Think about how easy you have it

The one big difference being openness.

If I had cancer or was quitting smoking etc. I would be able to tell everybody about it and be able to rely on the support of family and friends.

With porn it's a battle I'm largely fighting on my own, and whilst I agree that you don't have to raise money, risk surgery etc. it's so much easier to no fight. Even if I was addicted to drugs I'd need money to go and buy drugs, I don't need money to access porn.

 

I would disagree that all you have to do is "nothing." It doesnt take "nothing" to gain something. You need to take the time to mature, make a plan, set new goals, use these forums, many need sex therapists..this isnt nothing. Many people, myself included, spend a lot of time to make sure they dont relapse. I constantly have to fight so I can stay away from pmo. Time is something that isnt free, so for myself personally, I'm not doing "nothing." I see my sex therapist tomorrow and last I checked that costs me my time and my money. It's not covered under my insurance. The time away from work I will be missing costs me money too. The time I spend here to stay clean takes away time from my life where other people dont need to come here. And I assume you're not suffering much, OP, because I experience withdrawal symptoms still and I've been clean over a couple of months. The medication for serotonin reuptake and supplements for health that I now need arent "nothing."

 

I do not like blaming "things people do" for outcome of their life. There is a good reason for that.
Term addiction should never be applied so hastily to behaviors like pornography use, because these behaviors do not produce truly compulsive loss of control, in contrast real addiction behaviors - like drug abuse.
True addiction is manifested when person does not care about anything other than "taking the drug" and exercises no control over his/her actions.
For this reason real addicts end up living on the street, selling their belongings and eventually get in to crime.
You can say someone has an addiction, when they snort, smoke or take the drug in-front of anyone without care, when they show up stoned to borrow money to get drugs. That is addiction.
This is important because addiction means loss of individual control, loss of any regard for anything other that the drug.
In doing so addiction removes responsibility from the person and rightfully so.

Because individual looses executive control, addiction as a disorder helps explain and understand their irrational and destructive behavior.

Use of term addiction does not fit with behaviors most people who claim to be porn addicts exhibit. Vast majority can withhold use indefinitely if circumstances are such that they can not consume pornography.
They do not open their phone and watch porn openly and begin masturbating on the train, because they "need a fix". In majority of cases withhold and postpone their behavior that they call addictive.
These are two conflicting ideas, addictive behavior does not allow for rational control.

Porn addict by definition is someone who watches porn and does not feel ok if he/she did not use it. Someone who will do anything to watch porn and does not care about where and how they get their porn.
Although I am sure there are people I described above, they are extraordinarily rare.

So finally I can conclude this with saying that calling porn use an addiction on wide scale, is in most cases an attempt to blame something for your poor behavior.
It allows one to enjoy being part of the group of addicted and struggling, and further justify behavior one seems to despise.

If something is hard to stop or start, it does not mean it is an addiction.
People want to start working out, they swear they will start tomorrow and they do not, in a week they swear again and they do not.
People say they will stop eating pizza or drinking so much coffee, but next day comes and they do not.
Behavior change is inherently hard, and most of the problems people here report fall in to category of "habitual porn abuse" and struggle with behavior change.
A habit people try to stop so much they label it as addiction

Recognizing your porn use is not an addiction, but a habit you developed and continue to fuel, is in my eyes far more effective, honest and liberating for the individual. It puts the person face to face with reality - his behavior.

 

You missed the point.

Names we give things greatly affect our behavior.
Saying - someone have cancer, creates clear picture of what the person is dealing with and the difficult life ahead.
Then saying - ops, never mind, it is not cancer, just a flu, changes persons life.
These are fundamental changes in how the person feels about his life, and those happen because he/she heard one word - cancer.

Words are important, and so when people with a "flu" start screaming they have "cancer" so everybody including themselves feels sorry for them - its a problem.
When people diagnose themselves with an addiction, while they simply developed emotional problems and poor habits. They deceive themselves.
This deception allows them to blame everything on addiction, but the worst part is that this leads to inaction.
They explain away their poor behavior with one - word addiction.
Any health problem they have is obviously caused by - addiction
Feeling bad today - because: addiction.
Feeling shy - addiction.
Odd sensation in the leg - addiction.
...
Problems are because of addiction

How convenient.

And all it does is lead to inaction, it's an excuse to continue to struggle, and not to change.

 

Let me remind you - you are on public forum. I am part of the public.You came here to interact with us, present your ideas and get feedback. Feedback it seems you do not like

Additionally you said "Pornography/sex addiction is a sort of a mental virus or disease - I think we all can agree on that."

I disagree with that. That very statement is an attempt to label porn "a disease, a virus" and blame party follows, explaining what bad things it does for "insert reason why", and everyone here that you believe agrees with you, should be cheering - yes, yes its true!

But I disagree.

I am the wrong person to ask to rank you in this hypothetical ranking, that supposedly ranks how much of this "virus you got in your mind".

 

Finally someone else gets it. The key word is "Nothing". Do nothing. You are watching an attractive woman/man (I don't know you)? Do nothing. You are thinking about pornography? Think about nothing. You have urges to touch yourself? Do nothing.

Nothing.