Kwil

Video games... All I can say is don't get addicted to them and don't let them take priority over school and your social life. Video game addictions can be just as destructive as pornography when it comes to dissolving one's marriage, relationships with friends/family, and life in general. If video games ever cause you to ditch responsibilities or neglect your family and friends, you are on the WRONG ROAD heading toward a DEAD END in life.

Our world is in a glorified, telestial state? I find that hard to believe! We are "fallen", so we have no glory whatsoever. When the Lord comes again, the world will be brought back to a Terrestrial Glory, the way it was before the fall. The Telestial world is incomprehensibly and unfathomably better than our world, yet hopefully none of us will end up being there, since it is considered "hell" compared to how glorious the Celestial and Terrestrial realms are. Only those living a Terrestrial law will be here during the Millennium, meaning there will be all walks of righteous people of various religions on the earth when Christ returns. Eventually (and hopefully), all will embrace the fullness of the Gospel and be eligible for further progression. -Kwil

YouTube - The Healing Power of Jesus Christ - Sculptures by Angela Johnson This is so good!!!!!

Thank you all so much for your comments! I deeply appreciate all of your help. I felt stuck, but I'm doing a lot better now. I've been researching medications online lately. It's quite the task figuring out which one will be the best for me while considering the side effects. I guess I won't know if one will work well until I try it though, and it will be trial and error from there on out. Please continue to share your advice; I know there are others following this thread who could use it too. :) -Kwil

Hey everyone, I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder last year and I've been having a hard time ever since. It's been a real humbling experience having to surrender myself to relying on medication for the rest of my life, but I'm just sick and tired of it. I'm sick of the side effects, and I'm sick of the whole disorder in general. I just wish I was normal and didn't have to deal with this. I've been thinking about a priesthood blessing for a long time now, but I doubt the Lord will cure me. I keep thinking that this is an affliction He'd want me to have for the rest of my life for the chance to become stronger, or that I agreed to have this as one of life's many trials in the preexistence. I have absolute faith that God has the power to heal me, I just doubt that it's His will for me to be healed. I'm also concerned if I get a priesthood blessing anyways that I'll just become paranoid over whether I was actually healed or not; I feel like I'd need some divine witness letting me know that I've been healed. I am a man of little faith indeed. I'm sorry for whining and ranting about something personal like this. If anyone has any advice or would like to share any experience they've had with healing during their life, please do! -Kwil

I'm obviously new. Just thought I'd post here and say that. I'm 19 and I live in Logan, UT. I guess that's all I have to say about that. ummm...

Hey LS, I'm also striving to recover from pornography addiction. I've been addicted since I was 15, and it has damaged and destroyed several aspects of my life. It has fed on my self-esteem, my confidence, my social life, my academic life, and the core of it all, my spirit. I'm also addicted to masturbation, which commonly goes along with an addiction to pornography. For the first 3 years it never occurred to me that it was an "addiction", I just labeled it as simply a bad habit that I wanted to break. Since I saw it as merely a "bad habit", I would confess to my bishop and beg to the Lord for forgiveness every time I fell short and tell myself that was the last time. It never was. It wasn't until spring of '08, right before graduating high school, that I hit rock bottom and finally admitted I was an addict, or in other words, I was HELPLESS. I was exceedingly depressed and miserable. I was tired! I was tired of fighting! I knelt and asked the Lord for forgiveness for what I wanted to be the LAST last time. I told him I was tired of this struggle. I wanted to be done with this trial for good. I asked him to remove my disposition to give in to my addiction forever. Why couldn't I be like everyone else who doesn’t have to go through this? Or why can I not be made strong like them? A few days later something amazing happened that totally dissolved my desire to look at pornography. I was free! Free at last! For six months I received no temptation and I had no desire or compulsion to act out. I finally had cleans hands, and a pure heart! I was able to get closer to God than I ever had before while I was free from the struggle. I thought surely I was never going to go back to my wicked ways ever again. In December '08 I had lost my pure heart, I started to have the desire to act out again and I gave in. I felt horrible, oh so horrible. I told my bishop and prayed for forgiveness. It happened again and again. And again... And again. You know the pattern. I was stuck in the cycle of misery again. It seems the Lord, in his wisdom, relieved me for a season, and then let satan tempt me again, lighting the fire of my desire, consequential of me giving in to the temptation. I've been stuck in the cycle ever since then. I've had sporadic periods of abstinence, but they've meant nothing in the long-term perspective. I want to be free of my addiction forever. I got rid of my computer. That didn't help; my dad has a computer. I told him to put a password on it. That didn't help; I found a way around it. Trying to control my urges like this didn’t help resolve my addiction for good. It did help sometimes, but when an urge of great intensity came along, I would do anything to get what I wanted. Then right after I got what I wanted, I didn’t want it! That’s an addiction for ya! Well what am I doing now? My bishop recommended me to see a psychologist at USU and participate in a 12-week research study pornography addiction treatment program. I'm on week 5. After this, I might get into one of the LDS 12-step addiction recovery programs. I’ve learned that us addicts will always be in recovery; we’ll always be in need of the Lord’s strength and protective power. There is always a possibility of relapse, even after a lengthy period of abstinence. If you are wishing to stop the urges to view pornography or masturbate for a time, it is possible; but if you desire to have the urges stop forever, that is impossible, unless it’s the Lord’s will. You cannot fully control 100% what thoughts are conjured in your mind; satan and your natural man instincts will always exist while you are on earth. Fighting this war is very confusing. Let’s ask, WHAT are we fighting? We are fighting our urges, thoughts or desires that come into our mind (regardless of our will) that come from either satan or our natural man instincts. Let’s ask, WHERE are we fighting this war? Our mind, an extremely confusing place that exists somewhere and somehow between Disneyland, the economic crisis, and Tom Cruise. Yeah, that made no sense… EXACTLY. WHEN do we fight the urges? Variable, we cannot choose when we fight them. HOW do we fight them? A common answer might be: Replace the thought with another thought, but that is easier said than done. Okay, so let’s say an urge comes with variable intensity. HOW do we receive it? Is it distressing? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Do we feel guilty for having the urge? Does satan want us to feel guilty for having it? What if the thought or urge is so powerful and convincing that you become it, in a sense? -“I WANTS it!” Those are questions that we probably should try asking ourselves a lot. Don’t think that I have the answers; I don’t know your experiences, only you do. We cannot control when the urges happen, because they will eventually happen. Will we be ready? The only way we can control our urges/bad thoughts is how we receive them. We can either make a place for them and step back and look at the thought as a thought, or be totally distressed, demoralized, and wrapped around them that it may seem that we ARE the thought. If we are comfortable with the thought or urge and not guilty as if we are the thought, it’s easier to discard it by replacing it with something better or by doing something else. Even though it may sound like I’m a psychologist who’s got this all figured out, this is just some of the advice that I’ve received and am still playing with. Just figure I’d try to share a little bit of it and not keep it to myself. If you are serious about overcoming your addiction, seek professional help. The program I’m on right now is helping me a lot. And if it doesn’t cure me, will I give up? Never! I’ll find another program or source of help. Take courage bro, you’re not alone! Also, remember no matter how you feel you are always worthy to pray! You are always worthy for God’s help! Will He miraculously set you free from your addiction? Maybe, I don’t know His will. But if he doesn’t, He will help you every step of the way as you try to do everything in your power to overcome your addiction! We have these great weaknesses for a reason, they have a potential to make us more reliant on the Lord and make us strong! I'll try to keep you updated on how my treatment is going and see if I can help any. PEACE!