Brighter Days

PORNOGRAPHY
ADDICTION
TREATMENT
A Supplement for Individual Therapy and Twelve Step
Recovery Programs

Leif H. Sorensen MSW, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker
With Jason L. Hunt PhD
Contributing Editor
LDS Version 2.15 rev

Table of Contents

Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................................... i

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................ii

Lesson 1 - Will You Change? ......................................................................................................................... 1

Lesson 2 - Reward Circuits. ........................................................................................................................... 7

Lesson 3 Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast ....................................................................................... 12

Lesson 4 The Ever Burning Pilot Light and Rolling Boulders................................................................ 27

Lesson 5 Putting Your Heart in the Right Place, The Offensive Posture............................................... 37

Lesson 6 Handling Challenging Days, The Offensive Posture During a Defensive Play ........................ 44

Lesson 7 Living in the Moment and Self-awareness The Victory Goes to the one that is Aware ....... 53

Lesson 8 Thinking About Your Thinking....................................................................................................61

Educational Videos and Information Weblinks.......................................................................................... .65

Action Item Forms....................................................................................................................................... 67

Introduction and Disclaimer

Welcome to the Brighter Days Pornography Addiction Treatment Manual. This
manual was prepared by request to introduce cognitive/behavioral tools that may
enhance the effectiveness of individual therapy and twelve-step addiction recovery
programs and increase the success of individuals caught in pornography addiction.
The manual includes eight lessons with corresponding exercises intended to assist
you in your efforts to break free from the pornography addiction trap.
Although this manual may reference material associated with the LDS Family
Services Addiction Recovery Program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, the manual is not affiliated with the LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery
Program or the LDS Church.
The lessons in this manual can be used as stand-alone education and addiction
recovery treatment; however, the manual is most effective when taught and
discussed in concert with an established addiction recovery program, and/or
included in a treatment plan facilitated by a behavioral health professional.
Despite the effectiveness of the tools contained in this manual, it is not intended to
address serious mental illness or be a substitution for consultation with a behavioral
health professional. If you have any history of problematic depression, anxiety,
suicidal behavior or thoughts and/or other symptoms related to possible mental
illness, you should seek professional assistance. If you are currently under the care of
a behavior health professional, he or she may wish to use this manual to augment
any efforts to assist you.
If you are a group facilitator/counselor, paraprofessional, licensed psychotherapist,
or clergy, and you wish to receive training on these modules, receive updates,
consult regarding the content of these modules, or submit suggestions, you are
welcome to contact me at Leifs100@hotmail.com.

Leif H. Sorensen MSW, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Leifs100@hotmail.com
Leif H. Sorensen MSW, LCSW.
Lesson number 1, and 3-8 Copyright with all rights reserved. Permission is granted to photocopy this
material for instructional, treatment, and personal use if the author is credited.
Lesson 2 authored by Jason Hunt PhD.
Editing by Michelle Davidson

ii

Lesson 1
Will You Change?
Principle: The Gospel challenges us to be converted, which requires us to do and to become.
The Challenge to Become Dallin H. Oak

What keeps a person from making changes?

Why do so many people appear content with not making improvements?
Why are people willing to endure the discomfort of unwanted behavior rather than
endure the discomfort of change?

No one was Foreordained to Fail

Consider the following words from Elders Maxwell and Bednar
When, in situations of stress, we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be
comforted to know that God, who knows our capacities perfectly, placed us here to succeed.
No one was foreordained to fail or to be wickedWhen we have been weighed and found
wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and were found equal to our tasks;
therefore, let us continue but with a more determined discipleship. A More Determined
Discipleship Neal A. Maxwell
Jesus counseled His disciples, Wherefore, settle this in your hearts, that ye will do the things
which I shall teach, and command you (JST, Luke 14:28). Getting thus settled precedes
consecrationLikewise it is only fair to warn that any determination to seek greater
consecration will soon expose what we yet lack, a painful but necessary thingOnly greater
consecration will cure ambivalence and casualness in any of usConsecration is the only
surrender which is also a victory. Settle This in Your Hearts Neal A. Maxwell
Brothers and sisters, the gospel of the Savior is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it is
also essentially about doing and becoming good. And the atonement provides help for us to
overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. There is help from the Savior for the
entire journey of life from bad to good to better and to change our very nature. Indeed, this
doctrine tastes goodI am not trying to suggest that the redeeming and enabling powers of the
atonement are separate and discrete. Rather, these two dimensions of the atonement are
connected and complementary; they both need to be operational during all phases of the
journey of life. And it is eternally important for all of us to recognize that both of these essential
elements of the journey of life both putting off the natural man and becoming a saint, both
overcoming bad and becoming good are accomplished through the atonement. Individual
willpower, personal determination and motivation, and effective planning and goal setting are
necessary but ultimately insufficient to triumphantly complete this mortal journey. Truly we
must come to rely up the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah (2 Nephi 2:8). In
the Strength of the Lord David A. Bednar

