The following post from Dov is very appropriate for Hoshana Raba - a day of Teshuvah. Dov explains to us how our recovery can help us not only find freedom from lust, but it can also help us find Hashem, re-discover Yiddishkeit, and do Teshuvah from all of our bad middos (which are the real causes for the lust in the first place).
Dov writes on the forum to someone who struggles with "anger" issues, along with lust:
The depression/anxiety, anger/resentment, fear/worry, pride/entitlement problems that we have, are, in my experience, just our associated disorders that lead us to be miserable with life, with people, and/or with ourselves. When an addict is uncomfortable enough, he/she will medicate using the addictive behavior.
The compulsive sex, lusting, drinking, cocaine, heroin, gambling, etc.. (any kind of addiction) seems to give us our power back. It gives us a real feeling of control and safety. Even though we are out of control and very unsafe, we use the addiction to plug into something much bigger than ourselves. It is more powerful, and more predictable than real life has been for us so far. And it is also so much more powerful and predictable than Hashem has been for us, too, by the way. You cannot argue/reason/hashkafa "away" a thing that we actually know that we feel in our very gut. "Go ahead, join my conscience and beg me to not believe what I know in my gut - good luck!"
Real or imagined, it is real to us, and seems to work for us - at least in the beginning. Addicts become stuck in it and cannot usually get out on their own. Then life really starts to stink - sometimes to everyone around us, too.
The 12 steps that I know about, are for anyone who has come to the conclusion that they are hopelessly unable to beat their addiction, or have come to really believe that they will be beaten if nothing radically changes.
Once they are clean because they really accept that they are no longer able to drink, drug, lust, etc., they work the steps in order and they will face their associated disorders ("defects of character") that make life today so unbearable in the first place. (That is what steps 4-9 are about). And it never ends. We do not get fixed. We keep on growing, discovering and surrendering more defects, getting more and more free, and living with less and less pain, stress, anger, pride and fear. Slowly.
If we do not consent to face our defects of character and use those steps, it seems that we will eventually just fall back into the addictive (or a new addictive) behavior. So the solution is basically inescapable.
The good news is, that it makes for a great life for us and all those around us, and - in my case - it was the only way I found to really become a yid and find my own relationship with Hashem. And that isn't something that any money can buy :-)
The idea that Dov mentions here, of how addicts use the addiction to feel "safe" and in "control" by plugging into something bigger and more powerful than themselves, really struck a chord with me. If we can replace that need by relinquishing our "control" to Hashem - who is so much bigger than both "us"and "the lust", we can find the safety and comfort that we crave in Him. This leads to freedom from the lust and from all our bad Middos; and this, my friends, is what real Teshuvah is all about!
May we all be Zoche to true Teshuvah and a Gut Kvittle!