Dave Ramsey discusses porn addiction on his radio show.

Thirteen million listeners tune into The Dave Ramsey Show every week. Ramsey Solutions is one of the world’s most popular money management brands. And Dave Ramsey is the author of one of the most popular money management books ever, New York Times bestseller The Total Money Makeover. And as of Thursday, a bunch of Dave Ramsey fans might have learned about the modern epidemic of pornography addiction.

Just after 6 minutes into the show on June 14th, 2018, Dave Ramsey received a call from Justin, a 29-year-old man addicted to gambling. Justin makes roughly 200,000 per year but feels like he has nothing to show for it.

Justin called into the show and described his family’s situation:

Justin: “No savings. Both of us make a good living. Actually blowing a lot of money gambling. We’ve got nothing to show for it. And I figured you would be the person to help.”

Dave: “Scary to be out of control, isn’t it?”

Justin: “It’s the worst feeling ever, man. And you know the funny thing is, I am very aware of it. And I still just continue to do it.”

Dave: “That’s what addiction is.”

Dave: “Online or in-person?”

Justin: “Online lately.”

After the commercial break, Dave Ramsey starts to introduce some of his experiences in helping addicts with their finances.

Dave: “Well here’s what I know. And you’ve got to make some decisions, okay? We work with people with financial trouble and have for 30 years. And we do a lot of one-on-one coaching as a part of that.”

Dave: “What we have found is … a guy named Larry Burkett used to teach this stuff decades ago and he used to say ‘financial problems including when I went broke Justin, financial problems are almost never the problem, they’re really the symptom of something else going on.”

Dave Ramsey went on to share what he has discovered:

Dave: “The fastest growing addiction in North America today is online pornography and it is destroying 1000s and 1000s of households a day... guys get in that and it just starts eating money.”

Dave: “The second fasting growing addiction is online gambling. Faster than cocaine. Pornography has a larger revenue base than all professional sports put together now. Larger than all. It’s an unbelievable evil industry.”

Afterward, Dave Ramsey provided some of his advice for gambling addiction recovery, which could be applied to porn addiction as well.

Dave: “The point is, you’re dealing with a monster that a lot of other people are dealing with. And online accessibility versus having to get into your car and drive to the casino is making it worse, would you agree?”

Justin: “100%. And on top of that, I work from home. So it’s literally right there.”

Dave: “So you have the disadvantage isolation that you can sneak of in secret, so to speak … You don’t have anybody looking over your going ‘what are you doing?,’ you know, and that kind of thing, and that’s really, really dangerous.”

Dave: “You are dealing with a very large and powerful monster and it is not to be toyed with.”

Dave Ramsey has a wake-up call for addicts:

“100% of the people who have addictive behaviors that we work with either correct the addictive behaviors by getting some help, or they go broke. There is no in-between. It will eat your life.

“And you will, depending on how extreme it gets, you’ll lose family, you’ll lose everything.

“I’m trying to scare you because you’ve gotta do something with this dude, for your sake.”

He was clear that they don’t treat addictions at Ramsey Solutions, but they work with many people who face addictive behaviors or full of addictions.

“If I woke up in your shoes… I would hit it from three or four different fronts.”

Dave Ramsey provided a number of recommendations for Justin:

  • Find a 12-step anonymous group. (for porn addiction, there are a number of options. We have a group set up at NoFap for members who are also participating in 12-step groups)
  • Dave Ramsey recommended going to church and talking to a pastor. Dave Ramsey is rather religious, but he said that even a non-religious person would benefit from this.
  • He recommended full-on transparency and honesty with Justin’s wife about the gambling problem.
  • He asked Justin to reconsider working from home, saying that the added accountability of working from an office would help him stay clean from gambling.

Dave Ramsey strongly suggested that addicts seek treatment.

Dave: “This is a 200,000 dollar a year problem, buddy.”

“You have to get this monkey off of your back so that you can get a life.”

“It’s all in for the healing, or all in for the hell. Which one are you going to sign up for?”

Can quitting porn revamp your financial habits? Let us know your experiences and thoughts below.

4 thoughts on “Dave Ramsey discusses porn addiction on his radio show.”

  1. Wow this hits close to home. I’ve been working on quitting for years now. All I’ve managed to do is cut down. Granted it used to be a daily habit now it’s maybe weekly or so, but still can’t fully kick it. I agree with Dave 100% it’s an evil evil industry and I wish it didn’t exist.

  2. I feel the same way pornography is destroying my life I can’t focus on my goals and I waste all my time on it I think I need it when I really don’t , even now I struggle with it, I’ve been struggling with this all my life , I use it as an escape from the pressures of life it’s so hard I struggle everyday with this

  3. I agree with you Justin. I feel the same exact way. Each time I quit, I’m all of a sudden motivated and I achieve my objectives much easier. Problem is I always come back porn. I remember how good the first one back usually is and from there I’m slowly back in. Watching every morning before work and once or twice at night. It becomes a huge part of my day. I’m going to go cold for 2 weeks. Pray often and Remember why I’m doing it.

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