Topic : How Porn Has Hurt Our Relationship

Number of Replies: 4846
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Created on : Monday, December 11, 2006, 09:00:32 am
Author : DrPhilBoard1
Are you in a relationship that has been negatively affected by porn? Has pornography destroyed, or about to destroy your marriage? Is there hope for a relationship when one partner is addicted to porn? Share your advice and support here with others.

Please Note: This is a very sensitive subject matter to many people. Please keep in mind, this is a support message board, if you wish to discuss this topic in general, please visit the Pornography message board.


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May 5, 2008, 8:56 am PDT

What he's upset about....is

Quote From: needtobelieve

I had a strange thing happen two days ago.  H came home, found me on this website and was upset that I was talking to other people.  I explained that I needed support and his silence was just not helping me. I also told him that I knew more about my friends than I did about him, even after 20 years of being married. 

 

 I told him that I needed support and he didn't understand that not being on the computer and mb means he's cured.  He says his counselor says he's not addicted, he's only been doing it for about 25 years.  What kind of counselor says that?  I think either he is not disclosing what really has been happening or he's just lying.  And from what I've read, the porn and mb and not being truthful are somewhat connected.  In fact, he just came by me typing and said "Boy, you sure spend a lot of time on that computer".  Does anyone else get flak about discussing this problem on this board, or getting support?

 

Why would that offend him?  Once again, thanks for your input.

The fact that he's feeling embarrassed that you actually have some place to vent these feelings about something "he thinks" is "normal" for him....but this forum seems ab-normal. LOL.  How ironic!!!  What he doesn't want to face is this porn thing which is supposedly no one knows who you are while in his mind he can mess with anyone but you...but for you to be able to talk openly, somehow he feels someone will actually "know you" and that he's now "found out".

 

Believe it or not, most guys don't walk around telling their buddies how often or how many times they are messing with this stuff.  Wonder why???  Don't you???   I mean if this is sooooo flippen great and nothing wrong with it, then why not talk openly about it?  What's up with that?   Why hide it?  If everyone is so related that this is the thing to do....then why shouldn't he be thrilled that you also have somewhere to go and talk about this especially if you have issues (supposedly it's YOU, not him of course) with pornography.

 

Fact is.....he's not a proud person about doing any of this.   It's not like (most) guys pull out the computer and start mb'ing with porn right there in front of their wives.    Most of the time, this is secretive.....and yet, explain this "humiliation" they feel once confronted or if you want to discuss this.  What is so darn personal about using porn....?  Why so private?  Because it deals with sex??? hum....for some reason most would say it has nothing to do with personal "feelings" about this and women should just adjust their own feelings in order to be able to just accept this as a part of marriage or any kind of relationship.

 

Tell him to just accept that you will and are going to fully explore and seek advice and help from what ever means neccessary, and if he doesn't like it, get used to it because "everyone does it these days".

 

Insecure....that's what his problem is.

 

Luv~!

 
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May 5, 2008, 12:56 pm PDT

How Porn Has Hurt Our Relationship

Quote From: luvmiman1

The fact that he's feeling embarrassed that you actually have some place to vent these feelings about something "he thinks" is "normal" for him....but this forum seems ab-normal. LOL.  How ironic!!!  What he doesn't want to face is this porn thing which is supposedly no one knows who you are while in his mind he can mess with anyone but you...but for you to be able to talk openly, somehow he feels someone will actually "know you" and that he's now "found out".

 

Believe it or not, most guys don't walk around telling their buddies how often or how many times they are messing with this stuff.  Wonder why???  Don't you???   I mean if this is sooooo flippen great and nothing wrong with it, then why not talk openly about it?  What's up with that?   Why hide it?  If everyone is so related that this is the thing to do....then why shouldn't he be thrilled that you also have somewhere to go and talk about this especially if you have issues (supposedly it's YOU, not him of course) with pornography.

 

Fact is.....he's not a proud person about doing any of this.   It's not like (most) guys pull out the computer and start mb'ing with porn right there in front of their wives.    Most of the time, this is secretive.....and yet, explain this "humiliation" they feel once confronted or if you want to discuss this.  What is so darn personal about using porn....?  Why so private?  Because it deals with sex??? hum....for some reason most would say it has nothing to do with personal "feelings" about this and women should just adjust their own feelings in order to be able to just accept this as a part of marriage or any kind of relationship.

