This is a real problem. I have many people visiting my blog at http://newlifehabits.com looking for help. Glad there is more awareness even if it does take a celebrity to create the awareness.

I never considered the impact pornography could have on children within marriage, only on the user's spouse.

Actually Michelle, you may have been one of the lucky ones because when I was a child, porn used to be wrapped in dark brown paper covering because the Internet sold behind the counter. Nowadays the Internet makes it so easily accessible that a child of five could easily stumble upon it (even though they wouldn't understand what is, of course). Also, addiction to porn is becoming for more and more prevalent as 10% of adults admit to internet sexual addiction (Source: http://findhisporn.com/learn) while the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers reported that "...excessive interest in online porn was a significant factor in 33% of divorces in 2003". I often wonder if the Internet isn't the "Mark of the beast" mentioned in the Book of Revelation; it's getting to the point where you can buy or sell anything without it. I'm just saying.

I find this article full of complete crap. First, the title is completely misleading. She had no idea if her father was addicted. She doesn't know if it's something her parents enjoyed to spice up their love life on occasion. Not something they needed to make love, but something they used. This article screams of the same nutty status that drove thousands to destroy priceless works of art during the reformation, because of their indecency of a nude form. It's crap. A person can have an appreciation of of the nude form without any carnal desire to posses it lustfully. It's time protestants recognize that beauty need not be sacrificed for truth, you can have both. Here's a better idea. Parents have locked drawers so your kids can't see your toys and aides. No kid deserves to see that that young. Kids, don't snoop in your parents stuff, you might find they have some blood flowing in their veins too. I'm living proof that you can have a successful long term monogamous relationship and still have erotic excitement and aides accompany it

Thanks for sharing your story. It couldn't have been easy, but fighting against porn has never been more important now that it has become more common than ever.

Thank you for writing this profound message, Michelle. I pray that the Lord will use it to open eyes and hearts, and bring many to repentance. Esma, I too am a visual woman and have fallen into the pits of pornography. I started very young, finding myself attracted to the female body, and it was never about romance. For years during the first 6 or so years of my marriage, before I got saved, I couldn't reach climax with my husband unless I fantasized about having sex (not romance) with a woman. Right before Jesus found me, I had digressed to a level that I could only be "turned on" if the woman's body assumed certain precise proportions, and I was becoming increasingly anti-social, to escape to my world of porn and fantasy. It was very much superficial, and I happily objectified women, including myself. I had no interest in romance with either men or women. At a very young age I was repeatedly exposed to 'adult' material. My mother would make my brothers turn around during the sex scenes in movies, but because I was a girl it was "alright" for me to see naked bodies of women. This awakened my sexuality very early on. By the time I was seven or eight, I was enacting rape scenes with my Barbie dolls, and was addicted to masturbating to these kinds of misogynist fantasies. My sexual appetites and desires had been entirely shaped by the sexual content in the media and in pornography. Consequent to this, as a vulnerable child, I experienced several instances of sexual abuse, all culminating in the ultimate form of sexual exploitation at 15 as I was prostituted off the street by an adult woman. The men who used me didn't help me; they were too busy imposing their pornographic fantasies on me to care about the fact that a crime was being committed against me. They had been conditioned to see women as the object to their subject, and this I knew all too well. Because of pornography, my sexual identity had been stolen from me, and I am still working to this day on discovering who God created me to be as a sexual woman and what healthy sexuality would look like. I am so tired of people crying "free speech and expression" when that speech and expression infringes on the right of safety and well-being for others. And I am also tired of this notion that women aren't as sexual as men are. I also agree with some of what CAM said above: Pornography is not a "struggle" or a "problem"; it is rebellion and disobedience. It is sin. It is evil. And it aids and abets the trafficking of women and children in the epidemics proportions all over the globe that we are seeing today. When you use porn, you partake in the culpability of every young woman and child who is enslaved in some run-down brothel or on the corner of some seedy street under the iron fist of a pimp. I think the term "every man's battle" is very dubious for the reasons stated above. People need to acknowledge the gravity of their sin before they can be forgiven and be healed. Trying to normalize the sin (it is not normal) isn't helping anybody.

