The Internet beckons

By COREY TAULE

ctaule@postregister.com

Boyle

Idaho Falls counselors attribute the spike in sexual addiction to the Internet.

A young man sits across a desk from Pastor Gordon Boyle at his Calvary Chapel Church office in Idaho Falls. Worried about his marriage, he tells Boyle that he can't control his anger. Boyle doesn't know the man well but suspects he's hiding an even more painful truth.

"You know, it's been my experience, in the past, that oftentimes men that struggle with anger have, uh, pornography problems," Boyle says.

The young man's eyes are glued to the floor. His face turns bright red.

"I do," he replies.

When Steven A. Dahl worked for an LDS Family Services office in Montana more than a decade ago, one counselor dealt with sexual addiction. That office covered half the state.

Today, everyone in the Idaho Falls office is trained to deal with sexual addiction.

"Everybody here treats," said Dahl, clinical director of the office, which serves clients throughout the region. "We just see it."

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They are seeing so much of it that LDS Family Services now runs a weekly pornography addiction recovery group that draws dozens. Calvary Chapel launched a similar program a few years ago for members suffering from porn addiction.

And Creekside Counseling in Idaho Falls also runs a weekly porn addiction group.

All attribute this spike in porn and sexual addiction to one thing: the Internet.

It's anonymous, accessible and affordable.

Addicts no longer have to go to a store or strip club to get their fix or hide a magazine that's arrived in the mail. They can log onto the Internet and find millions of pornographic pages and images to feed their addiction.

It's so potent, in fact, local counselors say it's hooking people who would never think about spending hours at a strip club or perusing pornographic magazines.

The Internet has brought porn to the masses.

"It turns people into sex addicts who would never otherwise develop a sexual addiction," said Janet Allen, clinical director at Creekside Counseling.

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Dahl's Montana office dealt with people who snuck into strip clubs or clandestinely purchased magazines at the adult bookstore. The Idaho Falls office, he said, deals almost entirely with men who return again and again to Internet porn.

"Sexual activity on the Internet has fundamentally altered our sexuality -- and most professionals are unsure as to even how much," Dr. Patrick Carnes, P.h.D, wrote in "Out of the Shadows, Understanding Sexual Addiction." "Barriers and obstacles to sexual exploitation were literally obliterated overnight."

And the worst, Allen said, may be yet to come. That's because we don't have any idea how this will turn out.

The Internet is a relatively new creation.

We can't study past generations that had constant access to pornographic images and videos. Also, because pornography use is so shame and guilt based, Allen said, people rarely admit they have a problem.

We can guess at the number of people addicted to Internet porn, experts say, but there's no way to know for sure.

So, while there may be more questions than answers, Allen said she is certain of one thing: Because of the Internet, pornography addiction hits every age group, men and women, and each corner of society -- rich, poor, educated, and uneducated.

The Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health, an organization Carnes co-founded to help sexual addicts, estimates that between 3 percent and 5 percent of the population meet the criteria for sexual addiction. And that's a conservative estimate, the group says.

"I think it's growing and spreading like wildfire," Allen said.