Learn Guitar and Overcome Porn Addiction

Recovery out of porn addiction is not as simple as learning guitar, but it can help a great deal, particularly when we realise that learning to coordinate the fingers to make chords is exactly the sort of thing that creates the brain callisthenics that block the passage of neurotransmissions within the pleasure sites in the brain. It would be the same thing as writing with our opposite hand; no matter how frustrating it would be, it would help reconfigure our thoughts during the mode of temptation.

Learning guitar, unlike writing with our wrong hand, is at least enjoyable, especially as we learn to make the G chord, the C chord, the D chord, and E and E minor chords. And as we learn some rhythms in strumming we are encouraged to coordinate both hands in the playing of a tune.

Essentially, in learning guitar (and not simply playing it if you know how to) is about giving the body something that the mind is busy with. If you know guitar, learn violin or piano.

In the time it takes to learn an instrument there is significant ground made in starting on the road to recovery from pornography addiction. And for as long as it’s been an issue may be the time we need to be prepared to put in, in order to recover. Such an investment of time, however, is priceless, because pornography addiction needs to be overcome – it changes how the brain operates and even looks.

Whilst it is never as simple as doing one thing to overcome such a large and pervasive problem as pornography addiction, learning guitar (or some other musical instrument) is one very tangible way of dealing with the impulses that push a person toward viewing pornography as a masturbatory aid.

The most important part of any recovery program is, of course, the processes that keep us honest and accountable – as those that are party to recovery keep themselves brutally honest and self-accountable before God.

***

Learning guitar can help in overcoming pornography addiction because teaching the fingers to do something complex uses part of the brain that suppresses the part of the brain that engages with pornography. This gives a person impulse control when they have the impulse to watch pornography.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.

Acknowledgement: to Jason Huxley of Guilty Pleasure and Dr Allan Meyer and Dr William Struthers, recognised experts on pornography addiction. Visit the Guilty Pleasure website for more information.