When I tell people that I’m a recovered female porn addict, the typical response is surprise. I can’t blame them. Not only is talking about porn considered culturally taboo, but most of the narratives around the topic have focused on men. I’m usually the first woman people have met to reveal this, even though U.K. sex therapist Paula Hall noted in a 2012 study of sex addiction that she found 25 percent of addicts were women and 74 percent of those women were heavy porn users. Though I don’t usually confess this detail about my past when first meeting someone, as a writer and researcher who has spent years advocating for an accurate representation of female porn addiction in the public space, it tends to come up.

Some people claim, "Hey, that's how G-d made me, so it's his business". If that's the case though, what are we here for in this world? Can we also say that murderers, pedophiles and rapists are that way by nature too and so it's G-d's problem?

I got a good deal of passion to serve Hashem once I was convinced that He isn't disgusted with me at all. Think about it... If a rebbi, teacher, parent, sister, wife, store clerk, whoever... have this look of near-puking whenever you see them looking at you, would you be able to summon up the resolve to give them your all? Or to deal with them with 'passion'? I doubt it.