143: The Secret Life of Porn Addiction: How Silence and Shame Keep Men Stuck (with Todd Smithson)

You've stopped watching porn, but your marriage is still hurting. Your wife still struggles to trust you, and despite the progress you're making, the emotional wounds of betrayal haven't disappeared. Why isn't sobriety enough to heal your marriage? In this episode of the No More Desire Podcast, I'm joined by Matt Wenger, Executive Clinical Director at Begin Again Institute and a specialist in sex addiction and betrayal trauma, to explore what genuine relationship recovery looks like after por...

If you struggle with intense cravings for porn or masturbation, or find yourself overwhelmed by anxiety, anger, shame, or other difficult emotions, you may be missing an important part of recovery: learning how to work with your emotions through your body. Many men trying to quit porn believe the solution is to develop more willpower, resist their urges, or simply think differently. But porn cravings aren't always about sexual desire. They can also be connected to deeper emotional needs for c...

What happens to a marriage when porn addiction, sexual betrayal, secrecy, and broken trust have changed the way two people relate to each other? And is codependency always the best framework for understanding the betrayed spouse—or could there be a healthier way to think about love, attachment, and relationship recovery? In this episode of the No More Desire Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Rob Weiss to explore prodependence vs. codependency, betrayal trauma, porn addiction recovery, and what it ...

Porn addiction recovery is about more than learning how to stop watching porn. Over time, I have come to believe that real recovery asks a much deeper question: What kind of man am I becoming? In this conversation with Chris Bruno on The Restorative Man Podcast, I share parts of my own story with pornography addiction, anxiety, perfectionism, emotional avoidance, marriage, and fatherhood. We explore how the patterns beneath addiction can continue even after pornography is gone, and why lastin...

What does your past have to do with porn addiction recovery? Maybe you’ve wondered why you need to dig into your childhood, emotions, family relationships, or old wounds when the problem seems simple: you want to quit porn. I understand that question. But the deeper I’ve gone in my own recovery—and the more men I’ve worked with—the more convinced I’ve become that pornography addiction is rarely just about sexual desire. For many of us, porn became a way of coping long before we understood wha...