Teen Sex Addiction

Sex addiction is not restricted to any age group, but it seems to often get rooted during the teen years.  We wanted to address the teens out there in the hopes that they will join the growing numbers of people breaking free of addiction.  This page is written primarily to teens who are interested in living to please God.  If you do not know God, but are interested in learning about him, please visit our Peace with God page.  

The habits you form and the thought patterns you practice during your teen years are setting the foundations for the rest of your life.  Pornography and other "sexually-charged" material cement unforgettable memories in your mind that will affect your future marriage and sex life.  It will also corrupt your everyday thought patterns and how you relate to people.  Other consequences  can include:

• Grieving God's Spirit
• Giving the devil a foothold to oppress you
• Curses on you, your partner and your future children
• Spiritual confusion   
• Emotional confusion  
• Unbridled pursuit of lust and perversion

These are just a few of the many possible consequences that could affect your body, mind and spirit.  Please see Consequences of Sex Sin for more info.  

Things that make your situation challenging:  Your situation as a teen has many factors that can make resisting sexual sin very difficult.  Each one of these factors is manageable with God's help. 

• Raging hormones:  It may seem a cruel reality that the hormones kick in during our teen years and heighten our sexual awareness and sensitivity.  The urges can be so potent that the idea of waiting several years for marriage to enjoy sex is hard to imagine.  It is possible to wait!  The rewards for doing so include maximum intimacy with your future spouse and a memory free of past sexual encounters.  
• Masturbation:  Many teens fall into a masturbation habit for one reason or another.  It is often regarded as a harmless release of sexual energy and some even deem it beneficial.  The truth is that masturbation increases the sexual pressures in your mind and body. It actually makes it more difficult to walk in sexual purity.  Please visit our masturbation page for more info.
• Computers:  As a teen , you are probably well skilled at using the computer to find what you want on the internet.  Teens often can run circles around their parents and keep them in the dark about what they've been viewing on the web, and/or who they've been chatting with.  Leveling with your parents will require you to surrender any pride that you have, and courage to help your parents understand the extent of your sex addiction problem.  If they are enabling you to continue your addiction by their lack of computer knowledge, then you owe it to them to tell them how they can help you.
• Peer Pressure:  Pride and the hunger for approval are the underlying drivers in the power of peer pressure.  This power can be significant, and it has often ruined people early in life through sexual promiscuity, drugs and alcohol.  The power can be broken when we look to God in humility for our identity, approval and rewards in life.  This often means we may appear to be foolish, prudish, religious, naive and unpopular with our "friends."  People may even mock us.  Jesus said that we will be blessed when people mock and ridicule us for his name's sake (Matthew 5:10-12).  God will help us in those situations by strengthening our hearts to continue to walk the narrow road (Psalm 31:24).
• Television and Movies: TV and movies powerfully affect our judgment.  Part of the reason they are so powerful is that they use a combination of sensory impressions to communicate a worldly value system that is contrary to God's commands for healthy living.  The entertainment industry is constantly promoting sexual promiscuity in every form.  If you continue to feed your mind with TV and movies, you will be more likely to buy into the sexual fantasies they portray.  Additionally, your chances of breaking sex addiction will be very slim.  

Sources for Help:  If you sense God prompting you to get help for your situation, I encourage you to take steps now.  The longer you delay responding to God, the more chance you have of being distracted by the temptations of the world.  Here are some sources for further help:

• Take our online course Freedom Journey
• Start fighting the temptations
• Get hooked up with good church and youth group
• Start having daily Quiet Times with God

Truth to Remember:  The truth is the greatest weapon we have against the devil's lies.  Truth destroys the power of the lies.  Here are some key truths to keep in mind as you move forward:

• God gave us sex as one of the greatest gifts of all.  When we reserve our sexuality for our marriage, we maximize our chances for intimacy, sexual satisfaction, peace and fidelity.  
• Sex before marriage (fornication) is sin (1 Corinthians 6:9, 2 Corinthians 12:21, Galatians 5:19; Hebrews 13:4; Colossians 3:5) and it has destructive consequences. 
• Fantasizing about sex sin is just as sinful as physically committing the act (Matthew 5:28). 
• Your eyes are the gateways to your soul.  Whatever you allow to fill your eyes, will fill your soul.  Jesus said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  Matthew 6:22-23

Tips for success in fighting daily temptations: 

• Ask God to strengthen you and show you the way out of any temptation you might face
• Ask God to funnel your sex drive energy into healthy, nonsexual activities 
• Praise God.  This can be singing a song, reading a scripture (ex. psalm) or simply telling God how much you love him.  Praise helps connect you with God's power that will help you overcome the temptations and any evil forces behind them.  
• Commit your eyes to only look at pure and wholesome things, i.e. don't lust after people at school, stop looking at porn, destroy any magazines and/or image files that are causing you to sin. 
• Commit to reading the Bible each day, along with some prayer and praise time. Pray that God will protect you from temptation throughout the day.
• Memorize some key temptation verses to recite when you feel it coming on.  For example: 1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 2:18.  Psalm 119:9-11 is an excellent verse to keep in mind at all times.  (see more temptation verses)
• Find some other members of the same sex who are committed to sexual purity and meet on a regular basis to discuss your walk with God and keep each other accountable.
• When you fall, don't give up and don't accept the devil's condemnation.  Approach God with a repentant heart and ask for Him to forgive you and strengthen you again. Jesus paid the price for your sin!  Psalm 51 is excellent to pray in this situation.

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