Uri - Not scared. You post openly and clearly about the hole in yourself, and you seem to believe you are an addict. Me too, so let's talk. If you read some of my posts, they are not about fighting, at all. About struggling to live, yes, but not about fighting, beating, or winning against anything. No offense to
anyone as I love you all, especially because you are addicts.
Lust was my buddy, anchor, and guide in a painfully confusing world. Basically, it was my god. I served it privately and daily w/o fail, for years. Right through the middle of all that, I discovered and hung onto yiddishkeit, sensing it had something I needed. Something real.
I'm not here to tell you anything new about yiddishkeit, though. I don't believe you need to hear, or to
say, "just the right vort", at all. You posted that you have spoken to lots of ravs, etc about this and related issues. I assume they mostly told you what you'd expect, no? For me, predictability is now a sort of litmus test. I guess you know what I mean. Maybe I'm cynical.
So I'll tell you something that may not be predictable.
I got married too early (so did she), had a rotten time of the sexuality (so did she), and grew into a guy who acted out or struggled w/
not acting out full time (she didn't). The struggle unfortunately
defined my avodas Hashem, too. I eventually got sober with Hashem's help, using the steps (my story is elsewhere). We were fighting often during most of the years
before sobriety and after 1.5 years of hell
in sobriety, our boat started to even out its keel. The next few years were full of quiet, natural growth as individuals and as a couple. Oh, yeah - and also full of just plain quiet, too, for a change. We are so intimate now, and getting closer. We are really sharing a life. We understand eachother in the physical parts of intimacy, too, now, and are able to really
enjoy this for the first time. Now, this is happening even though my wife has no connection to recovery, no association w/any program, and is quite different than I am spiritually. For the first ten years of marriage I
never expected to ever see what we have now. I thought I had screwed up in marrying her at all, frankly; had two panic attacks over it. She didn't understand. Now I have the
rest of myself and am at
rest. I don't need to drool over her and she doesn't need to worship me. We are not fighting, either, cuz we get plenty of eachothers attention w/o fighting. And all those years I was
sure I'd eventually die an old and lonely man, filling a hole in the ground with my own
bigger hole...
I'm telling you this, if you are still reading this long megillah, because I know what a difference sanity resulting from simple sobriety means to having a happy marriage and a happy life. A simple sanity that finally
allows marriage and life to fill that hole. As an addict, I could not get it w/o sobriety and the steps.
Now, I do not condone acting out in any way (ha! not that
I matter! and who am I to talk for G-d?) but perhaps the only thing that
will truly convince you that your hole
won't be filled with what you are lusting after is trying it over and over until you give up trying. That is the way it was for me. Maybe you are better, or "luckier". I caused a lot of wreckage for myself and others, but could have made a lot more. Finally, I gave up and got help. Now, Hashem, my Best and Eternal Friend helps me out daily and - well you know how it is...
My wife and I have two "sobriety babies" now. One is six and the other three. Our first three had it rough - and they know it. They see a different home, now. Too bad we all had to wait for it so long. Iv'e heard sober recovering alkies say, "it took each and every drink I took, to get me where I am today."
Maybe a 20 year old like you can get the help to "even his keel" before adding another person to
your boat.
Whatever your journey looks like you can let us be a part of it, Uri.
Love,
Dov