How to stop thinking about sex?

[Sundiver]

You do have to use discernment. Don’t leave the Church just because someone comes up with a new therapy. I was taught this method in 1983 by a psychologist/Jesuit priest. It was called something else at that time. I used it for studies and to win swim competitions. I use it today for success. All I can say is that it works.

 

[amazingcatholic]

I know what you are going through. I have a porn addiction and think about sex more than I should. I am not Catholic yet either so I can’t go to Confession. I highly recommend you try to keep busy, I find when I am focused on one of my hobbies or something else, I don’t feel like watching porn or think about sex. Also, not praying is the worst thing you can do. I used to tell myself that I shouldn’t bother praying and that made everything worse for my. Ask God for the strength to help you beat this and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. God bless you.

 

[cwsbanana]

I decided to stop reading books with romance as the main focus, blocked all the websites. I feel a bit better now and I really should keep myself busier. Maybe I’ll start going to daily Mass.

 

[Nigel7]

OP,
You are young, and HUMAN. Chemicals/hormones all over the place and off the chart at your age.
Best advice I can give is to occupy your mind with other things; exercise, prayer, study, wholesome entertainment, and a healthy diet too, to mention a few things.

You are normal. You’ll learn to deal with it in healthy ways.

God bless.

 

[Anicette]

I think that one of the main problem is as you said, your life is very slow. You may be idly.

Maybe try to have activities, such as volunteer work that make you active physically and intellectually. So you will have others thinks in mind. Charity/services to others, sports can offer you releave to your laziness and tempation to look at indecent materials and obsessive thinking.

Healthy sleep and diet and shedule help to have a clear mind.

 

[Dan_Defender]

‘You will make great progress if you keep yourself free from all temporal cares, for to value
anything that is temporal is a great mistake. Consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing,
nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God. Consider the consolations of
creatures as vanity, for the soul that loves God scorns all things that are inferior to Him. God alone,
the eternal and infinite, satisfies all, bringing comfort to the soul and true joy to the body.’ - The imitation of Christ

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I agree with po18guy that this sounds to me like it has a medical and/or psychiatric component.
It doesn’t sound spiritual to me, nor do normal hormones cause most older teen females to think about sex all day long morning till night. Normally one would think about it sometimes, such as when you saw a sexy movie or had a crush on a particular person. Also, being so curious about sex at age 19 suggests to me some sort of unresolved issue.

Please speak to appropriate medical professionals to make sure nothing is haywire from a medical POV.

 

[cwsbanana]

But when does “thinking about sex” become a sin? When does lust come in to question?

 

[Emedan]

I’d say there’s some different opinions regarding that, some more lenient than others, I tend to be on the more lenient side.

Nonetheless it might quickly become sinful as many people here will tell you but that’s no reason to beat yourself up about it, my opinion is that as long as you don’t act on it there’s no sin - its impossible to control the mind.

 

[cwsbanana]

I just think things like if a couple was engaged, won’t they inevitably have to think about their wedding night/honeymoon? Then they’re thinking about sex with somebody they’re not married to… so is it lust? Or is it not lust because they’re thinking about sex when they’re married?
It’s difficult

 

[Emedan]

Well I guess that’s true in a sense, but I can not believe thats not the case for all partners who have ever lived anything else would be ludicrous.

One have to remember that it’s sexual attraction that makes partners find each other. Without it the human species would never have existed - its a very powerful force, absolutely natural and necessary.

So don’t worry about it.

 

[Greenfields]

This.
OP it sounds like whatever your reading Is porn.So you are feeding the problem.
You are young so please try and fill your head with innocent and good things (nature ,sport etc) Otherwise you have a collection of intrusive thoughts that resurface often.
I pray theHoly Spirit prayer and the St Michael prayer and it turns these thoughts away.I say them through out the day many times and it becomes very easy
Lots of good advice here posted already.
God bless.

 

[Vico]

… Again, it’s not porn but isn’t it written porn? …

Yes, either pictures or writing can be pornography.

Merriam-Webster, pornography, noun:

1. : the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement

 

[IQ170]

Yes, either pictures or writing can be pornography.

Merriam-Webster, pornography, noun:

1. : the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement

The intention of the creator cannot be known. Some people might even consider Rodin’s beautiful statue “The Kiss” to be sexually exciting.

Porn, just like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is not an intrinsic property of the object.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

Yes, either pictures or writing can be pornography.

Merriam-Webster, pornography, noun:

1. : the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement

The intention of the creator cannot be known. Some people might even consider Rodin’s beautiful statue “The Kiss” to be sexually exciting.

Porn, just like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It is not an intrinsic property of the object.

The intention of the user is known by the user, so art may be pornography.

Catechism:

Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purposes.

 

[IQ170]

The intention of the user is known by the user, so art may be pornography.

But not the intention of the creator. The definition you quoted explicitly talks about the intention of the creator, not the user.

 

[TheLittleLady]

You cannot stop the birds from flying over your head.

You can stop the birds from making a nest in your hair.

 

[Vico]

Vico:

The intention of the user is known by the user, so art may be pornography.

But not the intention of the creator. The definition you quoted explicitly talks about the intention of the creator, not the user.

The intention of the creator could be known. We also have another definitin in the Catechism

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. …

 

[IQ170]

The intention of the creator could be known.

Could be assumed. But you know what “assume” does to you.

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. …

Is Rodin’s sculpture “pornographic”?

 

[Vico]

Vico:

The intention of the creator could be known.

Could be assumed. But you know what “assume” does to you.

2354 Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. …

Is Rodin’s sculpture “pornographic”?

Not by assumption, by admission. But also there is scandal to consider, leading the weak into sin, by something that in itself is not sinful.

I could not answer specifically since Rodin made a lot of sculpture. Do any depict sexual acts?