 

Tell him to just accept that you will and are going to fully explore and seek advice and help from what ever means neccessary, and if he doesn't like it, get used to it because "everyone does it these days".

 

Insecure....that's what his problem is.

 

Luv!

Hey Luv....I shouted out a hello to you a couple weeks back but you disappeared (again). How the heck are you? Me good....hubby good. BTW...my oldest graduated this passed weekend. I can't believe it has been four years already.

 

D

 
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May 5, 2008, 2:40 pm PDT

FREE

I finally got up the nerve and joined an  sa-anon group, and  learned I am not stupid, it's not my fault, and he'll never let go of porn in any form. Twenty-three years of threats didn't work,  marriage counseling didn't work,  so now I've moved on and have a happy life without him. Meanwhile, he's alienated himself from his children, and now grandchildren to induldge himself. Oh well... it's all about choices.
 
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May 5, 2008, 7:21 pm PDT

Sorry, didn't see that

Quote From: deluvie

Hey Luv....I shouted out a hello to you a couple weeks back but you disappeared (again). How the heck are you? Me good....hubby good. BTW...my oldest graduated this passed weekend. I can't believe it has been four years already.

 

D

If I missed you, so very sorry.   I don't keep up.  Which really is a "thing" you have to do with this board , or any other board.  Other wise you loose track.   Anyways, I am sorry.   I am not here very often and never will be unless I have extra time to give to this.      This is a full time job, with working and a hubby, or family, I don't see how anyone can keep up with this stuff.  I  sure can't.   Maybe I don't type fast enough.....who knows.  

 

Anyway, I am perfectly, so totally happy and in love.   Which is good....NO great!!!.      I have just recently spent two weeks away for training to work at home.   WOW.....that was crazy but good.   when I got home, (this weekend) my husband was mad with missing our life, our love.  

 

That's what I want for others.....something similar, something that matters after a lengthly time of being "us".   That is what we ALL deserve.!    Something special, something that matters to BOTH of us.    I am wayyyyyy waaaayyyy tooooo great to want for anything when it comes to marriage.!!!!    I want all women to have this....to share this.....to give this...especially to our daughters.    

 

I am fine.  How are you? 

 

Luv~

 
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May 6, 2008, 11:28 am PDT

How Porn Has Hurt Our Relationship

Quote From: luvmiman1

If I missed you, so very sorry.   I don't keep up.  Which really is a "thing" you have to do with this board , or any other board.  Other wise you loose track.   Anyways, I am sorry.   I am not here very often and never will be unless I have extra time to give to this.      This is a full time job, with working and a hubby, or family, I don't see how anyone can keep up with this stuff.  I  sure can't.   Maybe I don't type fast enough.....who knows.  

 

Anyway, I am perfectly, so totally happy and in love.   Which is good....NO great!!!.      I have just recently spent two weeks away for training to work at home.   WOW.....that was crazy but good.   when I got home, (this weekend) my husband was mad with missing our life, our love.  

 

That's what I want for others.....something similar, something that matters after a lengthly time of being "us".   That is what we ALL deserve.!    Something special, something that matters to BOTH of us.    I am wayyyyyy waaaayyyy tooooo great to want for anything when it comes to marriage.!!!!    I want all women to have this....to share this.....to give this...especially to our daughters.    

 

I am fine.  How are you? 

 

Luv

I am so glad you are in a good place and you are loving your work. I wondered for awhile if you fell off the planet or something...LOL

 

I can't seem to keep up here too much myself. The kids are keeping me hopping...especially our youngest at this point. Add to that I think there will be a wedding in the next year or so to plan for with our oldest. She is home now that she is graduated and in a few weeks our second will be moving out because she is working at an amusement park for the summer. She is so excited. So for the next few weeks I have all three to myself again .....which I am sure will make things hetic but it is a good hetic.

