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If all else has failed G-d forbid, and the addiction continues to ruin our lives, there are medications or shots that can reduce our sexual drive to the point of chemical castration. If the addiction is harming the lives of others, this should be done as soon as possible - before the next victim is claimed.

If we’ve tried everything and still can't break free, perhaps we need some time to get away from society completely to be able to focus fully on recovery for a period of time.  The only way to break free is to be under supervision and be in a place where we simply cannot access our “drug” in anyway, for a while.

If our therapist determines that our addiction may be connected with underlying causes such as depression, anxiety, obsession, OCD, or even hyper-sexuality, he may send us to be evaluated by a psychiatrist for medication that can help us significantly in these areas.  The medications can truly make a difference in the long term.

Very often the addiction stems from underlying issues, such as a difficult childhood, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and so on. We used the addiction as an escape mechanism to run away from emotional pain, or as an attempt to fill a void that we felt in our lives.   An addiction therapist, preferably one who is trained in dealing with lust addiction, can help us explore the underlying causes of our addiction and discover where the root of our behaviors may stem from.

Because the 12 Steps are truly a life-changing set of principles, often they can be internalized properly only through joining a live face-to-face group. But by learning to give up our will in the group, and learning how to share honestly with the group and our sponsor, we are able to learn how to give up our will and be honest with Hashem as well.

Most experts in addiction will tell you that the two most powerful methods in finding freedom from addiction are (1) Group Support: Get out of isolation and connect with others who are going through what you are - and succeeding! And (2) Work the world's most proven and powerful method of all time: the 12 Step program.

There is no better way to assure our own long term sobriety than to be in constant contact with the Guard Your Eyes community and to be helping others every day. Whether it is by being an accountability partner or sponsor for someone else who is struggling, or whether it is through posting on the forum, we are needed out there - and we need the others out there even more.

If we are at a loss on how to continue our journey, or if we feel that all the steps we've taken until today still don't seem to do the trick for us, we can pick up the phone and call the GYE Expert Hotline to discuss our addiction with someone who understands us and can give us advice on how to proceed.

Since one of the most powerful tools for breaking addictions is getting out of isolation, we need to increase our interaction with others in the same situation as much as possible. If a single partner or sponsor still does not give us the strength we need to completely stop acting out, there is nothing more powerful than group support to help addicts break free from addictions.

If we haven't been successful yet with the tools above, it is time to bring the struggle to the next level and introduce others into the picture.  Our own strength has proved insufficient in dealing with our addiction. We need to start exploiting strength from outside ourselves to help us succeed.

TaPHSiC stands for “The Physical & Spiritual Combo” Method.  This tool has worked well with many Frum addicts in helping them stop these destructive behaviors completely.  For most frum addicts this method has worked wonders, and it has freed many people from the obsession.

There was a recent scientific study that found it takes 90 days to change the neuron pathways created by addictive behaviors in the brain. It was shown that if an addict refrains from their addictive behavior for 90 days, they will find it far easier to stop the addictive thought patterns.

There is always hope, even from what seems to be the deepest depths of sin and despair.

This area has been taboo in the religious community for far too long. The very fabric of our society is at stake.  The instant availability and anonymity that the Internet provides makes this perhaps the biggest test of our generation.

If you've tried the steps above and you still find that the addiction is controlling you and causing frequent falls, it could be helpful to apply the battle-tactic of conquering and securing one territory at a time, instead of trying to conquer everything at once. The more we cut down, and the more distance we put between ourselves and the addiction, the easier it gets.

Experience that makes a man ultimately successful is always earned through his initial failures. The difference between a successful person and a failure is not the number of times they fell, but rather the number of times they got up again.

Although all truths can be found in the Torah, we had lost our vision. Even though we may have been learning Torah and Mussar, we were wearing “broken eye glasses.” And so, before we can turn once again to the Torah for guidance, we need to first learn what it means to be a human being.

If we were trying to stay clean and had a fall, we must realize that we haven’t lost anything that we gained until now. We simply have to get up and continue from where we left off.