No Porn and Corn

[Non Sequitur]

Speaking of corn, when I used to travel to Atlanta, every Tuesday night a bunch of us used to go to a bar in the Buckhead where they had "Tuesday Trivia Night". Every table was a team and every team had to have a name. On one particular Tuesday we came in second place to the team "Hmm, I Don't Remember Eating Corn".

[The_Tick]

I knew a woman who simultaneously had two different prescriptions for Soma from two different doctors. Her diagnosis was "restless leg syndrome", whatever the hell that is, but her taking of Soma had nothing to do with her leg.

This is my mothers diagnosis exactly.

She has 3 different doctors writing scripts. Every time I talk with her she sounds like a space cadet. She gets mad if we bring it up.

She takes 1, but doesn't fall asleep. She takes a 2nd because the first didn't work. She passes out at this point, then takes a 3rd or 4th because she doesn't remember the first two.

This is the reason we kicked her out of our house 3 year ago.

Her reasoning...if the doctor says it is okay then I should STFU.

[statman]

This is my mothers diagnosis exactly.

She has 3 different doctors writing scripts. Every time I talk with her she sounds like a space cadet. She gets mad if we bring it up.

She takes 1, but doesn't fall asleep. She takes a 2nd because the first didn't work. She passes out at this point, then takes a 3rd or 4th because she doesn't remember the first two.

This is the reason we kicked her out of our house 3 year ago.

Her reasoning...if the doctor says it is okay then I should STFU.

RLS is one of those things that's most definitely real in some people, but to actually confirm that someone has RLS, you need a sleep study to see it happening. Those run over $1000. So doctors generally just take a patient's word for it.

An RLS diagnosis opens-up a broad array of controlled substances to a patient. Want some Soma? Sure! How about hydrocodone? No problem! Vallium? Why not! ... And the ability to doctor shop is pretty much limitless.

As long as you're willing to pay out of pocket for an additional doctor visit every three to six months, and make sure you get your scripts filled at different pharmacies. That way even your insurance company doesn't know you're doing it. You could go into two or three different doctors, list-off the symptoms of RLS to each, and come away with scripts for any combination of hydrocodone, Soma, Vallium, gabapentin, etc. With that you've got enough drugs to pass each and every waking moment in a drug-induced stupor...

[BigFatMeanie]

Another point of view: Porn is causing trouble and pain in the lives of many church members, to the point that President Hinckley himself devoted a General Priesthood meeting talk to the subject. I am seeing evidence of the problem in our ward and stake, and I am not even a bishop. I don't think it's an "obsession" at all, it's just strong response to a what is seen as a serious problem.

HOW is porn causing said problems?

[BigFatMeanie]

I don't disagree that porn causes trouble and pain for many LDS church members, but that's a guilt issue, not a porn issue. If at every Conference the members were constantly told to not look at women's shoulders because it was evil, then a lot of trouble and pain would be caused by LDS men sneaking peaks at women's shoulders.

I agree with you here.

I don't think LDS church members should look at porn. I also don't believe porn in an of itself destroys more families/marriages than any other thing that can be abused including:

- alcohol
- tobacco
- gambling
- prescription drugs
- over/under eating
- over/under spending (money issues are huge cause of destroyed marriages)

The incessant harping and guilting on porn is making the situation worse than it should be.

[ERCougar]

A study suggesting that the constant harping may be counterproductive:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-out-your-mind/201009/watching-porn-the-problem-must-not-be-named

Cardiac's absolutely correct,IMO.

[LA Ute]

HOW is porn causing said problems?

Don't misconstrue this as an appeal to authority, but I was struck by something Neal Maxwell said some time ago. Essentially (it was in a talk to youth) he said that porn, drugs and premarital sex "are direct frontal assaults on your free agency and your chances for happiness." To me that is compelling. I've seen it play out in lives of people close to me. So if one believes in evil and in a Satan who wants to make us as miserable as he is, it's easy to see porn as one of his tools.

[FN Phat]

Don't misconstrue this as an appeal to authority, but I was struck by something Neal Maxwell said some time ago. Essentially (it was in a talk to youth) he said that porn, drugs and premarital sex "are direct frontal assaults on your free agency and your chances for happiness." To me that is compelling. I've seen it play out in lives of people close to me. So if one believes in evil and in a Satan who wants to make us as miserable as he is, it's easy to see porn as one of his tools.

