Recovering
Catholic
I see a lot of hamstering on overdrive on this thread. Yes, the world sucks right now. Society, the job market, dating relations between men and women. All of these are an absolute disaster right now thanks to malignant external forces in the physical and spiritual realms looking to shape a new, perverse way of living opposite of God's purpose. But these external forces can only shift what's willing to be pushed. As men, you have God's spirit and characteristics inside you and through Him can fight back.
All these negative changes have only happened because on one side you had spineless, self-serving, people-pleasing men and on the opposite side you had men who just sat by idly and didn't resist for whatever reason. But inaction is a mistake since it is now percieved as compliance and a sign of weakness.
There are already enough things around in the present day to make you weak.
All sorts of residue chemicals in tap water with a myriad of possible effects.
Extremely elevated constant stress with barely any relief.
A government that has become increasingly incompetent over the decades to now reaching a point where they actually harm the hardworking tax payer in favor of criminals and non citizens.
A society that gets more hedonistic and secular with each passing year with suitable available women becoming less and less.
Different forms of media designed to shun masculinity and a well adjusted male mindset while encouraging feminine, childish, weak behavior.
The list goes on and on. But the bottom line is that to even begin trying to change any of the above things men have to become united in a common goal again and they need to become strong physically but most important, mentally.
The biggest hurdle is overcoming the vile addiction fueled by a biological impulse. Understand that no matter what kind of erotic content you are viewing (as "harmless" as it seems) you are essentially castrating and cucking yourself. You are damaging your brain, altering your mental state, and unnecessarily depleting your body of vital nutrients. All for what can be considered a perverse form of inadequate mental escape. A dangerous coping mechanism that will never be beneficial to you in any way.
You indulge in that stuff because you were unhappy or unfulfilled with something at some point in your life and now have become accustomed to using that to unsuccessfully fill the missing void. Fix whatever the underlying personal issue is and your fight to quit porn will be half won. The other half is admitting you made a mistake using porn as a crutch and doing everything you can to avoid digital and articial erotic stimuli and training yourself to not succumb to old habits should such stimuli come your way.
Find some trusted friends. Strengthen each other and don't rationalize bad behaviours. We can fool other humans but God knows what's truly in our hearts. Before God we are all sinners and one day will have to be held accountable of everything we did with the life he was fortunate to have blessed us with.
You make good points, but there needs to be an outlet. Are all men sex addicts or is it just the natural mating imperative? The question is has a man successfully done this for years and can testify to that in good faith? No porn, no sex, complete celibacy and conquering these thoughts.
I expect to see responses like well I have sex with my wife, or I went 90 days, or a year. Porn for me was relatively easy because it seemed fake and you weren’t interacting with women. Real life fornication is another matter totally especially if you are unmarried.