 

I attempt at times to come back here and write or debate at the other site but it is always the same and it grows old. maybe that is why sometimes we just talked about other things....it just gets hard to do this same thing day in and day out. Between people who don't get it...and newcomers who come here over and over with the same story...it just is too much. I am happy to report we have had no relapses and we just tick away at our lives. We are hoping for a couple days off down the road to get away. Don't be a stranger and feel free to email me anytime. Let me know if you do not have it any longer.

 

DL

 
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May 6, 2008, 12:55 pm PDT

Am I wrong? Or is this DL....Darcy?

Quote From: deluvie

I am so glad you are in a good place and you are loving your work. I wondered for awhile if you fell off the planet or something...LOL

 

I can't seem to keep up here too much myself. The kids are keeping me hopping...especially our youngest at this point. Add to that I think there will be a wedding in the next year or so to plan for with our oldest. She is home now that she is graduated and in a few weeks our second will be moving out because she is working at an amusement park for the summer. She is so excited. So for the next few weeks I have all three to myself again .....which I am sure will make things hetic but it is a good hetic.

 

I attempt at times to come back here and write or debate at the other site but it is always the same and it grows old. maybe that is why sometimes we just talked about other things....it just gets hard to do this same thing day in and day out. Between people who don't get it...and newcomers who come here over and over with the same story...it just is too much. I am happy to report we have had no relapses and we just tick away at our lives. We are hoping for a couple days off down the road to get away. Don't be a stranger and feel free to email me anytime. Let me know if you do not have it any longer.

 

DL

I hope I am not wrong to assume you are DL?  Right?   You have to remember I haven't been around for a very long long time....so forgive me if I didn't catch the name change.   I don't have your email address anymore, as I have changed so much with computers and all.  

 

Anyway, so glad to hear all is going good for you as well.  The smallest things are worth so much these days....you have to be thankful as all get out.   I know I am.  Finally getting some peace with all the things going on in life.  Everyone has some things to work out...right?  Believe me....totally and completely enjoy every second with the kids, it doesn't last.    Like you are seeing, first it's just getting through the school ages, then they are getting married....boo hoo.    But it's all good in the end.   Time to start thinking of that honeymoon season in your own marriage all over again....only now it gets much much much better.

 

That "empty nest" thing does NOT get any better unless you get real real close with who you are and who your husband is.   That's why it's so important to really "like him" as a friend as well as a husband.   Other wise they'd drive us crazy!!! 

 

I am content, at peace....how ever you'd want to name it.   This place is something kinda...."take it or leave it" kinda thingy.   It's good to look at it that way.   Nothing wrong with keeping in touch with the Long timers though.   I always wonder how everyone is doing.   It's also good to see some of us grow and get "better" with time.    Time does heal....so does forgiveness.   I know you and I have learned a lot about that. LOL......

 

See ya soon.  Let me know how to get your email.    I have a real great opportunity going on now, so I have more time at home to do things via emails and such.

 

Luv~

 
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May 6, 2008, 1:09 pm PDT

Oh dear Northernsky.....do you have to ask ?

Quote From: northernsky


My boyfriend and I have been together for almost five years. He is my first relationship after a verbally abusive 19 year marriage to my high school sweetheart. It took me years before I allowed myself to care about another man and to trust someone with my heart. I had a lot of personal work to do on myself...and still do. My boyfriend and I have both had difficult pasts and are very emotionally supportive of each other. Other than the issue I'm writing about, we have a really great relationship and I want to believe I can trust him.
His career is in computers, and he spends a lot of  time on one. He enjoys online porn, and I really don't have a problem with it except when it comes before everything else. He has subscribed to many porn websites. He saves the pictures and videos on his hard drive. Because so many of these websites are of real girls who have their email addresses posted so you can contact them, I have told him that looking at pictures and videos is one thing, but contacting them to have an online relationship is going too far. He feels that because it's anonymous, it's just a playful game and isn't cheating. He even thinks that if you have a webcam and want to have cyber-sex with someone who is live online, it isn't really cheating because you're not actually touching them. I have found a couple of emails that he accidentally left on our computer where he has written to a couple different girls telling them how hot they are and asking them if they would meet up with him to have sex. He told them that he loves me, but he really wants to be inside them, and that if they couldn't meet up with him maybe they could email him some naked pictures of themselves. I felt very hurt and betrayed, and when I confronted him he told me that sending the emails was just part of the moment of feeling turned on. He knew they wouldn't contact him to meet him but he was hoping they might send him pictures. He said it was part of the fantasy. I told him that I have a hard time believing that if they did contact him to have sex, that he would turn it down,especially if we were in an argument or something. It's asking for trouble and I think if you have a good relationship you should protect it. Have any of you experienced these same problems? Would you trust your man that is doing these things and believes this way? Since then he has refused to talk about the subject and has made his computer password protected. I'm sure he thinks what I don't know, won't hurt me. He has given me permission to do the same thing if it turns me on, but I never would, because I would feel disloyal and I would rather work on a real relationship.
I haven't been able to trust him since...and it has caused me to feel sexually inhibited and to dread sex. I promised myself that I would be alone before I would ever be in another emotionally damaging relationship. I would appreciate your advice! :)

