Ok I guess it starts with a choice to masturbate or due to an exposure/event, then more choices, and more choices then it develops into addiction, or is it mere choices to MO/PMO all the time? I mean it only feels like addiction when you try to run away and get held back, but what about normal days when you really just want to wank it off for pleasure, is it you who's in control or your addiction?
Not the point here. Are we in control or are we being controlled? When does masturbation become a choice and when it has become an addiction
MO brings pleasure or escape? Comparing MO to an addictive drug is useful for a quesiton such as yours. Addictive drugs require escalating quantities of the drug to provide the same high. That might be a question to ask yourself. Is my PMO escalating? Do i find that i do it more now than before? Do i need increasing levels of stimulation (ie watch more or weirder porn) ? If so, you're probably on the addiction side of the equation.
I would say that most people are suffering. As some author wrote: "Your steadfastness in faith, purity and the way God has marked out for you is the measure of your hapiness on earth". There are so many good things absent in the lives of many, so they are perpetually suffering.
To me the difference lies in why you are masturbating first. Sexual urges are normal so if you are single and you masturbate to relieve the normal sexual urge that's healthy just like when you are hungry you eat. I think this is how most men start with porn. Porn like indulging in bad foods that don't serve the purpose of feeding you are okay on occasion for many people. But when you start to turn to porn or masturbation to deal with negative emotions that's when it starts to become a problem. Addiction means you don't have a choice. So if you said I no longer think PMO is good for me or it's having a negative effect on me I should stop and you try but you can't that's an addiction.
Its escalating. I used PMO because it gave pleasure/relief, I had no substitute/useful hobby, and it parted me away from real world and socializing, and the more worse my life gets, the more I seek PMO to escape. I was way deep before I realized it was addiction. But I have to say, I tripped in that hole, I didnt mean/want to. I wasn't seeking it, it just came my way very early.
I think MO and PMO fill a very early void in my life, should have had something better to do. I don't know and I can't remember if I have tried to quit, say it was a teenager habit midschool to highschool, it was overwhelming, but then I realized how it took over my life, and when I tried to quit after highschool it was hard, because I confronted my years of insecurities which led to negative emotions and then using PMO to escape again.
definitely addiction. Your story is my story too. I am addicted. Terribly. Horribly. It is an addiction to "lust". For that reason it's not just porn we have to be careful of but fantasy and thoughts. Lusting after a woman (or whatever) in our mind starts the fire the burns for porn later when we're alone.
that's a very good question. As a Catholic i have my answer informed by my beliefs - very guilty. Both we as the individual and as the society. However, I think practically speaking the best answer is also "very guilty" as that is the one most likely to effect change.