Masturbation: choice or addiction?

Sex comes with pleasure, but sex is not meant FOR pleasure.

 

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.

 

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.