Sexual addiction is very complex. There are several underlying issues that contribute to this problem. There are also unique issues that a spouse faces when sexual addiction is suspected and/or revealed. As a spouse of a sex addict, it is imperative that you understand your role in the recovery process. Here are 7 helpful things every spouse should know about sex addiction.
We live in the days of mass advertising, entertainment, and the internet. Sexual images and information saturate every form of media. While it’s good to shield kids where we can, we can’t nurture some “Little House on the Prairie”-type fantasy that they won’t be exposed to them.
We’ve been handed a problem and we’ve been unknowingly contributing to it. For far too long the church has been precluded from the cultural narratives of sexuality. Our near-fatal mistake has been that our only message on the topic is, “No! Don’t be led by evil desires.” As pornography, casual sex, and the introduction of media began to shape culture, we were shaped by fear and lack of understanding. Now we are facing the consequences of our fear-based response.
You’re sitting in a new small group circle when you look across and see an attractive woman. You notice her hair, her posture, her demeanor and then suddenly there’s the pull. No one else takes your attention, but you feel from deep within this drawing. There’s a stirring inside. You quickly look away. What is going on? Are you having an experience of same sex attraction? Could it be that you are really a lesbian after all?
Most people believe that trafficking only affects children. I get it. We picture young, impressionable kids easily coerced or kidnapped by adults. But what do you think happens when someone turns 18? Are those young people not targeted? Do traffickers kick them out on their 18th birthday? I heard one survivor leader say, “trafficking children grow up to be trafficked adults.”
I’m well aware that counseling — specifically marriage counseling — often gets seen as a last resort. We think about marriage counseling when there are major issues like abuse, addictions, abandonment, or infidelity. But what if I told you we needed to start considering counseling 10 steps before those things ever happen?
Most of us don’t want to continue living with unhealthy and detrimental bad habits. We want to change, but are we focused on the wrong things? Do we really have a plan to able to continue the change we’re looking for?
What you believe about yourself changes everything. How can something as small as a thought change your entire life? It can, because it's the way we were designed..
How We've Created a Sexual Assault Culture - ft/Benji Nolot by Moral Revolution.
When most people hear this term, they tend to envision a young child, kidnapped, handcuffed to a radiator, locked in a room somewhere with a gross, sweaty, pedophile showing up to pay the trafficker and have his way with the young child in the room. While those scenarios may absolutely take place, that is not the most COMMON scenario of trafficking here in America.
She told us that a boy at her school kept telling her he wanted to “sext” her. Clearly this nine-year-old little boy didn’t fully know what he was saying, but when we heard this, Ben looked at me in slight panic. We both knew it was time to have a real sex talk with our daughter.
Sex and marriage have become two words that almost don’t seem to go together. It seems the narrative has become, “Husbands never get as much as they want, and wives periodically grit their teeth through it.” We have experienced this first hand in our own marriage. It has taken us years to learn how to fully enjoy sex, and in all honesty, years to understand that sex in marriage isn’t a luxury but rather a necessity.