Porn Addiction: The Treatment Process

Erin Snow

It’s not uncommon for porn addicts who begin treatment to expect that much of their treatment work will focus on identifying and resolving childhood issues. However, this is not the case. Yes, identifying and acknowledging early trauma is an aspect of porn addiction treatment, but it is only one treatment among many, and addressing trauma is rarely the first priority. After all, helping porn addicts understand their early problems doesn’t quite give them the concrete tools they need to cope with life without using porn to self-soothe and self-medicate.

So, what happens when you treat porn addiction?

The progression of treatment is actually logical and relatively simple. The first step is a thorough assessment of the addict’s behavior and current situation. This careful assessment explores and evaluates nearly every aspect of the addict’s life, including their gender and relationship history. Addicts are evaluated not only for porn addiction, but also for other psychological issues (including other addictions), as well as relationship, family, legal, work, social, recreational, and financial issues that may need to be addressed.

Once the therapist fully understands the addict and the addict’s life situation, treatment focuses on stopping the addictive behavior, breaking through denial, managing the crises that led to the addict’s recovery, and preventing relapse. Other issues, particularly client/family safety, may also be important in the initial stages of treatment.

The preferred methods of treatment for porn addiction are highly directive forms of therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). These pragmatic, responsibility-based approaches recognize that pornography addiction, like all other addictions, is first and foremost a behavioral problem that requires a behaviorally focused treatment approach.

Through CBT and DBT, early work in porn addiction treatment was reality-based, focusing on the addict’s behavior and well-being in the here and now, rather than focusing on and seeking to resolve past trauma. Yes, there is definitely a time and place in addiction recovery for examining and processing childhood trauma, but that is not the case in early recovery. Therefore, early treatment is task-oriented, with tasks (reading, writing, attending work groups and support groups). Typically, these assignments are completed during therapy and discussed during therapy.

Many porn addicts discover relatively quickly that a one-hour weekly CSAT class is not enough to break free from an active addiction. More attention needs to be paid to recovery. Typically, this occurs in inpatient rehab or an intensive (daily) outpatient program. Typically, these programs are followed by standard outpatient treatment and 12-step recovery. (This mirrors the treatment process for other forms of addiction.) After inpatient treatment, most porn addicts continue to recover through a combination of individual and group therapy, 12-step recovery, and online work groups.

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If you or a loved one is struggling with sex, porn, or substance/sex addiction, Seeking Integrity can help. In addition to residential rehab, we offer low-cost online workgroups for male sex addicts and male porn addicts new to recovery. Click here to learn about our Sex Addiction Task Force. Click here to learn about our Porn Addiction Task Force.