MSI Press Blog

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...

My First Questions How do I know if he’s actually an addict? Tony, the mental health professional When a client comes into my office to talk about her partner who she thinks is an addict, she’ll usually begin to list all the reasons she’s sure he’s addicted to pornography. Then she’ll ask me the question, “How do I really know?” At this point, I recognize she’s doubting herself and questioning her intuition. This usually happens for one of two reasons: either she thinks she’s not qualified to make that diagnosis or, most commonly, she doesn’t want it to be true. I’ll hear the client’s entire monologue about her partner’s behavior, a behavior that led her to my office in the first place, only to hear her say, “But I’m probably wrong.” What she’s really thinking is ‘Please tell me I’m wrong.’ Chances are, she’s not wrong, but there is help, and there is hope. There are countless definitions of addiction, each with its own little nuances, but for the work I do,...

  A just-discovered but out-there-for-a-while book review of  He's a Porn Addict...Now What?  by Overbay and Shea. "The authors aren’t here to judge partner or addict; their goal is to help both find healing. As such, I believe it makes an important contribution to the field." Read the full book review  HERE . Book description: Admitting you're a drug addict or alcoholic can be difficult, but when it comes to pornography addiction, the pain of betrayal can hit the addict's partner worse than the addict himself. Difficult questions come rushing: Does he look at this stuff because I'm not enough? Was he like this when I first met him? Is this God trying to test me? What kind of help is available for him? Am I just supposed to stay here and deal with this? With  He's a Porn Addict...Now What?: An Expert and a Former Addict Answer Your Questions , you'll get pertinent answers from both sides of the equation: from a therapist and from a former pornography a...

  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...