Do you experiment with drugs?

Aquila Aeternus said:
Woah, I just realised I was watching porn because I felt emotionally disconnected from my only mum... crazy.

And yeah, I’ve never felt greater shame than relapsing on pornography. Lying? Deceiving? Manipulating? Wrath? I’d rather do those than experience the shame of porn addiction.

A good NLP technique I came up with is visualising what I would be like in 10 years time if I watched porn everyday. Holy shit it’s disturbing and knowing Ted Bundy as an exemplar of that future makes it all the more motivating.


It’s easy to make exceptions and turn to erotica than pornography, but that can quickly get you down a rabbit hole where you start convincing yourself that erotica’s fine, so porn must be fine.

Especially for people who’ve been watching visual pornography for long periods it can easily derail them back into it because the images become clearer.
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I don't watch any porn at all, all I'm saying is that written porn and images are not the same as internet porn.
 
slant said:
I don't watch any porn at all, all I'm saying is that written porn and images are not the same as internet porn.
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I don't either.^ But I do painfully know a lot about the addiction, and he is right. For people who are addicted they are very easily drawn in. And looking at an image of even clothed people making out is enough to trigger their temptation to do more. I think that's what he means. Then the person with the addiction needs more than the image or story in your example and that is one click away. So it will indeed lead them in an instant to the stuff online.
 
Ah, the good old days patiently waiting for the hammy sci-fi story parts of Emmanuelle in Space to end and a boob to pop out.

Then the premium channels started showing 10 minute previews on the hour and it's all downhill from there.

Funnily enough though, whilst still online, the previews of clips that use GIFs and written descriptions increase the rate of consumption in a way because you can properly narrow your search and flick through many more options than you can having to load a streaming video in a new tab or whatever.

But yeah, as with most things, it's not the thing itself that's the problem but the lack of awareness of one's true motivations. Drugs can be good, porn can be good, but trying to replace something vital with either can be a slippery slope.
 
Cornerstone said:
Ah, the good old days patiently waiting for the hammy sci-fi story parts of Emmanuelle in Space to end and a boob to pop out.

Then the premium channels started showing 10 minute previews on the hour and it's all downhill from there.

Funnily enough though, whilst still online, the previews of clips that use GIFs and written descriptions increase the rate of consumption in a way because you can properly narrow your search and flick through many more options than you can having to load a streaming video in a new tab or whatever.

But yeah, as with most things, it's not the thing itself that's the problem but the lack of awareness of one's true motivations. Drugs can be good, porn can be good, but trying to replace something vital with either can be a slippery slope.
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I don't think anything inherently evil or bad can be good. According to God it is not of Him and rots. So abstinence and self control, finding joy in the things that are light is the only good thing for us and for shaping how we interact with each other and the opposite gender.

There's no way a person can watch a "healthy" amount of that or take a "healthy" course of drugs as it's all a slippery slope and as you described above^ it's quite easy to slip up and stumble. This is why God intended man to have a spouse. In her can he fulfill his flesh as often as they like in a way that is pure and guilt free. Because no matter which way you cut it, that stuff distorts mens view of women. It sinks in.
 
Misty said:
I don't either.^ But I do painfully know a lot about the addiction, and he is right. For people who are addicted they are very easily drawn in. And looking at an image of even clothed people making out is enough to trigger their temptation to do more. I think that's what he means. Then the person with the addiction needs more than the image or story in your example and that is one click away. So it will indeed lead them in an instant to the stuff online.
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I disagree in the sense that, I was definitely addicted to online porn, but I can read erotic fiction from time to time and I still haven't desired to look at internet pornography. I think it depends on the person.
 
slant said:
I disagree in the sense that, I was definitely addicted to online porn, but I can read erotic fiction from time to time and I still haven't desired to look at internet pornography. I think it depends on the person.
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I would venture to say you are more the exception than the rule, yes. Which is good for you but doesn't hold for most, sadly.
 
Misty said:
I don't think anything inherently evil or bad can be good. According to God it is not of Him and rots. So abstinence and self control, finding joy in the things that are light is the only good thing for us and for shaping how we interact with each other and the opposite gender.

There's no way a person can watch a "healthy" amount of that or take a "healthy" course of drugs as it's all a slippery slope and as you described above^ it's quite easy to slip up and stumble. This is why God intended man to have a spouse. In her can he fulfill his flesh as often as they like in a way that is pure and guilt free. No matter which way you cut it, that crap distorts mens view of women. It sinks in.
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Yeah, maybe. I disagree almost entirely though. I always go back to stories like the conversion of Saul, Francis of Assisi, and the Prodigal Son if you want to talk in Christian language.

Sinners, all of them. If anything, they'd have never 'walked with the Spirit' at all had they not sinned in the first place. They'd have just gone through the motions of getting married and fulfilling their flesh as often as they want.

So, I guess good can come of bad even if bad cannot become good. Although personally, I don't agree with that division between the two I don't think.
 
Misty said:
I would venture to say you are more the exception than the rule, yes. Which is good for you but doesn't hold for most, sadly.
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I don't know I think if you heal what caused you to have the addiction the addiction goes away. That's my experience. It took a complete dramatic overhaul of my life but now real sex with people I love is more inviting to me than porn.

I was addicted to: porn, video games, Netflix, food and weed all at the same time and the reason was because I didn't want to be a person I didn't want to exist, I did not love myself, I did not think I deserved to exist, and I did not think anyone else could ever love me.

