Fact: 

At some point, the root causes of addiction will need to be addressed for any healing to take place. This critical, sometimes difficult work is not optional. Certified Sex Addiction therapists specialize in this process.

"What you resist, persists."

"The fastest way from one place to another, is a straight line....right THROUGH." There is no way around it.

The few who are able to stop their compulsive use of sex and pornography, have worked at it for several months, if not years.

Addiction is a form of maladaptive coping, which has become wired into the physiology over time. If we had a better means of coping with anxiety, stress, and difficult emotions, wouldn't we be doing it already?

At one time this behavior was something that your body recognized could ward off emotional pain. In that regard, it is an amazing tool. And yet it is no longer useful.

New behaviors will have to replace old one's in order for the addict to gain the confidence and safety needed to process these negative emotions.

Human beings are social "pack" animals, programmed to thrive in groups. Connection is the glue that binds humanity together. 

Connection is the opposite of addiction.

Safe, secure attachment Connection is the antidote to addiction.

A barrage of tens/hundreds of thousands of pornographic images will dramatically rewire the reward centers of the brain. Addicts crave more frequency, and intensity....and lose interest in healthy sexual expression. A rewired brain can cause mood disturbances and lead to addicts seeking other means of anesthetizing  emotional pain and shame.

Triggering events or experiences during the day to day life of an addict  beget negative emotions felt in the body, that set off unhelpful and often distorted thinking.

To quell the guilt, shame, helplessness, anxiety, and depression of this lonely reality the addict affects his brain chemistry by acting out sexually. Like any drug, a "come-down" sets in, with further shame and emotional discomfort. This becomes a behavioral and biochemical negative feedback loop.

Addicts cannot extract themselves from this state with the same brain that is central to the compulsive behavior. 

For this reason, intervention, and behavioral change is necessary.

If we felt fulfilled, complete, and full of joy....there wouldn't be a reason to act out.

If we had a far better way of experiencing sex, we wouldn't need to act out.

Science is abundantly clear: 
If you want to change the way that you feel, you have to change the way that you think.

If you want to change the way that you think, you must change your behavior.

The easiest way to change behavior is to be surrounded with others attempting to make that same change.

Behavioral activation works. Processing cognition....not so much.