In attempting to overcome the struggle with pornography and masturbation, some men may begin having multiple sexual dreams a week, including “wet dreams.” In the case of wet dreams, those prone to having them may have also experienced them as boys, though perhaps...
What the Church means by “chastity of the eyes” relates to the notion of avoiding the “near occasion of sin.” And understanding the Church’s meaning behind chastity of the eyes can help all of us struggling with addictions, compulsions, or unhealthy attachments avoid...
For a long period of time in my own recovery, I found myself trapped in a “plateau” of sorts. I would fall, go to Confession, and be good for about a week. Hardly would a temptation enter my mind, then suddenly it was like a switch was flipped, and I would fall again....
Recovery is not just about staying free from sin and addiction, it’s about rebuilding the whole person—body, mind, and soul. This happened for me by adopting spiritual strategies when I was in early recovery to deepen my faith in Christ and engage in spiritual...
The month of March is an important month in the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar. Not only does this month occur during the Lenten season, but over thirty saints are celebrated over the course of the month’s 31 days. What a gift that the Church holds up so many...
When I first started attending secular 12-step meetings for the loved ones of lust addicts, I noticed that the facilitator of each meeting made sure to read information about the Seventh Tradition, which usually sounded something like this: “Our Seventh Tradition...
It was an argument over a grocery order. My husband and I were in the early days of my discovering his lust-driven secret life. Because he did not choose to disclose to me all of his deception at once—a concept called “trickle truth”—it seemed that every time I turned...
As I entered my first meeting for family and friends of sex addicts, I looked around the room and studied the faces there, wondering if they would understand. After all, I had a secret in addition to how sex addiction was affecting my marriage, but it was such a dark...
We still hadn’t even finished writing out the thank you notes for the wedding gifts when the effects of my husband’s lust addiction first hit hard. We had been married for less than three months. It was a rainy Friday night, and I’d made it home from work first. I’d...
The night I visited my first meeting for family and friends of lust addicts, I heard so many new terms in the space of that hour that, for a second, I wondered if I’d landed on another planet. None of the words were exactly foreign, but the folks in that meeting used...