I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

[Fezov]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

 

[StillWondering]

I’m no expert to help you, but I would like to offer you advice and words of encouragement.

The fact that you are trying and being interested in your own salvation is a sign to me, that God is working inside you. God is gentle and patience and even if it’s hard and painful, He will work for what is best. That means that you need to cooperate with His efforts. It is like a father teaching a child how to ride a bike, it takes steps and ever increasing efforts on the child’s part till the act of riding a bike is second nature.

Being addicted to sex and porn can come fairly quickly, but as we feed that addiction the neural networks we create deep inside are brains become more entangled and harder to free. If you have a very large ball of strings of thread that are all tangled up, it will take time to unravel it. And of course you want to not cut the strings as much as possible, but some strings may need to get cut in the process. Now if you are adding more strings to the pile while trying to free them, it will only make your life harder. The times in the past where you have been watching porn and having sex out of marriage are those tangled strings.

So the first thing you should do is clear the space around it of any more strings and work to not add more strings into the mix. Block those porn sites, take up a sports to use your physical energy, have an alarm type system every couple of hours (if the addiction hits that often) to tell yourself to get up and take time to distract yourself with a walk or some calisthenics (when our mind is idle the devil temps us), and have an accountable system such as a journal that you pay money into if you lie to it or a friend that takes away something important each time you lie to them about your progress. It’s important to not lie. The truth is you won’t be free in one day, two days, or even twenty-one days (thought after 21 days, its’ a lot easier).

That covers the purity aspect in my post.

As for becoming Catholic, you can find out about it reading the faith threads here at Catholic Answers or more expediently you can talk to your nearest priest. Make sure he’s approachable and knows what he is talking about. Nearly every priest can help you, but if you happen to find a priest that is not up to the task, don’t worry. Simple find the next local priest =).

 

[floresco]

I struggle with sin every day and I became a Catholic. And I have hope of going to heaven because the power and love of God are so great.

 

[Fezov]

I struggle with sin every day and I became a Catholic. And I have hope of going to heaven because the power and love of God are so great.

If you sin harder do you need to work harder to get to heaven?

 

[Livingthedream]

If you sin harder do you need to work harder to get to heaven?

How many hours a day do you look at porn on the net or other sources?

I’m asking, as some people have different barometers as to what qualifies as an addiction.

 

[Fezov]

About an hour or two. But sometimes I have gone about a week without porn and I have spent about 8 hours or more looking at porn etc. After which I felt very guilty.

 

[floresco]

If you sin harder do you need to work harder to get to heaven?

Jesus told this story, related in the Gospel according to Lukein chapter 18: 9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

This story shows that there is actually an advantage to knowing clearly that one is a sinner. (Everybody is a sinner, but some of us are more aware of it.) We approach God knowing how greatly we depend on his mercy. We know that we are not capable of being saved through our own efforts. We humble ourselves before God who loves us and wants to help us.

We do need to work on overcoming our sins. We have to do our best to fight our impulses toward evil. But God still loves us when we fail and forgives us and gives us strength to keep trying.

One of the best things about being Catholic is the Sacrament of Confession. The priest acts in the person of Christ so that we can actually hear God’s words of forgiveness to us and know that we have been pardoned. Also, the Sacrament gives us Grace which strengthens us to resist our tendencies to sin.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

Becoming a Catholic will help you overcome your sinful nature, the important thing is that you are recognising it is something that is bad and that you should be ashamed of, you have what we call contrition which is the necessary foundation from which you can conquer this evil lust that plagues you.

 

[AndrewF1995]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

Yes you can become catholic! One of the priests at my church was addicted to sex and I believe was into drugs, and he converted and became a priest! If it was possible for him it is possible for you!

 

[Catholic1954]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

Of course you can become Catholic and go to heaven! The first step is admit that porn is wrong and trying to stop, you have already done that. Call a Catholic parish in your area and make an appointment to speak to a priest. Tell him about your concerns and he will be able to advise you, on any subject.

 

[WatchingMedia]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

If you are sincere, immediately destroy all porn. Stop reading and do it now.

Delete all porn from your computer, delete all favorites and cookies. Stop reading and do it now.

Start watching EWTN daily. EWTN.com for programming.
Start reading the Bible, starting with the New Testament.
Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (has green cover with gold lettering and can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Then you should be in a better position to have a good conversation on this topic

Porn is a mortal sin. You will not be able to receive Sacraments in mortal sin. When you complete the above, if you are still interested, people can tell you the next step to take.

 

[adv1sor]

Being just the simple man that I am, let me offer you a simple reply.

Yes and yes.

If you have yet to be confirmed, then contact your local Catholic Church and sign up for the next round of adult confirmation classes.

When you go to Confession, tell the priest everything, don’t hold back. He’s heard it all before, I guarantee you. He won’t judge you, but he may offer some advice. He will absolve you of your sins.

If you really want to stop, (and that is the hard part, really wanting to stop), then do this. Get rid of any porn that you may have in your home and/or stored on your computers. The next time you are tempted in the least, as soon as that thought pops into your head, say a Hail Mary and pray for strength to resist the temptation. Continue saying Hail Mary’s until the thought and the temptation subsides. This will work, but you have to be willing to fight.

If you fall back to your old habits, don’t give up. Go back to Confession and start the fight again.

