father wound

January 24, 2014 By Castimonia

Pornography is Vulnerable

originally posted on: http://shessomebodysdaughter.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/pornography-is-vulnerable/

“As soon as you name it, it’s vulnerable.”

When our friend Donna spoke these words, it was easy to realize why our She’s Somebody’s Daughter initiative is going to be so powerful.

Everyone thinks of pornography as being too big to take down. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. It has permeated our society to the point where an alarming number of otherwise reasonable and intelligent people see it as “normal.”

Those who do see it as problem often express the attitude that it is s too late to do anything about it. Thanks to the ever-evolving technology industry and the lack of common-sense restraints placed upon it, “Pandora’s box has been opened,” they say.

But even though this conversation should have started before the internet was unleashed on the world; even though the pornography industry is huge; even though pornography has increasingly become a part of mainstream life; even though the technology makes it as easy to find as your nearest laptop or “smart” phone – pornography is still vulnerable

Why? Because anything built on a foundation of lies will come crashing down once the truth is spoken.

Watch an old black and white movie from the forties. All the movie stars are smoking. Smoking is what the beautiful people do. It’s glamorous and sophisticated.

Well eventually we learned the truth about smoking. It gives people cancer. Nobody thinks it’s glamorous anymore. Nobody appreciates being exposed to second-hand smoke. Even those of us who can’t kick the habit know that it is death by degrees.

Pornography causes cancer too. Pornography kills. It kills relationships.

It kills families. Ironically, it even kills libido, dramatically increasing impotence among the men who use it.

Pornography is slow, sexual suicide.

And behind the sanitized “I read Playboy for the articles ” version of boys being boys is a nightmare world of people using people – of manipulation, violence, drug abuse, and sex trafficking. It is a world of never-ending pain.

Once the facts about pornography are widely known people will start making different choices. But first we have to tell the truth.

People are going to ask “Who is it hurting?” And we’re going to tell them. It is hurting everyone.

Because whenever any human being is being turned into an object for the selfish sexual gratification of another it makes the world a colder, crueler place. What demeans any one of us demeans all of us.

You will hear all the same uniformed arguments. People are going to say, “It’s just another form of entertainment. “ We’re going to ask them how entertaining would it be if their wife or daughter or sister were on the screen?

The simple truth about She’s Somebody’s Daughter is this. No one wants his or her daughter – or son – to be sexually assaulted on camera for someone to watch.

That’s not normal. That’s not harmless. That’s not “just entertainment.”

And once we tell the truth – and tell it again, and again, and again – the foundation of lies on which pornography now stands will crumble and fall.

Are you ready to name it and tell the truth?

January 18, 2014 By Castimonia

Fighting Porn Addiction

by Brad Andres

– You’re past the point of denial. You’ve moved into reality. It’s here; It’s real – You’re addicted to pornography.

“I can stop anytime I want,” you say to yourself, “I’m not addicted.”

– Is that so? Stop watching porn then…

“Well, it’s just not that easy…”

– Yep. That’s because your addicted.

“No I’m not.”

– Well now you’ve fallen back into denial. Let’s just assume you’re addicted and move on past this vicious circle.

Levels of Addiction

I think most people tend to view addiction as an uncontrollable, unquenchable desire. Addiction can be defined as a habit (in this case – watching pornography) which has become compulsive and enslaving. In some ways, this inner desire controls you. You are not controlling it. So it’s not unquenchable, because you have beat it before. But it is an addiction – you keep falling back to it.

So whether you watch porn daily, weekly, or once a month – when you lose the battle against it (multiple times), you’re addicted.

You need to realize the root of the addiction:

This is physical – Masturbation feels good. This is psychological – Our brains release chemicals and all this other fun stuff happens when we watch porn. It’s not simply because then women are so hot. This is spiritual – You’ve given a piece of yourself away when you masturbate to pornography.

Watching pornography is a sinful habit. It can be defeated.

Let’s Fight

Discipline – The best fighters are well disciplined.

I think of coach Boone in Remember the Titans:

“I don’t scratch my head unless it itches…”

We realize the discipline it takes to hit the gym everyday as a professional boxer. In addition, they need to eat right, sleep right, and rest right. Also, they need the discipline to know when to take a punch, when to dodge a blow, etc. All this takes discipline. If it were easy – there would be a lot more professional boxers.

Self-discipline is a staple for overcoming the drive and desire for watching porn. However, self-discipline isn’t something you can switch on and off at will. Self-discipline is a lifestyle. It is a habit.

So you’re gonna need to train – to fight. Practice doing things that your body works against. If you don’t work out – start. Do it because you need to develop self-discipline to do the things your body doesn’t want to do. Other practices to help you in your training:

You’re gonna need to start eating right

The better you are physically, the more stamina you’ll have in fighting off these desires. Let’s be real, many times the desire to check out the website comes when you’re tired, stressed, or upset.

You’re gonna need to sleep right

Again the better shape you are physically, the easier you’ll be able to ward off attacks instead of giving in. Get yourself a good eight hours.

You’re gonna want to start fasting

This will teach you spiritual discipline and give you mastery over your body. Your desires do not rule you – you are the commander of your body.

You’re gonna want to start praying

This is a spiritual battle, and you’re not gonna be able to beat it on your own.

You’re gonna want to starve yourself of all sexual content

No TV shows with sex scenes or sexual innuendos. No movies with any sort of promiscuous sexual content. Make yourself look away from the Victoria Secret posters when walking through the mall. No watching movies with the celebrities you used to look up on the Internet.

