Addiction

A family once trapped by darkness was lovingly shown a way to invite light.

“I wasn’t sure how I could be forgiven for all my bad choices. But I found repentance was more about who I was becoming than who I was in the past.”

Ashly Stone was in rehab—again. Despite repeated efforts to overcome her vices and addictions, she seemed to be stuck in a spin cycle. But then something unlikely happened...

“I learned the hard way that addictions can happen to anyone, and I would need more than my self-motivated nature to overcome it.”

One man is adding a recovered addict, a mental health hero, and an LBGTQ+ mediator to his list of pioneers to honor this year.

“The impression that weighed upon my soul was that God would be far less troubled by Richard’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ than He would be of our sins against charity.”

“Where my addiction waits for me to get discouraged, the Savior waits for me to give my troubles to Him.”

It started out with some poker home games, and on occasion, visiting a casino to play. Then one night his friend handed him a pill so he could stay awake and alert to gable all night long. He later found out the pill was meth, and Josh was hooked immediately.

Editor's Note: The views, information, or opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author. Readers should consider each unique situation. This content is not meant to be a substitute for individual, professional advice.

Over the years, the Church has released numerous inspirational videos on a myriad of topics, ranging from overcoming addiction to living with mental illness and most everything in between. These inspired messages are meant to uplift and help individuals persevere through the many challenges and hardships of life.

Thanks to Meridan Magazine for making us aware of this podcast episode.

From the outside looking in, Crishelle Simons says she grew up in the ideal Latter-day Saint family.

The night my brother overdosed on heroin is one I’ll never forget. I can still recall every detail: the thud of his body hitting the floor, my parents’ yells, the terror, the confusion, and the hopelessness that sank in when I realized we were back to square one with his seemingly never-ending battle with addiction.

"What I was left with was absolute fear and terror—a loneliness on a level I didn't know existed. I didn't even feel like a human being anymore," Kelly shares of her heartbreaking story of addiction—an addiction that eventually drove her to become a prostitute.

Editor's note: It is important to note there is an important distinction between pornography addiction and pornography use, even habitual pornography use. The following applies to those who experience pornography addiction, though the principles and ideas discussed can be enlightening for a variety of addictions, circumstances, or situations.

The following story was originally published on Jason F. Wright's blog in 2015and has been republished with permission.

To truly understand Tara and Jared Madsen’s story, you have to start in the present. Skip past the first five years of their marriage, when she felt lonely, confused, and disconnected from her husband. Get past the excruciating discovery of Jared’s pornography addiction and the infidelity to which it led. Skim the subsequent five years of recovery work they slogged through to get to this place. Because this place is a really good place.

Twenty-two-year-old BYU-I student Josh Peters was 11-years-old the first time he viewed pornography—and that experience led to seven years of pornography use, shame, broken relationships, addiction, and secrecy. But Peters also found healing, recovery, and a renewed faith in Heavenly Father and the Savior's Atonement. Thinking about his journey of recovery, Peters told Nate Eaton from East Idaho News, "It's helped me understand myself and understand my faith in God."

It’s a Sunday morning, and I’ve just finished breakfast. I decide to go for a walk while listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on my MP3 player. Afterward, I shower and dress in clothes I ironed the day before. Anxious not to be late for church, I gather my scriptures and lesson materials because today is my turn to teach Sunday School. I feel prepared, but I run through a mental checklist to make sure I have everything I need. Ready at last, I set out for the chapel, greet some friends before the service begins, find my usual seat, and pick up a hymnbook.

"My husband called me on the phone and he said, 'Our son has died.' I didn't immediately start to cry. I just kept saying, 'I don't know what to do,'" a new Church video begins.

"How did I go from wearing a missionary uniform to a BYU lacrosse uniform to a county jail uniform?" Tyler asked himself. "How did one pill after surgery turn into full-blown heroin addiction?"

"I didn't think it was possible to ever get clean. But I remembered in the scriptures the Lord had descended below all things. And certainly, if anything could save me it would be the Atonement," Moroni says in a new Mormon Channel video.

Ironically, the very methods we use to encourage purity in our children sometimes drive them into pornography addiction instead of helping them navigate inevitable exposure and missteps.