It’s not easy. But you can overcome this obsession. God will help you, but you’ve got to be willing to fight and you’ve got to stop those thoughts from taking hold. Don’t give into the idea that you can do just a little… That won’t work. Stop those thoughts as soon as they start with the Hail Mary prayers.

I’ll pray for you, please pray for me as well.

 

[Melchior_1]

Lots of good stuff posted above, so I’ll just add one more thing;

I’m assuming that a part of the struggle is related to computer usage.

As WM said, delete everything off the computer and clear out the Recycle Bin. After doing that I highly suggest setting up OpenDNS ( opendns.com/ ) on your computer. Easy to set up and very effective in blocking porn on your computer. And have someone else put in the password for you so you can’t undo the settings.

 

[Ignatius]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

Keep trying and praying for God’s help. Many have overcome slavery these same things. Here is some help: pornnomore.com/

All have sinned and fallen short. Yes, you can become Catholic, Catholics are not without sin. Certainly with God’s help He will be able to save you,

 

[SnakeMauler]

It’s quite easy to overcome not looking at porn. Simply find another thing to aim your addictions towards, such as playing video games or exercising. Playing video games isn’t necessarily healthy, but it’d be a lot better to sit around and play some Modern Warfare 2 or Fallout 3 then to look at porn all day. I mean, how old are you dude?

Masturbation’s a different story. It’s extremely annoying when I wake up in the morning and say “WTF DID I JUST DO THAT FOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGH TO FALL BACK ASLEEP. NOW I WILL BE DIRTY FOR THE REST OF THE DAY.” Then I feel like **** when I try to read the bible or do something holy.

-Snakemauler

 

[archangel04]

It’s quite easy to overcome not looking at porn. Simply find another thing to aim your addictions towards, such as playing video games or exercising. Playing video games isn’t necessarily healthy, but it’d be a lot better to sit around and play some Modern Warfare 2 or Fallout 3 then to look at porn all day. I mean, how old are you dude?

Masturbation’s a different story. It’s extremely annoying when I wake up in the morning and say “WTF DID I JUST DO THAT FOR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGH TO FALL BACK ASLEEP. NOW I WILL BE DIRTY FOR THE REST OF THE DAY.” Then I feel like **** when I try to read the bible or do something holy.

-Snakemauler

Can’t go wrong with MW2:thumbsup: But I also would highly recommend excersising and prayer, adding those two together can do wonders for you. It’s hard to break, and once you think you are passed it, it all comes back rushing towards you. Being humble and seeking the mercy of Christ is the the way to go.

 

[josephdaniel29]

I am addicted to porn and obsessed with sex, is it possible for me to become a Catholic or go to heaven?

I am struggling to overcome the lust, but I am trying.

I understand your struggle. Sexual sin is an extremely difficult thing to overcome, after all the sex drive is a perfectly natural part of our being. I will relay to you what I know is an important piece of advice given to me by an incredibly loving and gentle priest-monk. He says we have to be very careful not to fall into despair because of our sins, particularly if those sins are recurrent or addictive in nature. That is precisely what Judas did after his betrayal.

We must not beat ourselves up over our sins. If we despair we run the serious risk of cutting God’s grace out of our lives. What we must do every single time we fall is get up and go back to God. No matter how many times we have to get up again and again. God is always waiting for us with absolutely limitless love and mercy. He knows your struggle and wants you to allow Him to fight for you. All you have to do is let Him have the opportunity.

Yours in Christ
Joe

 

[skyward]

Hey, I used to have a very strong attachment to looking and masturbating over porn vids on the internet. I never used to think anything of it, then i started doing it more frequently, it came to the point when i was doing it daily (or more if i could get away with it!) Anyway… it was a bad addiction. I started feeling guilty about it after i realised that:
A- i was doing it to much.
B-It was mundane, it lacked warmth or spirit.
C- I needed to do it just for the sake of it.
D- Orgasm is overrated, it doesnt last long and leaves you without a prolonged feeling of happiness.
porn has a worsening threshold effect, for instance, you start out by watching straight sex porn, then lesbian, then anal, group, teen, violent etc etc… this list can only worsen!

Becareful of pornography, it is a trap and i truely believe it is the work of the dark one.

 

[Anthony_Joseph]

Something nobody has mentioned yet. One of, if not the best, weapons against sin of this nature is the Rosary. It is like a spiritual Bazooka against sin. It really works. Say the Rosary and offer every prayer as it is intended. They are all to be individual gifts of a rose to the Blessed mother. Concentrate on making every prayer a perfect gift to Our Lady and it does wonders for the soul. I’ll pray for you.

 

[limabeanerson]

Something nobody has mentioned yet. One of, if not the best, weapons against sin of this nature is the Rosary. It is like a spiritual Bazooka against sin. It really works. Say the Rosary and offer every prayer as it is intended. They are all to be individual gifts of a rose to the Blessed mother. Concentrate on making every prayer a perfect gift to Our Lady and it does wonders for the soul. I’ll pray for you.

I was going to post something similar. I used to look at porn on the internet all the time but about three weeks ago I decided to stop and began saying a daily Rosary. Have not viewed it or masturbated since! There has been some temptations of course but no “relapses”!

You can do it to!

I’ll pray for you!