What are the benefits of being sober from Lust?

So why would you not want to watch pornography? What are the benefits? Explaining this to an adult as opposed to a teen is different…however some will understand.  I’ll list all the benefits and blessings that I have seen from changing my life and not acting out anymore.

1. You get to be you- what I mean by this is you don’t have to hide anymore, you can be honest about your struggles and challenges.  I’ve been a chameleon my entire life, always wanting to be loved, always wanting to fit in, sometimes that meant saying or doing things I didn’t agree with.  Now I can have boundaries, I can stand for what I believe in and be proud of who I am and what I believe.  Took me a long time to realize that I can’t be everyone’s friend and can’t please everyone.
2. You have more energy- As a former high school and college athlete the thing that sticks out in my mind is the energy level whenever I didn’t act out.  I could play in games longer, the muscles worked better.  I have no idea why this is that way, but when you aren’t acting out, you will always have more energy.
3. Time- Think about how much time you spend getting prepared to act out. Then the acting out portion.  I would sometimes spend hours looking for the right thing to watch before acting out.  My life was so simple, it contained, sports, work, and Lust.  There really wasn’t much else in there.  When I stopped acting out I didn’t realize how much more time that I suddenly came across.  Time for family, friends, working out, time for life.
4. Women- Because of my early ages of looking at women as objects, they have been that way my entire life.  I never quite understood why I could never relate to women.  Its hard to relate when they only have 1 purpose.  Fulfilling my selfish sexual needs.  When you stop looking at them that way, you slowly realize how incredible women are.  How valuable they are. How complex they are, and how important that they are.  Women are not objects, they are incredibly beautiful, in-depth human beings.  But if you continue to watch pornography, you will never be able to see that.
5. Intimacy- This one fact alone might attribute to a high divorce rate.  Men are getting married with no freaking clue what intimacy is.  There’s no connection. You ever wonder why a man leaves an extremely beautiful woman for another?  Its lust and lack of intimacy.  Intimacy has many forms.  The one that I am talking about is what holds a marriage together and that’s emotional intimacy.  Being able to be yourself, be honest, be vulnerable, and be accepted for who you are is such an amazing thing….you mean you still want me with all this baggage that I’m carrying?  Wow that’s something you can never experience.  Also waiting till your married will create the most incredible experience for emotional and physical intimacy. 
6. Get in touch with reality- The things that you see on those videos, that’s not reality.  Its pushing women to be objects.  What do we know about women, well if that’s all we watch then almost nothing.  The reason you might have a hard time connecting is because what you watch is not what is real.  The real world, real women, are not what you see going on there.  And the further you get away from that stuff your watching, the sooner that you can come back to reality.
7. Connection- you can connect with others when you aren’t off in the corner making yourself feel better.  You can build a true bond when others accept you for who you are, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
8. You stay out of trouble-One benefit to staying sober is the ability to analyze and think quicker.  When you are able to access your mind, evaluate life situations differently, it enables you to make better choices.  You can’t get pregnant if you don’t have sex.  You can’t catch an STD if you don’t have sex.  Those things can alter your entire life especially as a teen.
9. The ability to say No- If you are a people pleaser like me, you said yes to everything even things that were not good for you.  When you don’t have an unhealthy pain escape you can see things more clearly and say NO!
10. FREEDOM-What we don’t realize as men, is that by watching pornography we have no control, it controls us.  We are slaves to lust and it is our master.  When you take the challenging but rewarding steps in recovery, you finally are able to be free of that beast that has controlled you your entire life, the feelings of freedom, it’s such an amazing feeling being able to get your life back together.  No more ups and downs, things are a lot more even keel.