When is PMO an addiction?

Its been a long journey and hard to say when exactly. I used PMO for over 30 years. What was useful to me was when I admitted I had another addiction and got recovery for that. I then realized after a while PMO was an addiction too. Probably about 7 years ago.

You are not supposed to bear it alone. Recovery is a long journey, you are going to find you have to let go of some stuff and work on some stuff. Don't be overwhelmed, don't get too caught up on labels either. It useful to know but they should not dominate your life.

I can also have anxiety about things, but it is not helpful. We are being called to trust and surrender not to live in worry. Going back to the bearing it alone, we are also called to admit our weakness so we can be strengthened. By trying to fix everything ourselves we are turning away from God, our struggles are supposed to bring us closer to God. There is a lot of freedom in surrender.

Don't think too much, learn to rest. You will be in a much better position to look at things with clarity if you are calm.

 

I would say the important thing is do you want to stop M. If you do all that stuff does not matter. As much as we are in this together it is also very individual. Lets just say you are not an addict, does that change if you want to stop M or not? if not don't get caught up in the labels. There is no requirement here to say you are an addict, just focus on what you can do to change any unwanted behavior.