Porn Addicts Anonymous

Preamble of Porn Addicts Anonymous

PornAddicts Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women whose common purpose is to become recovered from pornography addiction and to develop healthy relationships through a spiritual program. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using pornography in all of its forms.

We attend meetings, sharing our experiences with each other in order to gain freedom from our addiction through the reliance upon a higher power of our own understanding.

We have no other affiliations and we are self-supporting. We do not have any opinions on the porn industry and will not enter into any controversy regarding it or any other causes.

We rely upon our Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions for guidance and knowledge in order to acheive our primary purpose: freedom from pornography and helping other PA's to do the same.

Welcome to PornAddicts Anonymous

Welcome to PornAddicts Anonymous, a program of recovery from the addiction to pornography in it's many forms.

We share our experience, strength and hope with each other in order to gain freedom from the emotional and physical bondage and behaviors of this addiction.

Our foundations are in Unity, Service, Truth, Freedom and Recovery as our PAA Symbol shows.

As we work together and follow the steps and traditions, we attend meetings, perform service at all levels and practice truth and honesty in our lives and actions. From taking these actions consistently we get recovery and freedom.

While actively participating in our addiction, we lost friends, spent money we may or may not have had, lost jobs, wives, partners, parents and neglected our own needs and those of the people who cared about us.

Online, in print, DVD's, Videos, shows and other mediums, we have watched and looked at countless hours of pornography only to realize that there is never enough to satisfy our cravings.

We hid behind our addiction and justified its use in countless ways. We separated ourselves from society and moved into a fantasy world that we controlled.

We collected more and more, sometimes purging ourselves completely only to binge and fill up our closets, computers, media cases and hidden storage areas. However much we had, it was never enough.

The shame and guilt over our addictive behavior drove us to act out in more ways to control it - switching to a different media, viewing a different type, not viewing during the day, viewing at a different location, not viewing during the week, only for a set period time and countless others.

Our powerlessness over our addiction and our inability to control our use, or even if we had the illusion of control momentarily, led to unmanageability, demoralization and loss of relationships with the people around us.

We vehemently denied our addiction to ourselves and to those who cared to ask.

Some of us have used pornography to hide other addictions, emotions, usually fear and anger, sometimes remorse, but we have always used it to control our emotions.

Inevitably, the result was the same - we were numb, filled with shame and fear.

The Twelve Steps of PAA

1. We admitted we were powerless over pornography — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other pornography addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Traditions of PAA

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon PAA unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for PAA membership is a desire to stop using pornography in all of its forms.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or PAA as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the pornography addict who still suffers.

6. A PAA group ought never endorse, finance, or lend the PAA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every PAA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. PornAddicts Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. PAA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. PornAddicts Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the PAA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Patterns of Pornography Addiction

Purchasing patterns:

Purchasing pornographic magazines, movies, tapes, CD's, and DVD's no matter how many are owned or how little we could afford to purchase more.

Downloading and viewing megabytes or gigabytes of pornography whether paid or for free, no matter how much is already available on our computers or other media.

Purchasing more storage space in order to accommodate the ever increasing collection, whether physical or digital.

Addiction Patterns:

Spending more and more time viewing without the ability to determine when to stop.

Hiding collections and isolating from friends and family to ensure that we are never "found out."

Changing activities and plans to accommodate our active addiction.

Neglecting obligations, commitments and our own needs.

Needing pornography prior to or during sexual activity with a partner.

Going to physical viewing locations to obtain a fix, regardless of cost or ability to afford it.

Behavioral patterns:

Inability to sleep without viewing.

Viewing prior to leaving our place of residence.

Going to viewing locations during breaks or late at night.

Viewing late at night so no one will notice.

Fantasizing about anonymous partners.

Inappropriate sexually oriented comments and jokes.

Viewing to escape feelings.

Justification/Low Self-esteem Patterns:

I could never get a date anyway.

No one likes me.

This is safer.

Who would like me, I am too _____ for anyone.

I am not enough of a _______ for anyone.

Control/Denial Patterns:

"It will be manageable this time."

"It's not that bad. I can stop whenever ________..."

"At least with pornography, I always get what I want."

"I get it whenever I want it."

"It's always there for me."

The Third Step Prayer

God, I offer you all my emotions, thoughts and actions in order for you to guide me in my journey of recovery. I ask that you show me the path to acceptance of self and others and freedom from selfish actions by doing your will. Let me be an example of your graciousness to others in all my actions and thoughts so that I may become recovered from this state of mind and body.

The Serenity Prayer

God,

Grant me the Serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can;

And wisdom to know the difference.