Alcohol vs Porn Addiction

You defined a drinker not addicted drinker, if a alcoholic need a drink then he can cross 7 oceans to get that one drink.
What you mentioned in your post is just "WANT" of alcohol. Need/alcoholism is totally different.
It can take decades to get that addicted that without alcohol you can't function properly.

 

Comparing alcohol addiction to porn addiction is rather controversial. It seems to me that there is nothing more difficult than getting out of these addictions. There were times when I combined these, and then I was ashamed of myself. It was a challenging period for me then. It all became so familiar to me that I didn't even realize that I had become addicted to alcohol and watching erotic videos. When I met my future wife, she was shocked at how much whiskey I drank a day and took me to Scotland's Addiction Treatment to be cured. I wondered all the time. What would have happened if it wasn't for my wife and the rehab specialists?

 

If you “just stopped” drinking one day, it sounds like with no withdrawal symptoms, you probably weren’t an alcoholic.

Comparisons with porn addiction, though, might be highly relevant. Common practice is that former alcoholics are essentially “in recovery” for the rest of their lives. A single drink will not end there, and they will fall back into being drunk. Likewise for drug addicts.

Is it the same for porn addicts? Rather than generalize, it might be best to consider your own actual behavior. My experience with relapse has been that, despite perhaps weeks or months of abstinence, one incident can simply send me right back to daily use. Doesn’t mean I can’t reform again, as I’ve been trying to do now. But slipping right back has always been what happened.

We see a lot of talk in threads about a lot of different ideas and topics. The one thing I believe is essential, and perhaps often missing, is focus on one’s actual behavior.

In spite of the incredible attraction of sex, and the many psychological, emotional and physical factors that build an addiction, we do, as hard as it may seem, have control over what we actually do. That power is exerted in the present moment as you are making a decision.

 

In the SLAA meetings I went to, there were a lot of people who got sober in AA and realized they also had compulsive sexual behaviours.
An anecdote I remember from one, ‘recovering from sex addiction is like joining the Marines of 12-step programs.’

 

I have found some good post about such addiction, there are a nice explonations and advices, maybe you will find it helpful https://www.healthline.com/health/masturbation-addiction#treatment-options

 

I agree with everyone - giving up alcohol is easier for several reasons:

1. Clear line in the sand to draw. This might be easy with just pornography - but we all know that quitting also involves getting rid of edging and fantasizing which are 'porn's back up drives'. With alcohol it's pretty easy to draw a line in the sand and say 'no alcohol' and fantasizing about drinking doesn't physically effect you (it might give you the urge to actually drink but it doesn't 'satisfy' you the way you can self stimulate via sexual fantasy.

2. Widespread literature and support for quitting alcohol: There are tons of books and progams - I found Annie Grace's and Allen Carr's books key to giving up alcohol. There is a ton of quit literature and widely supported quitting times -like 'dry January' and Lent.

3. Social stigma - which one of these can you imagine talking about in the office:
"Hey what are you giving up for Lent?"
Alcohol
-"Oh Cool"
"Hey what are you giving up for Lent?"
"Fapping"
umm .. oh umm. Hey I have an errand to do later!
-

4. The establishment supports the use of pornography: Pornography is used to pacify males, modern political thought especially left/liberal -sees any restraint on sexuality as 'repression'. This is largely outdated model like 'fat makes you fat' but the political implications are so strong that the 'science' is fudged. Look at the reaction to Gary Wilson, for example. This is changing, it must but it will probably coincide with a toppling of the current post 1960s establishment.

 

I am an alcoholic with a little over four years of sobriety. I will never have another drink for the rest of my life.

Also I am a masturbation/sex addict with a little over a year and a half of celibacy. I will never watch porn or masturbate for the rest of my life, most likely I'll reintroduce sex in the future.

My experience is alcohol is much more destructive but sex addiction is much more insidious. When it comes to drugs/alcohol at the very least there is always the option to quit cold turkey (although I don't recommend this as it nearly cost me my life). You don't stop having a sexuality when you quit masturbation.

 

Congrats on your sobriety!