After wondering what was the use of living, a Mormon NFL player took 180 pain pills. When he woke up later in the hospital realizing he was still alive, he said a desperate prayer to his Heavenly Father. "I started to feel the love of Heavenly Father and the joy that I had never felt before," Stanley says in a new Mormon Channel video. "From then on, my relationship with Heavenly Father was constant. I knew that I needed Him. The only way for me to find peace was in a power greater than myself."

Stefani Seeley still remembers vividly the day her boys asked her a question about life after death that she, a Mormon, could not answer concretely.

“I don't think that cop will ever know what he did for me,” Whitney says. “He saved my life that night.”

Latter-day Saints are known for clean living. We proudly declare that we don’t smoke, drink alcohol, or even use coffee or tea. The Word of Wisdom has become a defining characteristic of modern Mormonism.

When someone you know is struggling with a pornography addiction, it can be difficult to know what you can do to help them. Here are six things you can do to show you love them and support them through their recovery process.

For a powerful podcast on this topic, click the link below.

*Note: There are many ways and programs to heal from addiction; this is just what worked for us, and we honor all paths to healing and ask for the same respect for our path.

The word “addict” or “addiction” conjures up images for almost everyone. A person would have to search far to find someone that had lived life unaffected by addiction either directly or indirectly. Most people know an addict. Many of us are, or have been, addicts. Those of us that have been there never thought we would be. Most of us are still bewildered over how it happened and enormously frustrated in our attempts to remedy our situations. No one ever sets out to be an addict. Some happen upon it accidentally, others mistakenly through immature or poor decisions early on. However it happened, it is certain that the havoc wrought by addiction was not and is not the intent of the person ensnared by this deadly malady.

Conference Talk:

By age 22, Todd Sylvester felt like he hit rock bottom. In the grasp of an eight-year drug addiction, he lost his college basketball scholarship and everything else he had ever earned. He decided to take his own life. However, this was only the beginning of Todd's incredible story, as shown in the viral Mormon Message, "The Hope of God's Light."

From eating disorders to substance abuse to pornography, addictions are something nearly every Latter-day Saint has experienced either personally or through someone they love.

“My advice to you guys is, when your buddy says, ‘Hey, let’s go smoke a joint,’ . . . yeah, it seems real cool at the time; I’ve been there," Max Hall shares. "But please don’t get caught up in that stuff. I can personally tell you it will ruin your life. Maybe not everybody, but if you have an addictive personality like me, it will. Just don’t do it because you just don’t know.”

There is no magical solution, no quick fix to overcoming addiction. Each person must examine the root of their addiction and find a way to overcome it in their personal lives. Here are a few tools that can help you better understand yourself and your addiction so that you can learn how to break it.

The following post comes from hopeandhealinglds.com and has been republished with permission. This article is one of a series of posts addressing education on and recovery from pornography addiction and betrayal trauma. For more on this series, including the husband's perspective in this story, click here.

Whether or not you are currently struggling with a sexual addiction, these insights from recovering pornography addicts will help you know dangers to avoid for yourself and your family.

If we find out that someone we are dating has an issue with pornography, should we continue to date them or should we run?

Read this powerful personal account of a wife and what she learned while helping her husband fight a pornography addiction.

Stealing, pain, screaming, heartbreak. How do you come to forgive those who hurt you the deepest, those who were meant to love and protect you?

The Mormon Channel recently released this compelling and brutally honest video of a mother so trapped in addiction, she loses the custody of her children. Though heartbroken, this woman finally finds the source of hope and forgiveness, helping her to realize the words "Be Still My Soul."

Though written by a believer not of our faith, this post addresses something nearly all Mormons struggle with—an addiction many of us let control or shape our lives from time to time. So what is emotional porn and how can we avoid it? I love this quote:

What a beautiful testimony from someone who has come to know the power of the Atonement and the Book of Mormon so intimately: "In recovery, I eventually had a living experience with this reality that changed my mindset and my heart forever. As I kept studying the Gospel in the light of these twelve true principles, I was restored to the sanity of knowing–truly knowing–that I am a beloved child of Heavenly Parents who want me, and who are, even now, in the process of training me, preparing me to inherit all that They have and–even more exciting to me–to become all that They are."

Read one Latter-day Saint's incredible conversion story, as well as her reconversion to the truths that have helped her through mental illness, addiction, and even the loss of loved ones.