(ZENIT News / Rome, 18.09.2024).- Josh Haskell is an American student who has recently founded an organization called Ethos National which seeks to be a platform to help young people struggling with pornography addiction.
Haskell himself was a victim of this addiction as he was exposed to pornography from the age of 15. He realized that this addiction was destroying his life, as he relates, “Months after I started, I began to research and understand the consequences of pornography use. I learned how it harms people and how it was changing my brain.” That led him to seek help from an online group.
In one of his first encounters, he was struck by the testimony of a man who looked physically very masculine who after a minute of exposing his situation “began sobbing loudly, his bitter tears running down his face to his thick brown beard. He had been trying to quit pornography for much longer than I had and had not succeeded.”
He realized that this was the line he was walking and that if he didn’t change his route he would end up in the same situation, unable to love a wife and give her the undivided love he had always dreamed of.
This experience inspired him to get out of this situation and take the necessary steps to achieve it. He asked his brother for help to have accountability with him about this, he talked to his parents about the problem which, although it caused him embarrassment at the time, had saved his life, which was worth it.
He says he finds motivation in the thought that “when I look into my wife’s eyes at the altar, I will know that the promise I made to her is true” because he has given her his heart completely.
He has since made several changes in his life and has started this initiative at his alma mater, the Notre Dame campus, to help young people in this same situation. He says his goal is to create a world where every man can love his wife as Christ loves His Church.
He affirms that “asking for help is not weakness, it is heroic. It’s being brave enough to risk your pride to save the victims of the industry and the people you love the most.”
For more information visit: https://www.ethosnational.org/.
