MSI Press Blog

  This excerpt comes from  He's a Porn Addict...Now What?  (Overbay and Shea) Does he love porn more than me?   Tony, the mental health professional: At some point in his life, he turned to porn as a coping mechanism. He wasn’t feeling connected to his job, his kids, his health, his church, his parents, and his spouse. He turned to porn because he didn't necessarily know how to connect to his life. Most likely he fell into a habit of turning to porn because he didn’t have the tools to become a better husband, father, or employee; he didn’t have the discipline to get in better shape or write the great American novel. He turned to porn as a coping mechanism. Not everything has to tie back to childhood, but I’ve found that when you have early exposure to pornography, somewhere under age 11 or 12 (the average age of first exposure continues to trend down, it now sits somewhere between 8 and 11) you tend to become sexualized. Back before porn was at ever...

excerpt --  Francesca Palazzolo, Researcher, Sydney The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the world we live in. Since city-after-city in country-after-country began to introduce strict social-distancing laws, including stay-at-home directives, most of us have been stuck at home whether we like it or not. One concern attached to this global pandemic is Internet pornography use. Already, prior to the pandemic, the prevalence of Internet porn use was incredibly high. Pornhub, one of the most famous tube sites boasted 42 billion hits in 2019 alone, up from 33.5 billion in 2018. And, in a stroke of publicity genius on March 24, 2020, Pornhub announced it would make its premium offering free for 30 days to help “flatten the curve” of the virus spread. Following this announcement, usage spiked across the world with Italy’s use increasing 61% after the announcement. However, prior to this broadcast, traffic was up anyhow, according to early research on the impact of the COVID-19 pa...

A just-discovered but out-there-for-a-while book review of   Porn and the Pandemic  by Joshua Shea. "I certainly learned a lot (like porn on Youtube!). The short book format makes a quick read, and I would definitely recommend it." Read the full book review from Mental Health @ Home  HERE . Book description: Porn and the Pandemic examines the early months of the exponential growth of Internet pornography during the time of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Author Joshua Shea, himself a former pornography addict, traces how segments of the population flocked to only pornography and tells the stories of those whose lives were impacted, including his own. Shea interviews former pornography addicts who succumbed to temptation during quarantine, often after years of sobriety, along with those who managed to "stay on the wagon" learning why addicts either failed or succeeded while stuck at home. Along with an analysis of online porn industry marketing techniques and measu...

Joshua Shea, author of MSI published book, He's a Porn Addict...Now What? seemingly had it all. A loving wife, two children, and a supportive extended family. In 2010, after nearly fifteen years working of his way up the journalism ladder, he launched a lifestyle magazine in his hometown. Within a year, he was one of the founders of Central Maine’s largest film festival and had won a seat on the City Council in Auburn, Maine. Accolades, including receiving the Key to the City and being called one of the “Next 10 People Shaping Maine’s Economy” by a state newspaper followed. While the public got one picture of Joshua, behind closed doors, his longtime mental health and addiction issues were festering. A workaholic by nature, he actively ignored the red flags surrounding his long-existing pornography and alcohol problems. Finding it easier to lose himself in a bottle of tequila and adult websites, his relationships with his family, colleagues, and f...

  excerpt from He's a Porn Addict...Now What? (Overbay and Shea) -  Can a guy really look at pictures and images without comparing them to the person he is with?   Tony, the mental health professional:  I know from working with enough addicts that the typical reason someone is addicted to pornography is that it’s a coping mechanism for the parts of their life that they aren't satisfied with and it becomes an addiction they turn to again and again despite the isolation and shame. The pictures in the magazines and the images that they're watching in the videos are an unhealthy escape. But unfortunately, even when they aren’t isolated and are with their wives, they are still preoccupied with the fantasy imagery. A lot of the clients I work with admit they think of pornography when they are intimate with their wives. For young men, the growing rates of erectile dysfunction because of pornography is staggering. They are now growing up with such an unhealthy diet of porn ...