Former porn addict who watched three hours of adult films a day for three years shares poem about his struggle

A 22-year-old man has shared his story of an intense addiction to pornography, where he was watching at least three hours of adult films a day.

Wedding photographer Joshua Peters was just 11-years-old when he started watching pornography after hearing his friends talk about it.

He started to research adult material but soon found that he was hooked on porn and habit which went on for the next seven years of his life.

At around 12-years-old it really took off and it became a daily thing I had to do. When I was that young, I knew it was bad in some way, but I didn't know why.

Perhaps it was because of how secretly my friends talked about it or even because of how my family raised me.

I was the cute kid who covered his eyes during kissing scenes in films, yet here I was stumbling onto naked people having sex.

At the height of the addiction, I was consuming dozens of times throughout the day, coupled with masturbation as well. I would say I watched porn between an hour and a half to three hours a day.

I watched all different types of porn, ranging from regular soft porn to BDSM, which in my opinion, is the type of pornography that inspires sexual assault.

Peters grew up in a Mormon household in Massachusetts and, by the age of 13, he realised that he had a problem and decided to tell his parents about his addiction rather than them discovering for themselves.

I first came clean when I was 13 because my parents were trying to find something on the computer.

I freaked out and I told them what I'd been consuming.

If they were going to find out what I was doing then it was going to be from me, not some browsing history.

Peters believes that porn greatly damaged his ability to have meaningful relationships and warped his concept of love and sex.

Yet he attributes his recovery to his religious beliefs but feels that religion isn't necessarily the solution for everyone.

My religious belief has helped me because I participated in a faith-based 12 step program where a lot relies on a higher power.

But I do believe that addiction can be beaten through non-faith practices and beliefs, it was just what helped me.

Either way, you have to think bigger than yourself. Whether it's doing it for religion, a spouse, a family, your kids or even the community you live in.

For me, it was my future family, God and also myself.

He has since channelled his experiences into a poem which you can watch in the video below but admits that he still gets urges to watch adult movies.

The hardest part of my recovery is not relapsing, so I always have to be on my toes and recognise when I have those urges.

The urges become less common the longer I stay clean, but they never truly leave.

Porn isn't something that you can justify having in your life. It affects relationships and the industry is messed up.

It's a pointless past time and it engenders an environment that says sexual assault is okay and men and women are merely objects used for physical satisfaction.

HT Lad Bible

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