You’re gonna want to find an accountability partner

Yes you will answer to God, but that time is so far removed from now (in our minds anyway), that it normally doesn’t impact behavior. If your friend or mentor is calling (or texting) at 8 pm each night to follow up with you, it impacts your behavior because it’s much more immediate.

If you have integrity you’ll be fine, man up and tell him you failed, ask for prayer, and tomorrow is a new day. If you lie, you’re never going to beat the porn addiction until you stop lying. It’s easier to simply say a lie than to physically act against your body’s desires.

By the way, I feel it is important to let you know this isn’t theoretical knowledge. I’ve been there, I was addicted, and with God’s help – that addiction was broken.

January 14, 2014 By Castimonia

Like A Ship Without A Rudder

“Big boys don’t cry.” “No pain no gain. Tough it out.” “Only sissies get hurt feelings.” “It’s a sign of weakness to let people know you’re hurting.” Men are cautioned to not discuss their feelings, to avoid feelings altogether and to not discuss love, sorrow or pain. Men will often make a joke out of a difficult situation rather than face it directly. Men are taught to be checked out toward the emotions of others, and keep their true feelings inside. All this is not to say that men are incapable of intimacy, dependency or vulnerability. They are quite able but our culture does not support it. One of the main reasons for drug and alcohol use (and sexually acting out) is for medicating pain and that would include emotional pain. Men, who feel bottled up, sad, angry and depressed will often become workaholics, (sex addicts), drink or do drugs to avoid feelings. For men to understand how to be intimate they must first learn more about who they are, what they want and what is truly important to them. Feelings tell us what we want and what we need so without them we are like a ship without a rudder. So many men lead lives of quiet desperation, never letting anyone in or themselves out. For men to take a look at who they really are and allow their essence to be known are actually far stronger than the burly silent types who live their lives in utter isolation. Taken from an on-line article by Bill Cloke http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-good-life-why-men-have-trouble-with-intimacy/

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” – Sigmund Freud

January 6, 2014 By Castimonia

How Journaling Heals Wounds, Part 2

Writing that both describes traumatic events in detail and also examines how we felt about these events at the time and feel about them now (describing both negative and positive emotions), is the only kind of writing about trauma that clinically has been associated with improved health . And this is accomplished in Pennebaker’s (Dr. James Pennebaker of the University of Texas) experiments by only one hour of writing – fifteen minutes a day – over a four-day period. Later studies showed that the more days people wrote the more beneficial were the effects of writing. Dr. Pennebaker’s work is compelling. I knew nothing about it during the years when I was working on When the Piano Stops, my own memoir of recovering from incest (and Never Tell: The True Story of Overcoming a Terrifying Childhood, which was the title given its best-selling, UK print). From time to time during those years, my beloved uncle, who had a very limited understanding about what’s involved in healing from childhood sexual abuse, expressed concern about my continually revisiting the most horrifying experiences of my life. The information in this blog would have been great to share with him at that time, but of course I couldn’t. Today, however, I have the opportunity to share it with you, and I do so with the hope that if you’re a survivor of child abuse you’ll take it to heart, gather your internal resources, your memory, your pain, and your creativity, and write on! By Catherine McCall, MS, LMFT
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/overcoming-child-abuse/201209/how-and-why-writing-heals-wounds-child-abuse

“We must be content to grow slowly. Most of us will still barely be at the beginning of our recovery by the time we die. But that is better than killing ourselves pretending to be healthy.” – Simon Tugwell

January 4, 2014 By Castimonia

How Journaling Heals Wounds, Part 1

I often wondered why I was supposed to journal my thoughts and feelings when I entered recovery. Honestly, nobody answered the why, it was just something that was supposed to be done. Initially, I felt like some teenage girl in her bedroom writing in her “diary” because I did not understand the basis behind putting those thoughts and feeling to paper. Below is a good summary of how journaling can help God heal our wounds!

There is a profound connection between writing and healing. Dr. James Pennebaker of the University of Texas, after considerable research, explained in his book, Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions, that excessive holding back of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can place people at risk for both major and minor diseases. More than simply a catharsis or venting, translating events into language can affect brain and immune functions. The subjects he tested had an increase in germ-fighting lymphocytes in their blood and lower stress levels. Writing was found to reduce anxiety and depression, improve grades in college, and aid people in finding jobs. He also reported that months after people had written about traumas over 70% reported that writing helped them to understand both the event and themselves better. Writing provides a means to externalize traumatic experience and therefore render it less overwhelming. At the same time, as the upsetting experience is repeatedly confronted, the emotional reactivity one feels as s/he assesses its meaning and impact is weakened. Once organized, traumatic events become smaller and smaller and therefore easier to deal with. Having distilled complex experiences into more understandable packages, survivors can begin to move beyond trauma because the process of writing about it provides a means for the experience to become psychologically complete, therefore there’s no more reason to ruminate about it. But not just any kind of writing will do. Dr.Pennebaker explains that the more writing succeeds as narrative – by being detailed, organized, compelling, vivid, and lucid – the more health and emotional benefits are derived. Likewise, over time, the work of inhibiting traumatic narratives and feelings acts as an ongoing stressor and gradually undermines the body’s defenses. By Catherine McCall, MS, LMFT
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/overcoming-child-abuse/201209/how-and-why-writing-heals-wounds-child-abuse

“A journal is a tool for self-discovery, an aid to concentration, a mirror for the soul, a place to generate and capture ideas, a safety valve for the emotions, a training ground for the writer, and a good friend and confident.” – Ron Klug