Confronting those pathological beliefs and correcting them set me free from all of those addictions. I recently started reintroducing some of these activities, like movies, and I can't sit through an entire movie. I actually have to watch movies in two chunks at separate times. Whatever compelled me to be absorbed in these fantasy worlds has left me.

And I'll be honest. Because I watched porn from a young age and also had been emotionally neglected and abused the porn I got into was really dark stuff. I recently tried to look at some to see what my reaction would be, and not only was I not aroused, I was not disgusted which I expected I would be. I just felt sad. It's weird to return to these activities you did when you were in a bad headspace and to fully appreciate what had happened to you to get your there.

If you've fully recovered from whatever you were trying to escape- usually yourself- you will not fall back into an addiction. Your mindset and perception changes so much that you can't find your way back to that place. Most people don't really address what caused the addiction in the first place which is why they relapse. Usually they just replace the addiction with another one, or try to rely on willpower until they finally run out one day. If you address the underlying issues nothing can ever make you resort to those old behaviors.
 
Cornerstone said:
Yeah, maybe. I disagree almost entirely though. I always go back to stories like the conversion of Saul, Francis of Assisi, and the Prodigal Son if you want to talk in Christian language.

Sinners, all of them. If anything, they'd have never 'walked with the Spirit' at all had they not sinned in the first place. They'd have just gone through the motions of getting married and fulfilling their flesh as often as they want.

So, I guess good can come of bad even if bad cannot become good. Although personally, I don't agree with that division between the two I don't think.
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I agree that good can come from bad. The deepest metamorphosis of our character comes from first doing very dark things then turning toward the light. That light heals and transforms us for the better. It doesn't make us perfect, that's not possible. But post coming to Christ we are to try to walk the path that He did as well as we can. And once that light comes in where darkness crept it begins to fill those spaces and makes doing the right thing easier and something we desire.

But the converse is not so. If you take something light and pure and corrupt it, that's not a metamorphosis of character like you saw with Saul and the prodigal son. It's deterioration.
 
Misty said:
But the converse is not so. If you take something light and pure and corrupt it, that's not a metamorphosis of character like you saw with Saul and the prodigal son. It's deterioration.
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Okay, I can agree with that. But then doesn't that mean that things are good or bad depending on the context? I'm not sure that I draw a hard line between good coming out of bad and good and bad being two sides of the same coin.
 
It took a lot of thinking
Before climbing the ladder
Was when night turned into day
Before it went away

Some good, some bad
Too many types to say
This grew into the room
And danced around my head

Another was much simpler
An orange globe in the sky
Came down and hovered noisily
Electricity growing and weaning

All else was fine
Till the dog started barking
Jumping in the air
He knew it was there

Never tried to talk
Legs could not move
Up into the sky it went
What was this visitor

Was a calm mind throughout
Never had a doubt
The dog went back to sleep
Wonder what that was about
Wonder what that was about

Many years have passed since then
Was both strong and weak
But glad it all has gone
Though each was unique

Each had its own fingerprint
Never knowing what to expect
Some folk died while some folk tried
Their lives filled with neglect

Be careful and be cautious
Your answers are not here
Peer pressure so inviting
Dead end road so amiss

right to edit later, please
 
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Cornerstone said:
Okay, I can agree with that. But then doesn't that mean that things are good or bad depending on the context? I'm not sure that I draw a hard line between good coming out of bad and good and bad being two sides of the same coin.
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I don't think good and bad are two sides of the same coin, at all. I think there are two paths. The first - the path of least resistance which is easy and of the flesh, self fulfilling. The other path is harder to traverse but the payout and the beauty in the journey make the uphill parts well worth the work. I think that people can stray from the good path and slide down that slippery slope onto the path that ultimately leads to destruction.

I'm working on something and it's plot has to do with the soul and the shadow, fiction, a bit Stephen Kingy, I suppose. But there's a quote I used in the opening which relates to my point.

"Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death."

It's not 1 coin, it's two paths..
 
Misty said:
The other path is harder to traverse but the payout and the beauty in the journey make the uphill parts well worth the work.
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There is no 'payout' on the 'good path'. Don't expect it.

If we make choices to 'do the right thing' at every juncture, our lives will be worse than if we'd have acted from self-interest.

The only reward is a certain kind of inner wholeness and the intrinsic value of the 'good acts' themselves. But for us? We should expect nothing.

Martyrs are reviled, impoverished, and live a life of constant suffering.
 
Deleted member 16771 said:
There is no 'payout' on the 'good path'. Don't expect it.

If we make choices to 'do the right thing' at every juncture, our lives will be worse than if we'd have acted from self-interest.

The only reward is a certain kind of inner wholeness and the intrinsic value of the 'good acts' themselves. But for us? We should expect nothing.

Martyrs are reviled, impoverished, and live a life of constant suffering.
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I was speaking of the inner payout. Though that's ^ also absolutel crap, PS, as the bible speaks of our reward being in Heaven..

But thanks for pulling 1 word out of my entire position and what was meant to be a positive message and grammar nazi twisting it into something it utterly wasn't. -.-
 
Misty said:
I was speaking of the inner payout. Though that's ^ also absolutel crap, PS, as the bible speaks of our reward being in Heaven..

But thanks for pulling 1 word out of my entire position and what was meant to be a positive message and grammar nazi twisting it into something it utterly wasn't. -.-
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I'm not 'twisting' anything, I'm speaking from experience and observation.

There is no 'reward' for doing good, and often quite the opposite. You will probably make your life worse.

The eternal reward may not even exist, of course - it's a point of faith.
 
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