I've got to agree with most everyone who answered back to you, and hope you will feel safe enough to continue with this board in order to get at least some help with your decision making.   I really can't believe you have to ask anything about this, but that could be due to maybe you and I having different belief systems.   See with me, I feel strongly that so that which is in a man's heart is also what is in his belief systems.  In otherwords, this isn't just the UNreal -ness of the porn with your man, but the deep desire to continue to be UNfaithful towards your relationship via the us of "close enough to reality porn".   He's not just messing with a little porn here and there, he's interested in the realism of contact with these people.  That should be enough for you to realize that this man isn't worth the air he's consuming in your space.

 

The problem here isn't really him, it's you.  You making concessions, settlements to accept anything remotely possible with this person.  Why are you doing this?   Don't you have the ability to remain faithful and completely dedicated to someone who you claim to love?   Then why doesn't he have that same value towards you? 

 

It should not matter why you don't approve, or this hurts you.  The fact is....it does.    And THAT should be enough to make him realize you have no intention of settling for this kind of pain anymore.    You are worth being faithful to both in body and spirit......emotionally, he's abusive to you.  All you've done is give up a previously abusive relationship and replace it with another unhealthy one.    That's is YOUR bad, not his.   You have to find out why you are DEvaluing YOU inside a committed relationship in the first place.

 

Be alone and find out those answers before you continue with this person....who does NOT respect himself , much less women in general and especially not you.   And plz, there are really great men out here in life who WILL and DO make good choices about life and have some sense of dignity of themselves and that allows them to have healthy relationships.    This one guy you've picked is NOT one of these kind.   

 

Plz...move on and stop allowing these kinds to disrespect you as a woman.

 

Luv~

 
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May 6, 2008, 5:28 pm PDT

I am also free of the chains that bound "him".

Quote From: florisotanc

I finally got up the nerve and joined an  sa-anon group, and  learned I am not stupid, it's not my fault, and he'll never let go of porn in any form. Twenty-three years of threats didn't work,  marriage counseling didn't work,  so now I've moved on and have a happy life without him. Meanwhile, he's alienated himself from his children, and now grandchildren to induldge himself. Oh well... it's all about choices.

His chains became mine and they were too heavy for me to carry. I held in for 7 years with a man that tried his best to convince me that his sexual addictions/perversions were non existent. Its a very sad place to be in.......denial of the truth.....and only the truth will free the soul to live free and without chains. It takes a person that can be introspective, reflective and open to the possibility that the way we do things, isn't necessarily the best choice. It is about choices.

 

I have been gone 7 months, free from a person that chooses to hide behind the world of porn; the comforts of cheating without having to prove faithfulness. For those that hide behind the fantasy world of sex and lust also hide other aspects of themselves. How could one person be one way in something, and different in others? We are who we are. Our actions this morning should mimic our actions tonite.  When we start looking for reasons to do something we know is dangerous to ourselves or our relationships with others, we go into a state of attachment to that thing and it becomes us. No one can say then that porn is just fantasy, if we see it, we believe it to be true. So, it is cheating.

