consumption dominates their life to the point that it supersedes all other aspects.
But porn addiction can be treated with modalities such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which Orchid employs in its treatment. We can help you or a loved one overcome addiction. Contact us to learn more.
