Coming Soon: Breaking Free Workbook for LDS Men

Since its founding last year, The Mending The Armor Program has been specifically focused on treating LDS youth and young adults who are striving to conquer pornography addiction.   Unique because of this focus, the program has spread to 18 offices around the country and is currently assisting many teens and young adults in their battle to achieve a recovery from pornography addiction.  The program has been successful in assisting many youth in breaking free from the addiction and being able to accomplish goals including serving missions and become worthy to participate in priesthood duties.

As a result of the success of the program and the demand for quality treatment for LDS men struggling with pornography addiction, The Mending The Armor program is pleased to announce that it is expanding its services to provide specific, formal treatment for LDS men.  The Breaking Free Workbook for LDS Men is scheduled for release in August 2013.  Using a similar format as the youth program, The Mending The Armor program for LDS Men will utilize the Breaking Free workbook in conjunction with individual, group and family therapy sessions.  Current Mending The Amor providers will have access to this new workbook to expand the program to begin work with LDS men. 

Highlights of the Mending The Armor program include a formal, structured approach for assisting clients to understand the cycle of pornography addiction, the underlying emotional issues that drive the addiction, the thinking errors that accompany the addiction, the development of specific strategies for relapse prevention and the creation of a long-term recovery plan.  In addition, the program provides on-line accountability, support for spouses/families and incorporates LDS principles and doctrine into the treatment while encouraging participation in LDS Addiction Recovery Meetings as a source of on-going support.

Missionaries, Mending The Armor and LDS Addiction Recovery

​Many of the clients who have participated in the Mending The Armorprogram have been young men preparing for missions or returned missionaries who have slipped back into the addiction.  As therapists working with LDS young men, we recognize the problem is real and that unfortunately, even returned missionaries sometimes need treatment for pornography addiction.

Dr. Don Hilton stated in his book He Restoreth My Soul wrote: “The current scenario of sending the young man on a mission after three to six months of “white knuckle’ sobriety is only setting him up for intermittent struggling throughout his mission, and/or quick relapse upon return and re-introduction into the overwhelming media barrage he will sure face”.

Speaking of returned missionaries he wrote: “Understand that the majority of young men returning from missions are slipping quickly into addiction, and we must be ready to support them with 12 Step support groups specific to pornography addiction immediately upon return from their mission.  We should be as determined to support them as the adversary is to capture them as they emerge from a spiritual high and enter the world again.  If we can change the current pattern of quick relapse after mission, we can begin to see dating and marriage patterns return to normalcy”.

Treatment specific to pornography addiction among LDS young men is greatly needed.  Mending The Armor is designed to meet this need.

Using the YPAST (Youth Pornography Addiction Screening Tool) our outcome studies have shown that participants who have completed this program, participated in LDS addiction recovery meetings and worked closely with their bishops have experienced high rates of success in abstaining and managing pornography addiction and other unwanted sexual behaviors.  The average pre-treatment YPAST score is a 57.  The post-treatment YPAST score is a 19.  These findings suggest significant improvement in reducing and eliminating pornography use among our clients.

It is important to note that the Mending The Armor program is not intended to replace the LDS Addiction Recovery Program, but rather to prepare youth and young adults to more fully benefit from recovery meetings.  Participants are encouraged to participate in LDS twelve-step Recovery meetings in conjunction with the Mending The Armor program.  Clients are prepared to transition from our treatment services into their local LDS Addiction Recovery Programs for long-term support and recovery.

The “Slippery Slope”—Helping LDS Youth in Treatment Avoid Relapse into Porn

Compulsive Use of pornography with or without masturbation often leads to pushing boundaries and morality violations including sexting, misuse of social networks and improper on-line conduct.

In  young adulthood the continued use of compulsive pornography can eventually lead to anonymous sex (met online, in sex clubs etc.), frequenting adult bookstores and strip clubs, prostitutes and massage parlors, multiple affairs, GPS smartphone hook-ups and a multitude of other dangerous sexual behaviors.

For those struggling with pornography addiction, the concept of the “slippery slope” is a familiar one.  Some refer to it as “the bubble” or “the trance”.  These terms refer to the mindset and physical symptoms that accompany the fixation and drive for a sexual experience.   In this trance like state fixated on sexual arousal, the physical symptoms include Increased heart rate, dilated pupils, shallow breathing, sweating,  a “rush” or “euphoric” feeling and the most destructive a Reduced Capacity for Intellectual Functioning.

Once a young person finds themselves in this condition it becomes very difficult to not act out sexually in one form or another.  Teens and young adults involved in treatment for pornography addiction learn to recognize when they are entering the “slippery slope” or “the bubble”.  As part of their recovery plan, they formulate a strategy for avoiding this state by reaching out to others.  Often, those they connect with are members of their treatment groups who are at a more advanced stage of recovery from pornography addiction.

When a young person recognizes the signs of the “slippery slope” they train themselves to immediately text or call a support person.  This act of reaching out to others disrupts the pattern and allows the young person to share thoughts and feelings with another person rather than remaining on the slippery slope and dealing with emotional discomfort through acting out sexually.

Group therapy for teens and young adults is an important part of the treatment process because it creates a support system.  It allows young people to support and strengthen one another in their efforts to overcome the addiction.

Q&A: My son has been clean from pornography for several months without professional help. What benefit is there for him to participate in the program?

It sounds like your son is making progress and it is encouraging that he has been able to refrain from using pornography for several months. The Mending The Armor program can still be of great benefit to your son as we want to assure that all youth who participate in the program are able to achieve a long-term recovery from pornography addiction and not simply be “abstinent” for a period of time. Breaking an addiction to pornography can be difficult and often times can involve multiple periods of abstinence followed by relapses. We believe there is a difference between “abstinence” and “recovery”.

It has been our experience that many youth are able to refrain from viewing pornography by using will power alone for a period of time, but that unfortunately, too many eventually relapse back into the addiction. This happens with some young men who refrain from viewing pornography to become worthy to serve a mission, but with the stresses and demands of missionary life, begin to struggle again with the addiction while serving. This also happens with some returned missionaries who have been able to remain abstinent while on their missions, but upon returning home and reintegrating into society, become vulnerable and return to the addiction. For many adults attempting to overcome the addiction, their pornography addiction has been a life-long issue and only after years of failed attempts, have realized that they can’t do it on their own and need professional help. The Mending The Armor program is designed to help young people learn to manage the addiction while they are still young, so they can avoid having to deal with the problem later in life.

“Abstinence” is defined as simply refraining from the use of pornography through will power, while “recovery” refers to the acquisition of the insight to understand the origins, cycle and underlying issues that accompany the addiction along with the skills to manage the emotions that drive the addiction.

Youth who complete the program are provided professional clinical intervention to assist them in identifying the origins of the addiction, the cycle of the addiction, the underlying emotional issues that drive the addiction and assistance in the creation of a recovery plan. The recovery plan then serves as a long-term guide for effective management of a proclivity toward using pornography. Completing the Mending The Armor program serves as an important tool beyond simply “will power” for helping youth to overcome pornography addiction.