 

Its the not so sloppy :) way of going about getting sexual needs met without the intimacy. When a person seeks sex, most of the time, they are seeking sexual gratification, not intimacy. ie...strippers, prostitutes, etc. If sex is just for sex, then let them go and get "just sex". Leave me alone and let me find true intimacy and connnection with other human beings. Not a fantasy. Amen/

 
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May 6, 2008, 6:25 pm PDT

How Porn Has Hurt Our Relationship

Quote From: luvmiman1

I hope I am not wrong to assume you are DL?  Right?   You have to remember I haven't been around for a very long long time....so forgive me if I didn't catch the name change.   I don't have your email address anymore, as I have changed so much with computers and all.  

 

Anyway, so glad to hear all is going good for you as well.  The smallest things are worth so much these days....you have to be thankful as all get out.   I know I am.  Finally getting some peace with all the things going on in life.  Everyone has some things to work out...right?  Believe me....totally and completely enjoy every second with the kids, it doesn't last.    Like you are seeing, first it's just getting through the school ages, then they are getting married....boo hoo.    But it's all good in the end.   Time to start thinking of that honeymoon season in your own marriage all over again....only now it gets much much much better.

 

That "empty nest" thing does NOT get any better unless you get real real close with who you are and who your husband is.   That's why it's so important to really "like him" as a friend as well as a husband.   Other wise they'd drive us crazy!!! 

 

I am content, at peace....how ever you'd want to name it.   This place is something kinda...."take it or leave it" kinda thingy.   It's good to look at it that way.   Nothing wrong with keeping in touch with the Long timers though.   I always wonder how everyone is doing.   It's also good to see some of us grow and get "better" with time.    Time does heal....so does forgiveness.   I know you and I have learned a lot about that. LOL......

 

See ya soon.  Let me know how to get your email.    I have a real great opportunity going on now, so I have more time at home to do things via emails and such.

 

Luv

Hey. Let me just say this. I was thinking of you awhile back when I was playing Wheel of Fortune on my computer. LOL

 

I figure the empty nest isn't happening to fast around here. With the oldest now done with school...she found a job locally and moved home to save her money for awhile. Sometimes I am ready for them to be on their own (like on laundry day and the amount of water and detergent we go through) but then when the house is quiet for days.....I am missing them all over again. LOL

 

Place of peace....I wonder sometimes when the fight for things changes. People disappoint me sometimes. No one has any backbone to stand up for what is right and we see it over and over again. Eveyone looks to someone else to make things right and then when you fight their battles and your own.....they stab you in the back in the end. From the world of pornography to the world of raising our kids.

 

 

Sorry...went off there for a little bit.

 
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May 7, 2008, 6:28 am PDT

looking for a bit of advice

This could really become a long story,,so I will try and make it brief and to the point. I have recently married for the 2nd time. It has been not even 3 months of what I would call hell. My first marriage was 20 years of too many not good situations, and I am afraid I have let myself do it again !! I have been lied to, felt cheated, have not felt loved at all. Not even sure what love is anymore. I have tried, at least I think I have. I have tried compromises and everything to get some sort of a normal life of happiness. I married a man that was on parole, which should have put a red flag right there for as many years as he was put away. But I try not to dwell on the past. Anyway....He was off parole at midnight the night before we were to marry. And Lord only knows,,,,I should have waited. It has been a struggle every sense. I am trying to deal with, porn, some alcohol, no sex ( or just raw sex) , no kissing, and an illegal substance. He feels he has no problem with any of it, and doesn't understand why I am so upset and bitchy. I have tried to compromise with him, and he has broken them all. He don't see a problem, and won't do anything to help our relationship. I feel backed in a corner, and I am tired of trying to fight this, and I don't have that newly wed love feeling at all. I truly want out,,,but the thing that bothers me is...Whats GOD going to think of me now?? I am the one that was soo stupid,,,am I to try any longer to make this work? I have become a very bitter, angry person. and thats not me,,,I use to be  happy go lucky ,,,nothing bothered me..to a point...I feel robbed with no where to turn. What to do??? Advice PLEASE !!

Thank you,

DB

 

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