ADDICTION - "Addiction is the continued repetition of a behavior/rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences."
(Note: *** Lack of fequency is not always an indicator of addiction. Acting out can be once a day, once a week, once a month, or even once a year etc. and still be an addiction)
(For those who are LDS, here's LDSmag.com Addiction Definition:
Addiction exists when the repeated use of a mood altering substance or
behavior (of any kind) has created a dependency on itself so intense
that the person doing the behavior cannot find the will-power to quit,
even when the behavior is causing serious damage to one’s relationships,
health, employment, and personal sense of serenity and spirituality.
LDS. org Church Guide Definition:
Addiction is a persistent dependence on a harmful behavior or substance.
It can disrupt the ability to listen to the Spirit and limit
agency. Many who struggle with an addiction suffer from shame or a sense
that they are unlovable. They may feel discouragement and despair that
recovery is not possible. Yet with God, nothing is impossible")
PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION - 1. Pornography addiction is a
behavioral addiction characterized by compulsive, repeated use of
pornographic material until it causes serious negative consequences to
one's physical, mental, social, and/or financial well-being.
2. Sexual addiction is best described as a progressive intimacy disorder characterized by compulsive sexual thoughts and acts
3. A condition that has been defined as a psychological
addiction to, or dependence upon, pornography, characterized by
obsessive viewing, reading, and thinking about pornography and sexual
themes to the detriment of other areas of the viewer’s life
4. Prolonged viewing or pornography - books, magazines,
movies, or Internet pornography - that has destructive effects on the
life of a person"
SEX ADDICTION - Sex addiction is the umbrella term for all addictions that are sexual in nature (porn, Masturbation, in person affairs, etc). Just like drug addiction is the umbrella term for all kinds of drug addictions (cocaine, heroin, etc) c
ACTING OUT - Intentionally seeking out any erotic and sexual stimulus, even if "accidental" at first. Ex. If you accidently come across sexual stimulus, but you choose to keep looking, that's still acting out. DEFINITE lines of acting out: pornography, masturbation, infidelity, emotional infidelity, inappropriate relationships with opposite sex, chatting, flirting, sex ad browsing, voyeurism, forcing/coercing anyone to have sex (yes, even if it’s your own spouse), & massage brothels.
PORNOGRAPHY - ANY sexual stimulus outside of an intimate relationship that a sex addict uses to get lust hits from. This could be hard core pornography, or soft core pornography like bikinis, women in workout videos, intentionally checking out women in public, looking up pictures of feet if the sex addict is into feet, or sexual content in books, comics, movies, TV, cartoons, phone apps, etc. Basically, if an addict is intentionally using the stimulus to get lust hits from, then they are turning things into their porn. This doesn't mean the woman in the bikini or a woman in sandals is literal porn, this means the addict is objectifying her and turning her into porn for himself. In the end, whether it was a woman naked or a woman clothed, if an addict is intentionally seeking it out then it does all the same thing to the brain by keeping the addiction neural pathways alive. The point of healing is for those neural pathways to go dormant, which can't be done if it's still being activated with sexual stimulus outside of an intimate relationship.
(***LDS .org Church Definition of Pornography -
"Pornography is any visual or written medium created with the intent
to sexually stimulate. If the work was not intended to stimulate but
nevertheless causes sexual arousal in an individual, it constitutes
pornography for that person."
&
"Pornography is any entertainment that uses immodest or
indecent images to stimulate sexual feelings. So even a mainstream
television program or advertisement can be pornographic. If images
trigger sexual feelings in you, you should avoid them."
&
"Pornography by definition is the display of that which is obscene and licentious."
Elder C. Gary Bennett
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1977/06/i-have-a-question?lang=eng )
MASTURBATION - 1. "To stimulate yourself sexually. In other words, to have sex by yourself, with yourself."
2. "Get sexual gratification through self-stimulation"
3. "Erotic stimulation especially of one's own genital
organs commonly resulting in orgasm and achieved by manual or other
bodily contact exclusive of sexual intercourse, by instrumental
manipulation, occasionally by sexual fantasies, or by various
combinations of these agencies."
*** Note they use the word "usually" and not "always". Sexually stimulating oneself with, or without orgasm, is still masturbation.
(***LDS author Andrew Pippanne/Rowboat&Marbles Masturbation Definition:
"Masturbation is sex with self.Sex with self is sex with someone other
than your husband or wife to whom you are legally and lawfully
married.Therefore, masturbation is a violation of temple covenants."
Spencer W Kimball said on lds.org :
" Masturbation is not physically necessary. There is already a way by
which the male system relieves excessive spermatic fluid quite regularly
through the nocturnal emission or wet dream. " )
S.L.I.P -- "Sexual Sobriety Lost its Priority" - A slip is a
one-time unexpected unplanned break in abstinence. Slips are
significant events that call for immediate attention because they can
easily lead to relapses. Since it is acting out in ones addiction it
requires a restart in sobriety. (Learn more
HERE)
RELAPSE - A relapse is the recurrence of symptoms of a
disease or to resume acting out after a period of abstinence.
Since it is acting out in ones addiction it requires a restart in
sobriety. (Learn more
HERE)