Damn, I am 2 for 3. I guess I am one foot into hell.

[DapperDan]

Don't misconstrue this as an appeal to authority, but I was struck by something Neal Maxwell said some time ago. Essentially (it was in a talk to youth) he said that porn, drugs and premarital sex "are direct frontal assaults on your free agency and your chances for happiness." To me that is compelling. I've seen it play out in lives of people close to me. So if one believes in evil and in a Satan who wants to make us as miserable as he is, it's easy to see porn as one of his tools.

How can those be an assault against free agency? Aren't I still free to choose whether or not to do/partake of said items?

[falafel]

How can those be an assault against free agency? Aren't I still free to choose whether or not to do/partake of said items?

As anyone who has been overcome by an addiction will tell you, the more you expose yourself to the addictive substance, more difficult it becomes to resist the urge to do it.

I can't believe I'm explaining this.

[DapperDan]

As anyone who has been overcome by an addiction will tell you, the more you expose yourself to the addictive substance, more difficult it becomes to resist the urge to do it.

I can't believe I'm explaining this.

Does my free agency disappear because a choice is more difficult?

Edit: I should add that I understand that it can effect making the "right" choice more difficult.

[Pheidippides]

As anyone who has been overcome by an addiction will tell you, the more you expose yourself to the addictive substance, more difficult it becomes to resist the urge to do it.

I can't believe I'm explaining this.

The one thing that I will say here is that I think addiction to food is underpreached. It is unique in that we can live without drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling or even sex, but we cannot live without food. And I deeply believe that gluttony is responsible at least as many family, marital, health and personal problems as porn, if not substantially more - as well as, in my view, against the gospel. And yet, in spite of the fact that it is something almost all of us struggle with and is also something for which the visual signs are usually apparent, we engage recklessly, openly and with less guilt than porn because of what is preached and what is not.

I'm not saying I want or expect to see the church combating this problem with the same fervor. I use it to illustrate the point that choice of topic to harp on may have everything to do with easy targets.

[YOhio]

The one thing that I will say here is that I think addiction to food is underpreached. It is unique in that we can live without drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling or even sex, but we cannot live without food. And I deeply believe that gluttony is responsible at least as many family, marital, health and personal problems as porn, if not substantially more - as well as, in my view, against the gospel. And yet, in spite of the fact that it is something almost all of us struggle with and is also something for which the visual signs are usually apparent, we engage recklessly, openly and with less guilt than porn because of what is preached and what is not.

I'm not saying I want or expect to see the church combating this problem with the same fervor. I use it to illustrate the point that choice of topic to harp on may have everything to do with easy targets.

Interesting thoughts. I think what is most helpful to me is not necessarily going through a laundry list of things we should avoid, but helping individuals to recognize personal obstacles that need to be overcome in order to find inner peace and draw closer to the Spirit.

[falafel]

Does my free agency disappear because a choice is more difficult?

Edit: I should add that I understand that it can effect making the "right" choice more difficult.

Who knows. I'm sure some people would say that they have very little "control" over their lives as a result of addiction. Besides, LA (I can't believe I'm defending him) didn't say it completely removed agency, just that these things are a "frontal assault" on agency. It would seem to me that a reduction in one's ability to make a certain choice falls into that category.

I think arguing that one's agency still exists even though choices have become more "difficult" to make is just semantics.

[creekster]

The one thing that I will say here is that I think addiction to food is underpreached. It is unique in that we can live without drugs, alcohol, porn, gambling or even sex, but we cannot live without food. And I deeply believe that gluttony is responsible at least as many family, marital, health and personal problems as porn, if not substantially more - as well as, in my view, against the gospel. And yet, in spite of the fact that it is something almost all of us struggle with and is also something for which the visual signs are usually apparent, we engage recklessly, openly and with less guilt than porn because of what is preached and what is not.

I'm not saying I want or expect to see the church combating this problem with the same fervor. I use it to illustrate the point that choice of topic to harp on may have everything to do with easy targets.

THis reminds me of that lyriuc from The Wall:

"get 'em up against the wall!"