I'm making this thread for people like myself who learned chassidus and want to use it to help, you can tell me why it doesn't but as you'll see in my post I won't listen...
As a lubavitcher I always connected what I learned in Chassidus with my struggle and it seemed that nothing fully helped, so some might say that it doesn't work and others might say that for me (who may be a addict) it won't work. 
I don't like either approach, rather I think I may need help applying it Better or other techniques, I would very much like to do this and was wondering if anyone has input to share.

100% agree, although at times when I learnt something in chassidus quite often I didn’t realize the relevance to my life and I thought it was Stam a nice Vort or interesting derher. But recently certain maamorim or concepts resonate a lot more, and i think could be a help. 

Chassidus can be the best tool, when learned and applied correctly 

funbuchur wrote on 28 Mar 2025 05:09:

Could you give some examples. Recently someone was saying a shmuz and he contended that sifrei mussar take priority over maharal and sifrei chasidus because they’re geared to the practical. 

Tnx for starting this great thread! 

In general כל הנחלים הולכים אל הים, and any true ideas can be found in Torah - but sometimes there are barriers that make it easier to get the idea in a different format. But once you succeed, you can look back and find the ideas you used in seforim. Let's take Chassidus (Chabad) as an example.  

Recovery is not just stopping P&M it's living a full life, living w/ satisfaction and meaning, and Chassidus definitely helps with that a lot. It teaches how to live with a mindset of ein od milvado, bittul to Hashem, not being self-centered (the 12-steps has that theme), etc., so ultimately, once you stop acting out, there's a lot to live for. That's ultimately what היסח הדעת spoken about so much in Chassidus; it's not just a distraction - it's giving your full attention to holy things and living life - obsessing with your "green circle" rather than being consumed by the problem. It also gives you a very deep understanding of the cosmic value of even small wins (וכן בהרהורי מחשבתו אפילו במעט מזעיר - תניא פכ"ז), and kal vachomer big ones. There is a ton about staying away from ייאוש, not obsessing over falls, having realistic expectations that our nefesh habehamis is here for life, and Hashem gets נחת רוח davka from those that struggle, etc. 

So why doesn't it "fully" help? The reason might be because the struggle with P&M is unique. Even R' Amram Chassida needed practical solutions to resist the urge. ואם ראשונים בני אנשים kal vachomer for us. Tanya Perek Lamed talks about a Yoshev Kranos who is constantly triggered—that's life today for so many of us. עיניו רואות כל התאוות והעין רואה והלב חומד ויצרו בוער כתנור בוערה מאופה כמ"ש בהושע הוא בוער כאש להבה (see the Possuk there - it's referring to an obsession)... כי אין היצר שוה בכל נפש יש שיצרו כו'  והנה באמת שהיא מלחמה גדולה ועצומה לשבור היצר  הבוער כאש להבה מפני פחד ה' וכמו נסיון ממש...why did the Tanya pick that example? Because it's the most extreme type of fight. And he says even the greatest people usually don't fight as hard as that יושב קרנות needs to! Now for us, the sexualized street, and easy access to porn, we can get 100x more triggered than even that extreme יושב קרנות... - which is why these things are called "supernormal stimulus"...

On the other hand, we're not victims, and we can avoid at least some of the triggers as a first basic step.
Also, In Perek 28 it talks about treating voices in our head as if they were foreign people that best just being ignored as fighting them would just backfire, which sounds like it could been written in a modern therapy book lehavdil, as well as an emphasis on basic strategies like מח שליט על הלב (sounds a bit like CBT), היסח הדעת, etc.

However, strategies could remain theoretical. Even the most brilliant true ideas take a lot of to apply, especially when there's a part of us that is very resistant.  R' Amram used accountability. In Chabad, there's an emphasis on having Asei Lecha Rav / Mashpia that can keep you accountable and help you talk things out, as well as being vulnerable with one's Rebbe and asking for a tikun.

But it only works if you can be honest. Heart-to-heart conversations with a group (aka farbrengen) can also help a lot if it feels safe to be vulnerable, and that's a big IF, especially with these topics... the forums and especially talking to real mentors here fill that gap. This would all be true even if P&M were just stemming from a natural בוער כאש להבה. How much more so when, on top of that, P&M becomes a coping mechanism for dealing with emotions, life problems, etc. - it takes discussion with real people and repeated attempts to untangle things and figure out the root issues, and then focus on applying the solutions for long enough that they really stick and become טבע שני.

L'chaim!

yoshev wrote on 28 Mar 2025 09:02:

What a first post! Gold!!!

funbuchur wrote on 28 Mar 2025 05:09:

I wasn't talking about haskallah in chassidus which can be harder to relate to, but the basic Tanya (not all prokim) is very applicable in this area

yoshev wrote on 28 Mar 2025 09:02:

Great stuff, there are so many sifrei chasidus Please post more 
who is amram chasida 

This Yechidus took place right after Yud Shvat 5710, the bachur, Reb Yossel Raices wrote down the Yechidus, gave it in to the Rebbe to make sure he understood it correctly. Everything in bold is the Rebbe's edits!
This Yechidus covers many of the ideas the Rebbe would tell people, specifically bachurim.

It needs to be unpacked.

livingagain wrote on 28 Mar 2025 12:40:

You can see the story here.

Where can I find this? 

I actually remember once stumbling upon a part of the gye website that had a lot of seforim from all different types of chassidus mussar and different rabeim in their original text. Can’t find it anymore but it definitely existed was a great library if anyone has the link to it plz share 

https://wiki.guardyoureyes.com/Main_Page

This is it. Thanks to the gye team for sending it to me.

First of all thanks to all who posted and here is some more clarification. 
I'm not trying to say that I have Chassidus and therefore I'm good, (imo that goes against the entire Chassidus chabad which focuses on avoda bkoach atzmo).Rather my point is that instead of the foundation being other sources let's start from Chassidus.I'll try to explain where I'm coming from.I've been struggling a lot over the years and it always progressed so now that I'm trying to work on it, the concept of S.A. came up a few times (not for here and now if I'm joining...) And from my little knowledge about it is that it's not a Jewish thing, I know that many rabbis endorsed it very very much but why can't we implement the same methods (the very necessary ones ) but instead of focusing on the big book focusing on Tanya.To conclude with why I think that others think it's possible (because my real reason to think it's possible is from the hakdomo of Tanya) I heard that someone asked rabbi twerski a"h why he sends people to S.A. and not a Tanya class? And he responded that if People Would use the Tanya like they do S.A. then he would.

itzi wrote on 28 Mar 2025 12:54:

Do you know what the context of the yechidus was?

Welcome everyone to the farbrengen.
I have what to say, but I'll post when I have more time be'ezras Hashem.

Of course learning chassidus helps
Chazel say "בראתי יצר הרע בראתי תורה תבלין"