Hey guys,

I was reading one of Guard's recent posts, and he mentions in passing that God gave the YH the power to create illusions that negate lessons learnt from experience.

In the past few months I have fallen multiple times because I have simply forgotten to guard myself against things that have caused to me fall in the past. It was almost as if Satan had the power to make the dangerous seem totally commonplace and 'mainstream.'

These mirages seem to be especially convincing and powerful in a moment of lust, and somehow manage to deprive you of your logic and reason.

Do any of you have any tips and strategies in overcoming these tricks of the devil? Thanks again for your time and help.

TC,

DesertLion

Welcome to the world of the addict.

Yeah, that's basically the difficulty that every addict has.
He completely recognizes that something is bad for him, and he will regret, and isn't worth it, but still does it. Again and again. Even though he hates himself for it every time, and says "I'll never do it again" every time.
I have to let you in on a rather disappointing fact.
You can't outsmart the Y"H. Nobody can. He's a malach, his abilities to convince people are not limited like ours, and he outsmarted the greatest men who ever walked the planet.
There's no advice that anybody can tell you, that "If you just remember this - you'll be safe from anything he throws at you".
There's no such secret. The concept does not exist. Such information contradicts the entire purpose of the evil inclination.
If so, why in the world are we wasting our time even trying to fight him - when he'll always be ahead of us anyways?
Because the fact that he will always know more than us, does not negate the possibility of us being 100% shomer Torah and Mitzvos, all the time.
Our job is not to outsmart him. It's to disobey him.
We have to work ourselves against a force which we cannot escape.
This force is the artificial will he creates within us, to do that which the One Above told us we should not.
The way to succeed at this, is not by getting the password, it's by doing everything in our power to fight that force.
For most of us, that entails undergoing a stuctured system of recovery. Which includes personal development, and refining of the self and the true will and it's expression. I strongly suggest that you read through the handbooks, and get a proper feel for the situation you are in.

Hey Kollel Guy,

Thanks for your incisive reply. You've really cut to the heart of the issue. Overcoming this addiction seems not only to involve guarding your eyes and totally avoiding things like pornography and masturbation, but also a complete overhaul of all of our habits. For a guy who's been addicted as long as I have this is difficult, but I'm going to start doing it, bit by bit.

I've never fully read and studied the handbooks, so I'll start doing it seriously and systematically immediately. There really is no easy way to recover or eradicate ingrained faults.

Thanks for your time and help!

TC,

DesertLion 

 

Desert Lion - First of all, just wanted to say that I am truly impressed by you. Honestly - as I'm writing this, I'm shaking my head in amazement! You are an inspiration to us all, that even completely surrounded by a world that does not value these things, you've made a decision to become more pure!

Reading the handbooks is a good idea, and share your thoughts on them!

I'd like to add onto what KG said - it's absolutely true that we need to disobey the yetzer hora. And ultimately, that's what this is all about - not letting our guard down  and constantly working on ourselves.

However, as in any battle, there are strategies that are more helpful, and different ways of slowly building ourselves - and that's what the handbooks, and this forum, are all about!

Keep on rocking!

We defeat the power of illusions by replacing illusions with clean thoughts, keeping our minds busy with constructive
ideas, thoughts, beliefs and values we cherish, like davening and learning.  When we spend most of our time on the
computer, even looking at things that are OK or working we are still training our brains to exercise in an addictive pattern
of behavior. It's even possible to get addicted to this site and spend most of your time answering everyone's posts
and commenting and then your mind becomes filled with conflicting thoughts, rescuing others.  It becomes very easy
to help others and then not see that we need to help ourselves also.

We discussed on Thursday nights call (hint) about one of the core symptons of co-dependency (the core of all addictions).
That is difficulty in owning your own reality.  This means we have difficulty experiencing who you really are and sharing
it with other people.  Many of see things as illusions where others see it clearly.  It's as if we addicts are wearing glasses
covered with wax paper when it comes to seeing our own attempts at controlling ourselves as we stand on the edge of the
cliff.


The way to defeat it is to talk about it and have a sponsor or someone with more experience point out to you that your thinking might be faulty.  Make phone calls and discuss how you're feeling with someone you trust.  Share yourself, your true self with others, with







all the warts.  This