By all means pray, but don’t JUST pray.
For any addiction that needs to be beaten, one has to make material changes in the areas of our lives that facilitate our means of feeding the addiction.
In your case, you need to remove yourself from the occasion of sin.
This means the following:
Remove all pictures of sexy women from your private spaces - your dorm room if you’re at college, your bedroom at home.
Remove and delete all internet links to porn. Remove any saved files (be they pictures, videos, whatever).
If you are using your computer for improper purposes, make sure you only use it in public areas where you would not wish to be seen looking at stuff you would be ashamed for your grandmother to see.
If you have particular times of weakness during the day, make sure you’re reliably occupied for those times.
Masturbation isn’t
relieving your anxiety… it’s
exacerbating it.
If anxiety is a really big problem then you might consider therapy. Perhaps your school has a counsellor you could turn to? It’s not unusual for teens to be anxious about all sorts of things. It’s in your genes!
If you don’t have a counselling service to turn to, try identifying the triggers for your anxiety. See if there are ways in which you can alleviate or avoid them. For the anxiety itself, try restful music and meditation exercises. You can combine prayer and meditation by considering aspects of God and Jesus’ life. It’s quite easy to become deeply absorbed in a particular aspect and it can be both relaxing as well as spiritually uplifting and strengthening.
In the meantime, don’t worry about the priest refusing to absolve you. He’s not allowed to. Each time you come with an open heart to confession you are guaranteed the absolution and forgiveness of Christ that is the priest’s job to impart. Explain, if you need to, the compulsive aspects and how you’re struggling. Your priest shouldn’t deny you the sympathy you need. And if he did, you’d have a good case with the Bishop
