Why I Kept Dating Someone with a Pornography Problem

This article originally appeared on ldsliving.com and was written by Tessa James. Below is an excerpt from James’ article.

As a single sister in the Church, I’ve gone on my fair share of dates (more than I can remember in my 10 years of dating). Going out with someone who has a problem with pornography was never my goal in life. In fact, I had tried to avoid it at all costs. But as I got older, I realized that finding someone who had never been mixed up in pornography was going to be trickier than I thought.

Last year, I dated someone who alluded to me that he used to have a problem with pornography. We’ll call him Guy #1. (He was the first guy to tell me, but he wouldn’t be the last.) I could see the effects of the pornography seeping into the way he treated me. He really adored me, but his brain had been tainted by the years of pornography use. And I understood from the few conversations we had about it that it was a battle that he was still struggling with to some degree.

He was never extremely open about his problem, and I had no idea where he stood with the Lord and his testimony. This made me afraid to be open and vulnerable with him, and I never truly trusted him. I wanted things to work out between us, but no matter how much I tried, the thought always came to me, “You should break up with him.”

So I did.

Read the rest of James’ experience at ldsliving.com.