CBN.com – SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Everyone is aware that it is easy to become addicted to cocaine or heroin. But how about pornography? Researchers have made that startling new discovery, and a group of counselors and therapists is warning this addiction may soon become an epidemic. 

 

Pornography may be the new addiction of this new century. Researchers are finding that when people indulge in porn, they release powerful chemicals in their brain and body.

 

Mark Kastleman, author of The Drug of the New Millennium, said, "There are a growing number of therapists and psychologists who are saying that this is as addictive as cocaine," or alcohol, or even heroin.

 

Kastleman has been researching and writing about porn addictions for six years, as well as training pastors and counselors on how to deal with it.

He explained that, when people view porn, "It causes the brain to release what we call endogenous drugs or endogenous chemicals. 'Endogenous' meaning 'produced from within.' So where cocaine or alcohol seek to mimic the brain's natural chemicals, pornography releases the real deal. And so we have things like adrenaline, epinephrine, ACTH."

 

Therapist Dan Gray has counseled 700 to 800 porn addicts. Compared to alcoholics or drug addicts, "Some will have a more difficult time getting off the sexual addictions," Gray said.

 

Leading sex addiction therapist Patrick Carnes, author of Facing the Shadow and Don't Call It Love, said, "Now that we understand how the brain functions, and as we are able to get pictures of the brain functioning, we're starting to understand that all addiction is a hijacking of the brain."

One recovering addict named "Sam" told us, "I spent time with Internet pornography instead of my family. I was like a junkie without drugs."

 

Sam says two things told him he was physically addicted to porn: "First, when I kept making excuses to go back and look again and again. And secondly, when I tried to stop and found that I absolutely could not stop."

 

Pornography has always been around. But today, what once was a hidden, isolated problem, has become a widespread crisis. What’s the reason? Blame the Internet, because of what Kastleman calls "the three A's."

 

"It's accessible. In other words, you hit a button and you're instantly there. It's affordable. Much of it's low-cost or no cost at all. And it's anonymous. And the anonymity is the real key, especially with religious people. They can do it without anyone knowing. So you don't stagger around with a hangover the next day, you don't have needle marks in your arms."

 

Carnes said, "The Internet cybersex, we have people who are talking 35, 40, 50 hours a week that they're spending time doing that."

Roughly 40 million people in the U.S. are said to be sexually involved with the Internet.

 

And another recovering addict, we'll call him "Ed," says everything from soft-core to the hardest of hard-core is right there. "It's as easy as the click of a button to have anything you want at your fingertips," he said.

 

Carnes said, "There are now people who have problems with sexual compulsion that never would have had them if it hadn't been for the Internet." And as a result, when they are caught, many are losing their jobs. Others see their homes broken up by divorce.

 

Sam said, "My family was unhappy, I was unhappy, my life was in a shambles frankly… And the peace that I had enjoyed for so long in my life was gone."

Ed recalled, "I was very suicidal...very depressed. I had reached a point of despair where I thought it was uncorrectable. I was flawed to the point where there was nothing that could be done about me. And so the only alternative was to end my life."

 

But instead of suicide, Ed found hope and help here in Salt Lake City when he met some of the leading fighters against porn addiction. They live here and have linked up.

 

Kastleman fights by writing about the porn problem, like in his book, The Drug of the New Millennium. And he is starting to hold anti-pornography seminars with counselors, therapists and even pastors.

 

Porn addiction hits every group, every class, and both genders. And as we found in a city as dominated by religion as Salt Lake City, not even people of faith are immune. Kastleman said, "In the religious community, we're finding this addiction is skyrocketing."

 

Sam said, "I was a leader in my local church organization. I worked with youth groups. I served in the community. And yet I had this secret life."

Then there's Ed. "I developed a dual lifestyle," he explained. "On one hand, we went to church every Sunday... Yet, on the other hand, I had this addiction."

Kastleman says we live in such a stressful time, and religious believers usually don't allow themselves typical stress-relievers like smoking and drinking. They want to avoid these vices and the appearance of evil.

But Internet porn is secret.

 

Kastleman said, "Now suddenly you have a little mouse where you hit a button, and instantly you get this flood of brain chemicals. No one knows you're doing it and it's completely affordable or no cost at all."

 

Clinical psychologist Randy Hyde says the religious porn addicts are the last to ever admit their addiction and get help. "They don't want to be seen as some 'sleazebag,' and that's how they see themselves," he explained.

 

That fear kept Sam trapped in his addiction for years. "The guilt that I felt and the shame, just absolute shame of doing what I was doing. The fear of being caught, the fear of being found out," he said.

 

Sam might still be trapped if he wasn't finally "found out," a humiliating moment that motivated his recovery.

 

"My teenage son walked into an area of the house where I was looking at pornography and walked away, and I didn't know for a few days what had taken place. It was extremely sad. He was upset, my wife was upset, and he and I are still recovering from the damage to our relationship," Sam said.

 

But all our interviewees agreed that everyone can kick this addiction. It may be really hard, but everyone can get free.

 

Ed said, "From my experiences, you've got to hit bottom first. You've got to want to recover more than you want life itself. And when you reach that point, then you're willing to surrender it to God."

 

Sam said, "Just like an alcoholic or a drug abuser, they have a physical addiction and they need help through an addiction recovery program."

 

But with Internet porn proliferating so rapidly, Kastleman expects the addiction rate to skyrocket.

 

He said, "'Do I push the button or do I not?' When have we ever seen that little, that slight [of] a barrier standing between a person and a drug? I mean, we've never seen anything like that in the history of the world."

 

 

In California, there are many different options available for drug rehab and alcohol rehab. Make sure you reasearch the various drug addiction treatment options thoroughly, and choose the one that's the best fit for you.

 

 

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