The first official book review of my work on the treatment of porn addiction by Judit Erberling has been published. The reviewer writes on Watchaholics.hu "a bigger slice speaks directly to porn addicts, offering coping methods. In fact, this section may not be specifically for adult film addicts, but also for other addicts, such as mobile phone addicts."
This is exactly right. I cannot stress enough that porn addiction is a branch of internet addiction. And the tool of internet addiction s the computer, laptop or mobile phone. In other words mobile phone addicts and computer addicts should also read my book, substituting the porn addiction word internet addictionerhaps it would have been more appropriate to give it the title How to deal with internet addiction?
No, of course not. After all sexologist sexologist, solving sexual problems is my business. Who am I to write about internet addiction, mobile addiction, gadget addiction ? Let an internet addiction expert write about it.
Oh, there is no such thing?
Click on the link above to read the full article. If you would prefer to continue reading here, I will quote it here without claiming completeness:
The fact is that I struggled with the book for almost a month and a half. And I was amazed from the very beginning at things like the fact that people are increasingly admitting and openly declaring that they are porn addicts. I used to think that while, say addiction to phones or phone games is something that one can admit to (perhaps even a little bit blushingly), such an addiction, which deeply affects sexuality, is something that one tries to hide. To be honest, I had some reservations about it, but I thought Martina was the expert, she would know. Why else would she have written these cases down.
The volume later moved on to a general discussion of the topic. It highlighted the biological background, the causes (both psychological and physical), and gave not one but two cautionary examples. He also placed emphasis on explaining the concepts of pornography addiction and on raising awareness of other addictions that go hand in hand with addiction. You can even learn about the origins of the book.
For some reason, the first half of the book didn't hold my attention as much, even though it talked about the biological background, the brain's relationship, the changes caused, and I like to read about the biological approach. Of course the subject is interesting, but perhaps not for everyone. In places I also felt a bit like I was reading a well put together thesis on a subject that I don't know anything about. What is certain is that there is an absolute sense that there is a huge amount of research and knowledge behind this volume. There is no doubt that Martina has put a lot of time and effort into this work.
For some reason, the first half of the book didn't hold my attention as much, even though it talked about the biological background, the brain's relationship, the changes caused, and I like to read about the biological approach. Of course the subject is interesting, but perhaps not for everyone. In places I also felt a bit like I was reading a well put together thesis on a subject that I don't know anything about. What is certain is that there is an absolute sense that there is a huge amount of research and knowledge behind this volume. There is no doubt that Martina has put a lot of time and effort into this work.
What was really shocking to me when reading the book was how damaging it can be to be addicted to porn at this level. The average person would never think that it could ruin lives, but maybe not even that almost anyone could be addicted to it, even if you don't suspect them. One can be absolutely well off, successful in their job, in a relationship, have an attractive appearance that the opposite sex would be after, and yet, at some point in their life, there was a point when they turned to porn and got lost in its layers.
I also found out about adult films themselves that my knowledge of them so far hasn't really scratched the tip of the iceberg, because it's a very complex thing. The further down you dig, the more gross, the more amazing (and not in a good way) films you come across. And the more the disease takes hold of the addict, the more isolating and destructive it becomes. Not only physically, health-wise, but also psychologically and socially, it becomes more and more isolating. Any way you look at it, it's a huge problem.
Towards the end of the book, Martina addressed her parents, and later wives and girlfriends. It gives parents a guide to ways to prevent trouble, what porn movies do to adolescent girls and boys, and how they can take their developing personalities in a different direction. It also gives peers good advice.
More than once I noticed that he even called out to colleagues, helping them in their work. I think that's a very positive thing.
All in all, I have to say that although I made slow progress with this volume, I don't regret reading it at all. It often horrified and upset my quiet little soul, but it was also a good lesson for me in a way, to realise anew how much danger the internet, the easy-to-get, free adult entertainment, can pose, not only to adults, but certainly to children.
