LETTER: Pornography harms others

To the editor:

The recent opinion column ‘Shame Aggravates Sexual Addictions’ focused on the unhealthy effects of the taboo status Utah has put on sex and its related subjects. It specifically cited Fight the New Drug’s recent exposition, and stated that the information was poorly presented. However, I wish it would have included a disclaimer that validated their cause. Their point, as I see it, is not that sexual urges are damaging, but that pornography is and should be avoided at all costs.
   
Pornography shouldn’t be classified with masturbation, lust, and sex, as it was in the aforementioned article. Pornography, unlike the other three, is fatal. The lives of three people dear to me were ruined because of it. One attempted suicide, one threatened to kill his wife, and another tried to run over his pregnant wife with a car. Months later, we discovered that their dramatic actions were an effect of finding pornography and consequently becoming addicted to it.
   
Research shows that pornography releases the chemicals that produce euphoria during sex. Obviously these chemicals have addictive traits. These three adults, who were all married, became so addicted to pornography that daily sex wasn’t enough to satisfy their cravings, and thus they became increasingly dissatisfied with their lives. Psychological interviews showed that in two of the three cases, no other cause could be identified (the exception struggled with PTSD). They were not struggling with affairs, drug addictions, or extreme financial or marital woes. This is according to the mental professionals they visited, not the opinions of their family members. With one exception, the only cause that could be seen of their 180s in sanity was pornography.
   
Pornography is NOT condonable in any circumstance. It disrupts the viewer’s mental balances and makes natural, healthy sexual urges escalate into uncontrollable addictions. The lives of three families I love have been ruined because of pornography. One of the addicted has been legally banned from ever seeing his children again. Those children fear him to this day. Any one of them would tell you his personality changes began not long after his addiction to pornography.
   
I understand that the author of ‘Shame Aggravates Sexual Addictions’ doesn’t agree with how Fight the New Drug presented their anti-pornography material. However, I wish they would have put in the disclaimer that Fight the New Drug’s cause is right, regardless of the presentation.
   
Forgive me if I’m overreacting. This is a subject that has bruised my heart forever.

Taleechia Riley