Thank you for writing this profound message, Michelle. I pray that the Lord will use it to open eyes and hearts, and bring many to repentance. Esma, I too am a visual woman and have fallen into the pits of pornography. I started very young, finding myself attracted to the female body, and it was never about romance. For years during the first 6 or so years of my marriage, before I got saved, I couldn't reach climax with my husband unless I fantasized about having sex (not romance) with a woman. Right before Jesus found me, I had digressed to a level that I could only be "turned on" if the woman's body assumed certain precise proportions, and I was becoming increasingly anti-social, to escape to my world of porn and fantasy. It was very much superficial, and I happily objectified women, including myself. I had no interest in romance with either men or women. At a very young age I was repeatedly exposed to 'adult' material. My mother would make my brothers turn around during the sex scenes in movies, but because I was a girl it was "alright" for me to see naked bodies of women. This awakened my sexuality very early on. By the time I was seven or eight, I was enacting rape scenes with my Barbie dolls, and was addicted to masturbating to these kinds of misogynist fantasies. My sexual appetites and desires had been entirely shaped by the sexual content in the media and in pornography. Consequent to this, as a vulnerable child, I experienced several instances of sexual abuse, all culminating in the ultimate form of sexual exploitation at 15 as I was prostituted off the street by an adult woman. The men who used me didn't help me; they were too busy imposing their pornographic fantasies on me to care about the fact that a crime was being committed against me. They had been conditioned to see women as the object to their subject, and this I knew all too well. Because of pornography, my sexual identity had been stolen from me, and I am still working to this day on discovering who God created me to be as a sexual woman and what healthy sexuality would look like. I am so tired of people crying "free speech and expression" when that speech and expression infringes on the right of safety and well-being for others. And I am also tired of this notion that women aren't as sexual as men are. I also agree with some of what CAM said above: Pornography is not a "struggle" or a "problem"; it is rebellion and disobedience. It is sin. It is evil. And it aids and abets the trafficking of women and children in the epidemics proportions all over the globe that we are seeing today. When you use porn, you partake in the culpability of every young woman and child who is enslaved in some run-down brothel or on the corner of some seedy street under the iron fist of a pimp. I think the term "every man's battle" is very dubious for the reasons stated above. People need to acknowledge the gravity of their sin before they can be forgiven and be healed. Trying to normalize the sin (it is not normal) isn't helping anybody.

Amanda, May I respectfully suggest that you read David Stoop's book called "Forgiving the Unforgivable?" It has some real insight to forgiveness that I believe you are missing. Forgiving does not mean forgetting. It means learning and allowing that lesson learned to make us wiser. If Michelle just "forgot", she may make another unwise decision, such as allow her child to sleep over at Grandpa's house and risk her being polluted the same way she was. Reconciliation can only take place if the offending person has repented and changed, and even then, some precautionary measures need to be taken. Just because Michelle speaks of the offense, does not mean that she has not forgiven.

Porn is a wicked mistress. I struggled with it much of my life. I began seeking it out at the age of ten. By 36 I was a full blown addict. I would sneek out of bed at five in the morning to look online. Internet porn is like crack cocaine for a sex addict. It's mostly free and easy enough to find. Add facebook and an old highschool flame and now you have a recipe for the physical consumation of the adultery. Except for the grace of God, I would still be ensnared, but He arranged my exposure. On August 14 I will be two years "clean". And a wife who said she could never forgive that, has. And five children still have their father. I shudder at the thought of what damage I have done to them that I am yet unaware of. I pray that it can be undone. The only way out is to see this sin for what it is and repent. For me a recovery program was (is) necessary. Its unfortunate that many in recovery do not recognize sexual addiction as a real addiction. I hope that changes. "she walks through the corn leading down to the river her hair shown like gold in the hot mornin sun. she took all the love that a poor boy could give her and left me to die like a fox on the run" ---Tom T Hall

Porn exploits the men who fall for it - it takes their money, time, energy and robs them of excitement in their marriages.