Pornography Problem: Erotic Conflict or Addiction?

How do we, as therapists, determine whether a pornography problem is erotic conflict or an addiction? A discussion on the nuances.
How do we, as therapists, determine whether a pornography problem is erotic conflict or an addiction? A discussion on the nuances.
If you are like me, you have heard of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, but know very little about it. We see newspaper articles about bitcoin values going up and down and articles about how digital currency is going to eventually take over traditional banking. Other than headlines, most of us don’t pay much attention. However, […]
A recovery book by actor and comedian Russell Brand may not be what you might be expecting in the way of a book review from an addiction therapist, but we should all have an open mind, right? I started keeping a peripheral eye on Mr. Brand when I began focusing my clinical work on sexual […]
I have been an addiction therapist for approximately thirteen years. While for some professions that may not seem like a long time, for a substance abuse professional, thirteen years in the trenches is a very long time. It is thirteen years of being underpaid, overworked, and underfunded. It is also thirteen years of working with […]
I specialize in working with sexual addiction and problematic sexual behavior. Most of my clients are men. Working with male addicts for over a dozen years has taught me, in person, that many more boys are sexually abused than the numbers tell us. These boys do not tell anyone and do not seek help. These […]
I am going to start this post by adamantly stating that I am not a couples counselor. It’s not my thing and I just can’t do it. I have a great respect for those therapists who train in this area and devote their careers to helping couples find their way. Since I do not do […]
In my book, The New Age of Sex Education: How to Talk to your Teen about Cybersex and Pornography in the Digital Age, I write about the baggage that can interfere with a parent talking to their child about sex, pornography, masturbation or any other sexual topic. This topic recently came up in one of […]
A recent study presented this week at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association reported on the effect starting to watch pornography has on a marriage. This study surveyed thousands of American adults at three time points over four years. They asked about pornography use at each stage of the survey. The researchers particularly […]
Last week McDonald’s announced that it will add internet filters to its WiFi in restaurants throughout the country. My first thought was, “now what about Starbucks?” as this news came literally the day after a client disclosed that he had downloaded pornography at a Starbucks. What I didn’t know is that Starbucks also has committed […]
Working as a therapist who deals with problematic sexual behavior, I don’t often see common topics of conversation in my office on the front page of the newspaper. When I sat down to have my morning coffee and read The Wall Street Journal, it happened. Backpage was on the front page of the WSJ. Not […]