IN HIS WORDS: When it comes to addiction, my story is somewhat textbook, while being nothing like most people have ever heard. In the early years there's the typical abuse and subsequent trauma, then the discovery of substances and behaviors that help you cope with the world. In my case, it was alcohol and pornography. I hid my addictions to both pornography and alcohol for 25 years. In that time, I became an award-winning journalist, married a great woman and had two kids. In early 2009, I created a popular magazine in Central Maine, launched a film festival in northern New England and won a seat on my City Council. I was a bonafide local celebrity, but after the business took a turn for the worse, I removed myself from the medication I'd been taking for bipolar disorder for a decade and the addictions took over my life almost immediately. Both the drinking and porn use exploded in mid-to-late 2013. Everything came to a head the morning of March 20, 2014, when I was arrested for engaging a teenage girl in a chat room. I didn't know she was underage at the time, but I also know that's no excuse and make it clear in my presentations and media appearances. I made the mistake of pulling myself off the mental health medication thinking my manic side would help save a business. I am responsible and am not a victim of my circumstances. I was the proverbial last guy you'd ever expect this to happen to, but I think it proves that porn addiction can happen to anyone and it can go to sinister places unless you get help. I spent the next two years prior to sentencing in deep recovery, attending two inpatient rehabs, exploring and defining my spiritual side, and researching as much as I could about porn addiction, of which there was woefully little. It was when I was serving a six-month term in jail in early 2016 I wrote my memoir about my descent into addiction. I met so many men in jail who felt more shame about their sex or porn issues than any drug arrest, robbery or domestic violence charge they were actually serving time for, so I decided when I came out, I'd try to create the resources that were missing for me when I made the decision to change. After that first book came out, I received a ton of messages and most surprisingly (to me) most were from girlfriends and wives wondering what they should do about their partners' porn addiction and asking for help. So as I was promoting that first book, I met an LMFT in California and we agreed to co-write the book that came out in December 2019, hoping to help these women through a difficult time. I don't know what it feels like to be called to God, but for the first time in my life, I feel called toward this mission of porn addiction education. The statistics are scary. Did you know 32% of men under 30 have reported that they believe they have an issue with pornography? Or that 98% of married men and 70% of married women under 40 have looked at porn in the last six months. Nobody really understands just how far-reaching this problem is, and I fear if we don't begin to talk about it and understand it, it's going to be like the opiate crisis. We'll be dealing with something we should have seen coming 30 years too late.

http://www.RecoveringPornAddict.com www.amazon.com/author/joshuashea https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-shea-7b9932194/