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Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!!
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TOPIC: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 1677 Views

Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 18:59 #126359

  • Hashem Yaasfeni
I would like to share something that may help, hopefully. I think everyone with struggles should take a strong lesson from this story and take encouragement.

Years ago in yeshiva a friend and I were approached by another bochur who, externally had health problems, looked a little mentally undeveloped, but who in fact was quite brilliant, you could ask him a tosfos at random and he'd have answers right there, even if his speech was a little slurred.

For some reason he decided to confide in us and he admitted that he had little or no taavah in s-x, and in fact could not get an er-ction, even if he tried. He was worried about his future and if would be able to get married and have children.

Needless to say, we were encouraging him as best as possible but what could we really tell him. Things would improve later ? he was already 20 years old at the time !!

Years later going through my own agonies with the issues and struggles of P & M and guilt even while trying to keep to a holy life, i remember praying to Hashem to make me like that bochur who had no taavah in that inyan, who did not have to suffer and struggle as I did.

But really think about it !!! Do i really want to be impotent ?!!

Do we not all want one day to have kids. If I had had my wish, I would not have the wonderful beautiful children my wife and I have today. Would I give that up just so that i would have an easy time and not struggle with the Yetzer Horah?

In fact, having the taavha and struggling is a small price to pay for the wonderful ability to be fruitful and bring children into the world, and for the ability to be healthily unified with ones wife and partner.

Looking back I am thankful Hashem did not grant my wish.

better to have it and struggle than to not have it at all and miss out on life....
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 19:20 #126361

  • AlexEliezer
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When I was in active addiction, acting out and then feeling terrible about it, I would occasionally think about what life would be like if I just cut the whole thing off.  This was pure frustration with a taiva that was out of control.  B"H now that I'm sober, I no longer have such thoughts.

And now that I am sober, I realize this was my major challenge to overcome in life (tafkid? tikkun?).  It's all part of who I am.  I empathize fully with those still deep in active addiction.  Wishing for impotence and complete loss of the taiva is just that -- wishful thinking.  But we do actually daven for this a little, and get this a little, as recovery progresses.  As the taiva is kept in check in inappropriate settings we temporarily give up a little of our virility.

But at the end of the day, this taiva has many purposes.  To challenge us and force us to grow.  And to bond with our wives (wife Alex, wife).
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 19:28 #126365

  • Hashem Yaasfeni
Yes Alex, very much so I agree.

The moment i found GYE exactly a month ago, i found what i needed to work on myself and get clean for a change.  Years of therapy and fighting cannot do what GYE is doing what a HOly endeavour.

You people at GYE have no idea (or maybe you do) what a tremendous zechus horabim you are doing, what a great honour to be a small part of it.

If anything is left to bring Mashiach (whomever he may be !) its the great work of GYE just being there and being mechazek.

So tonight at midnight when i hit 30 days, I will drink a small lechaim (no outta control taavah there) and when i announce L'chaim in my kitchen to myself, I hope and expect all of you guys, friends and Holy brothers will answer, Lchaim VeLivracha in response.

Heres to 60 days, to 90 days, etc. but one day at a time. 

HY
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 19:56 #126370

  • gibbor120
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Ok, I should be able to drink a lechayim at midnight. Lechaim!
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 21:07 #126385

  • gevura shebyesod
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Lechaim!!

Keep on Trucking!! (but don't drink and drive!  ;D )

Gevura!
!אנא עבדא דקודשא בריך הוא

וּבְיָדְךָ כֹּחַ וּגְבוּרָה וּבְיָדְךָ לְגַדֵּל וּלְחַזֵּק לַכֹּל


"If it would be so easy there wouldn't be a GYE, but if it would be impossible there also wouldn't be a GYE."
"Sometimes a hard decision leads to an easier outcome."
- General Grant


My story: guardyoureyes.com/forum/19-Introduce-Yourself/111583-hello-my-friends
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 22 Nov 2011 22:40 #126402

  • hubabuba
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same here. In active addiction, I had fantasies of cutting it off  :o
Now that I'm sober, I just accept the struggle and appreciate it in a mature way...
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 12 Dec 2011 16:21 #128363

  • me
I personally never thought of wanting to "cut if off", but always thought of having a frontal lobotomy. I knew that my problem was totally in my head. That was the makor of my fixation.
    Having grown up a bit, and realizing that my entire struggle is from Hashem....which means that it IS for my good. And, when I B"ezras Hashem make it through...one day at a time, then I will be able to say what is said over and over amongst the sober 12 steppers,
"I wouldn't trade my worst day in recovery for the best day in my addiction."
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 12 Dec 2011 17:39 #128376

  • Dov
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Running away from sex is silly. I have seen too many collapse worse than ever, after becoming sexually anorexic for a while (sometimes a few years). Taking a break from it is a great idea - I have met dozens and dozens who have done just that. Single guys who are completely abstinent for years, and married people who have taken an agreed break from sex in the mariage for a few months (some I know have chosen to wait a year or so) - and they are all better off than ever before.

Hashem apparently wants us to eat and use all the other natural things He made that are pleasant. Unfortunately, as a sex addict, I make sex into a far bigger deal than it is. That's why struggling against it is practically as bad for me as giving into the desireis! Either way, sex takes center stage. Not what G-d (or "nature", even) intends it to be, at all. All that is left for me is surrender - and I will do that today, be"H, again. 

Boruch Hashem yom, yom!!
"Off the 18-wheeler and fine on this tricycle!", "I do not particularly care exactly which "lav" suicide is. I'm not interested in it for other reasons...and you are probably the same."
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 12 Dec 2011 19:22 #128380

  • kedusha
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There is nothing more precious than turning to the RBS"O when things are getting difficult and saying "Please Hashem, help me!"  Why would you want to give that up?
Just as an alcoholic needs to avoid that first sip, a lust addict needs to avoid that first slip.Slip today? No way! ;)Fall today? No way, Jose'!
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 12 Dec 2011 21:03 #128391

  • Hashem Yaasfeni
Indeed you are right. why miss out on the opportunity to grow ?

That is why a leper is considered Mais (dead) amongst 3 others in the Gemara. Because he has to be outside the machane and is unable to be with people, he misses out on the opportunity to grow as a person.
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Re: Would any of you trade in the struggle and rather be impotent ??!! 20 Mar 2012 18:52 #134999

  • mendel 770
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I have seen too many collapse worse than ever, after becoming sexually anorexic for a while (sometimes a few years).
would'nt this include someone on medication which weakens sexual desires? it was once advised in a chizuk email.
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