Porn Nation: A Review

Addictions are unwanted habitual behaviors and dependencies, usually based on a set of false beliefs we hold about ourselves, others and the world we live in. - Michael Leahy

Title:

Porn Nation, Conquering America’s #1 Addiction

Author:

Michael Leahy

About Michael:

Michael Leahy is a husband, father, and recovering sex addict. As an author and expert on sexual addiction and the sexualization of our culture, Michael has inspired millions through appearances on national television programs like ABC’s 20/20, The View, CNN, and Fox News; in major media publications like USA Today, the Chicago Sun Times, and the Miami Herald; and on such diverse nationally syndicated radio programs as The Michael Reagan Show, Dr. Drew Live, Janet Parshall’s America, and Sirius satellite’s Playboy Radio. Michael has also appeared on over 150 college campuses sharing his compelling story with over 100,000 students whether through his own Porn Nation event or in The Great Porn Debate while battling it out against adult film legend Ron Jeremy. (from the Porn Nation website)

Basic Plot:

More than half the book is the author’s story – His early years with a father who was physically abusive, and his beginnings with porn, how it grew in his life, and how it became a large part of his work life (working in the computer industry made porn easy to acquire). After years of addiction, Michael describes that he then made the jump from porn to “porn with skin on” (as he calls it): an affair; which cost him his first marriage.

The second half of the book deals with his views on our culture, stats about how sexualized culture has become, and some of his thoughts on healing and how it happened for him, and how it can begin to take shape for the reader. For him, the process of healing was broken into 2 parts:

1 – Recovery or healing for the whole person, made up of physiological and spiritual healing.

2 – Learning the “The Law of Increase/Decrease”. What you feed grows, what you starve dies.

How Does it Compare With Other Books in the Genre?

This is a great book that looks at how porn takes root in a person’s life, and then grows. For many, it becomes unmanageable. Michael has come out on the other side, and has become an advocate for helping others realize that Sexual Addiction needs to be classified along with other addictions such as alcohol and drug abuse.

With the staggering statistics presented in the book, he makes a valid case that we are on the way, if not already, a “Porn Nation”.

If you are concerned about the sexual nature of the book, not to worry, he is very sensitive to his audience, and speaks in a real way without being to  graphic.

What Can I Use and Apply Right Away?

The ‘Law of Increase and Decrease: What you feed grows, what you starve dies’.

Whenever I identified a certain aspect of my addiction that I was feeding, or something healthy that I was starving, I’d “flip” it in my mind and apply the opposite part of the equation. For instance, instead of “feeding” myself sexual images from cable TV or the Internet, I’d “starve” myself of them. And if I found that I was “starving” myself of healthy relationships by isolating, I would look for opportunities to “feed” myself by getting more socially involved. Of course, as I did that, the Law of Increase/Decrease guaranteed the outcome. – Michael Leahy

If You Like This, You Might Like…

In the Shadows of the Net – Patrick Carnes

Porn @ Work - Michael Leahy

Contrary to Love – Patrick Carnes

If I Had to Read One Chapter, I Would Read:

Chapter 14 – Healing Your Body by Changing Your Mind

This chapter begins with talk about humbling yourself. A HUGE part of wanting to get away from porn.

He talks of rejecting false beliefs, changing your core belief system (getting rid of the 4 basic wrong beliefs of a sex addict: 1. I am basically unworthy and unlovable, 2. No one would love me as I am, 3. My needs will never be met if I rely on others, 4. Sex is my most important need).

Important in your recovery is getting a plan. By thinking differently of himself and others, plus believing (and telling) truth and not lies, he built on a foundation that allowed him to achieve freedom from pornography.

THE BIG WRAP UP

Ultimately, what people care about most are relationships. Which I suppose, in the end, is really my point. The health of our relationships with others, ourselves (self-esteem), with our spouse, kids, boyfriend/girlfriend, and the relationship we have with God: these are more important than porn, or alcohol or money or anything else we might be tempted to sacrifice them for. Relationships are real life. When we break our connections with others, we break connection with ourselves (experienced through guilt and shame) and ultimately break connection with God. This is why the moral law can be distilled down to a single imperative. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. In the same way, this book really sharpens down to this one singular point: Relationships are life, and pornography puts these relationships in peril – everything else is just a footnote. – Michael Leahy

This book is an intense look at what happens in a man’s life when he stumbles into porn, and the repercussions it can have.  It also shows what happens when you humble yourself and use the pain and mistakes, broken hearts and bad decisions to help others who are in the same situation, but want a way out and are looking for a guide.

Porn Nation is a book to be that guide.

****

Find the book on Amazon, ChristianBook.com, Borders

****

On a special note, the publisher of Porn Nation was able to send me an extra copy. If this is a book that would benefit you where you are right now, please contact me via my contact page, and I will send it to you immediately!

(I wish I had more, but I have only one, so the first responder will receive the book!)

**If you are struggling with a porn addiction, please visit The Marry Blogger Resource Page for information about internet filters, and programs/ support groups to help you out!!

Tagged as: book review, Marriage, Michael Leahy, porn, porn and marriage, Porn Nation