By Father Val J. Peter, JCD, STD

Executive Director, Father Flanagan's Boys Home

Boys Town, Nebraska

"Thank you for the front page article on pornography ("Secret Epidemic: Internet Fuels Widespread Addiction to Porn." March 14-20)

There is emerging a new understanding of pornography, thanks to brain researchers and therapists specially trained in this area.  The new brain research indicates that the chemicals released when viewing pornography make it as addictive as cocaine.  It quickly becomes a habit when people seek to escape the pressures of business, personal relationships, loneliness, emptiness and other debilitating feelings.  Like cocaine, it only provides temporary relief.

Studies show four stages of pornography addiction:

In the first, the addict becomes powerless before the material.  This effect is even more pronounced among the highly educated.  I isn't just singles or celibates whom the media proclaims in need of a quick fix.  It's also married men who, when addicted, would rather watch pornography than have relations with their wives.

The second stage is escalation, where the addict requires more explicit material to get a sexual response. 

The third stage is desensitization.  Here you become convinced that "everybody's doing it," excusing the behavior no matter how immoral or, in some cases, illegal.  You feel yourself become a monster, filled with shame and guilt.

The fourth stage is sexual acting out, involving compulsive promiscuity and all that goes with it.

Confessors and counselors make a bad mistake thinking the addicted can quit "cold turkey."

That usually doesn't happen even in the first stage for men.  Specialized therapy is required.

For those who are not too far gone, some very simple rules can help.

Use the three-second rule:  Turn off the computer or TV as soon as a tempting image appears.

That rule is as therapeutically sound today as it was a century ago.  Or, when you find yourself facing an image you think you can't resist, think of your sister or other female loved one.  You'll want to move away quickly when you do that.

Above all, my recommendation is for some good, sound lawyer reading this to find a very addicted person with a tragic story and file a class-action lawsuit against the pornographers.  It worked with tobacco and I believe it will work with pornography."