In my case, focusing on my struggle as having to do with my normal "Yetzer Hara" (evil inclination) was a sure recipe for failure. It made me simply try harder, use new tricks, and get yet more support. The message of AA to me (through SA) was not about any of those. It was about accepting the fact that I am fundamentally different from non-addicts, and accepting that I am not a BAD person getting GOOD, but rather a SICK person getting WELL - with help from Hashem.
I had to accept that this disease had me completely beaten, just like cancer or diabetes. You don't struggle against a disease, you get the treatment. Plenty of people don't, and they die as a result. The standard "Teshuva" (repentance)thing did me no good at all, simply because it is not structured for crazy people. This was not just a "Ruach Shtus"(spirit of folly), it had become my standard of living.
I needed to first learn to get honest with myself and others. That took me about a year and a half of frequent program calls, regular meetings, work with my sponsor, and the 12-steps. And my recovery was still clearly a neiss(miracle). Just like Hashem cures people from cancer and other illnesses when the patient takes his or her medicine/treatments, I had to do the same, and He did the same for me. And Hashem continues to do it each day, because I believe that I would still use my addiction and continue to ruin my life, should I just get uncomfortable enough with living. Putting the steps into action every day, keeps me comfortable and sane (at least it has so far!).
I think that some frum (religious) people, especially those who feel strongly about either beating the Yetzer Hara(evil inclination) themselves as a supreme kiddush Hashem (divine sanctification), or who feel that the answer must be in the Torah if they only look hard enough, may have a hard time with this approach. But I doubt they would use that approach with any other disease. For me, it was too confusing to mix mussar concepts with the 12 steps, particularly early on. It was toxic, actually.
Yes I know that lust - i.e. using and acting on lust, is not exactly like alcohol, as it involves aveiros chamuros(serious sins), while drinking alcohol is not an aveira per se. Nevertheless, hanging onto the purely religious approach would have left me as I was for twenty years: looking for the answers with broken eyeglasses.
The way I read them, the 12 steps are about getting my eyes (mind and body) fixed and THEN getting frumer (more religious), not about getting frumer in order to stop. In fact, I got very frum, but the frumer I got, the sicker turns my addiction took! I grew quite disgusted with myself along the way, to put it mildly.
Please don't get me wrong. I am not saying that any other approaches are wrong, I'm just sharing what worked for me. Even though the principles of the 12-Steps are Torah-based, AA, in my experience is a sanity-building tool, not a religious one.
Because I am a Jew though, after I started to gain sanity and some freedom from the compulsive sexual acting out and lust-thinking, I was able to start growing, thank G-d, into the Jewish man that Hashem wants me to be. And the steps are a tool that I use to stay on that path now as well, one day at a time.
I wish all the people using this website Hatzlacha and I send my love to all of you, my brothers!
Wow Dov, your story is such an amazing example of how insidious this disease is, and it also shows so clearly the idea that we must learn to become HUMAN again before we can start to be Jews, let alone good Jews.
I have been emphasizing these very points recently, in our daily Chizuk e-mails more and more. You would enjoy reading Chizuk e-mails 438-450 on this page, where we tried to convey a deeper understanding about how the 12-Steps work and why they are so basic and important in this struggle.
One can never know why he had to go through what he did in his life time. But after reading your story, all I can say is that I will make sure to spread your experience to everyone else to the best of my ability, so they need not experience all of this themselves, and will take the proper steps to break free of this disease while they're "Still on Top".
I am almost finished preparing a booklet of steps that people struggling with lust addiction can take. It starts from the most basic steps and moves on to the more extreme steps. I think that when you see it, you will understand why there are so many Torah ideas, Mussar and tips on our site, even though you feel that didn't work for you. You see, there are many levels of addiction. No one goes to Chemo treatment for a flu. For people who have advanced to a severe level of addiction such as yours, these type of ideas indeed won't help. But at earlier stages, a lot of the stuff on our website can be very helpful.
And that's why I am preparing this guidebook. It is easy to get lost on our site, because there are so many ideas, tips and approaches, and not all of them apply to the same levels of addiction. With the guidebook, we hope that people will be able to start from the beginning and move down through the steps we suggest, starting from the most simple and fundamental tactics and working down through the more extreme, life-changing approaches. The booklet will also help people gauge how far their level of addiction has advanced.
Dear brother Dov, please stick with us on the forum and help us provide insight and Chizuk to so many people. We need people with your type of experience here. I am so grateful that Hashem has brought you to us.
Welcome to the Guard-Your-Eyes community.