What wonderful principles these brethren have taught us. The plan of salvation anticipates that
you will succeed. You came to Earth because you have been identified and measured as being
ready, capable, and primed for success. Your capacity for good was measured against that
which you would face in mortality and you are up to the task of becoming your very best. You
can beat the pornography trap. So move forward with a "more determined discipleship."
Despite having been measured and primed for success, you are not left alone to achieve this
success. Your success is ensured if you use the gift given to you the atonement. 1) The
enabling power of the atonement to give you strength beyond your natural ability. 2) The
cleansing power of the atonement to wash away sin and its effects on you. But before you
begin you must settle your ambivalence, the indecision in your heart. You must make your best,
most determined, promise to yourselfthat you will escape the trap of pornography. The only
thing holding you back is you. What is your decision?
Changing behavior is a healing process
Many people are surprised to learn that when behavior is repeated over and over again
physical changes occur in the brain. Among other things, your brain works feverishly to be as
efficient as possible. As such, your brain literally grows networks and connections to facilitate
making your behavior as automatic as possible so you dont have to think about it. That, in
part, is its job. This is true for addictions and other habitual behaviors as well. Whether
beneficial or destructive, your brain will hard wire itself to become whatever you allow it to
become. But it does not have to stay that way. The promise of the Savior is that he will heal
you.
The Lord told the Nephites,O all ye that are spared because you were more righteous than
they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal
you? (3 Nephi 9:13). Knowing that healing is promised, there is tremendous hope for change.
As you confront yourself and exert the effort to change your behavior and thoughts, these
hard-wired networks in your brain weaken and new networks begin to grow, promoting
positive habitual behaviors and thoughts. Through consistency and practice the new networks
become established and strengthened. This puts 3 Nephi 9:13 in a whole new light: repenting,
changing, improving is not just a spiritual venture; it literally involves a physical process, a
physical change in your brain, a healing process. I can't help but think that is what the Savior, in
part, meant. He would heal us from the inside out; to be healed physically and spiritually from
the effects of our repeated choices, if we did our part.
Neuroplasticity
The Lord has recently revealed marvelous advances in medicine to heal physical illness and
injury. However, unknown to many, are the wonderful advances in behavioral science as well.
Much like a scalpel can cut out diseased flesh, and exercises in the physical therapy room can
repair muscle fibers, it has been observed, thanks to recent advances in medical brain imagery,
that many techniques in behavior science facilitate physical changes in the brain. Changes that
can weaken addictive neural pathways and strengthen the behaviors you want to develop. The
ability of the brain to make these changes is called neuroplasticity.
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For many years it was believed that growth and physical changes in the brain largely stopped in
young adulthood, but we have discovered that is false. You can teach old dogs new tricks. But
the person engaged in change needs to understand that a lifetime of building neural networks
and memories need to be confronted and diminished as you make room for new healthy ones
to be established. Sometimes it can be intimidating to know that this is a war on two fronts: 1)
diminishing the old and 2) building the new (the healing spoken of in 3 Nephi 9:13). But your
brain is up to the task. In fact, your brain constantly engages in this process. But you need to
work with your brain in a manner that maximizes its efforts to change. You must be careful to
not work against it. It you nurture it in the right direction it will follow. Force it harshly, and it
will rebel. Your brain takes its job of building new habitual networks and guarding the old
established networks seriously.
Consistency, practice, dedication, and time
During the next several weeks you will learn simple but powerful tools to maximize the healing
process, which includes diminishing habitual behavior and establishing new behavior. If done
properly, the neuroplasticity of your brain will follow and make new wholesome automatic
behaviors. But it takes consistent practice, dedication, and time. These techniques are often
compared to physical therapy. Building muscle and strengthening joints only happens with
exercise. You cannot stimulate growth in any other way, and so it is with healing destructive
habitual behavior and thinking. By using the recent findings in behavior science, you can
accelerate this natural process through good technique and social support, just as an athletic
trainer can accelerate muscle growth with proper exercise technique and diet.
During the process of reviewing, learning, (and implementing the LDS Family Services Addiction
Recovery Program if you have decided to couple this manual with that program) you will learn
the exercises needed to nurture permanent change. This program will teach you how to
maximize this nurturing process that change can really be.

PICK YOUR PAIN

It is likely you are seeking help to change your behavior because the cost and consequences are
getting harder to bear. The degree of guilt, shame, anxiety, depression and other consequences
is quite heavy. Maybe your job or a relationship is at stake. Perhaps you feel out of place at
church, work, and in the presence of old and new friends. Despite your great worth, your view
of yourself has diminished and it is now difficult to shoulder.
The truth is you pay a price when you are involved in pornography. One individual I know
sought help with his pornography addiction because his depression and guilt became
unbearable every time he engaged in pornography so unbearable he would consider suicide
as an option for relief after each incident. He entered treatment because he believed he would
be unable to bear the price of just one more relapse without completing suicide or entering
psychiatric hospitalization. His addiction pushed him to the outermost edge of his resilience.
3

That said, you will find you have to pay a price to rid yourself of this behavior as well. Although
you may be surprised by the simplicity of the steps to recovery, this will require effort on your
part, willingness, and a firm commitmentyou must Pick Your Pain, the pains of change or the
pains of addiction.

It cannot be emphasized enough that you need to decide if you will endure the
cost and pain of continued addiction, or the discomfort of overcoming it. There
is no escape from experiencing at least some cost, but where do the different
tolls lead?
Remember, the cost of recovery and "greater consecration" (Maxwell) required
to abandon unwanted behavior is the only toll that is also a worthwhile
investment. It is the only surrender which is also a victory (Maxwell).

It is time to decide. You must settle [the decision] in your heart (JST, Luke 14:28). You must
discard the ambivalence. The thousands that have escaped the pornography trap have said that
the relief of success is worth it. Recovering addicts have said that the discomfort of change is a
far lighter burden than the pains of continued addiction. If there is a price to pay, pay the price
that brings contentment, happiness, and peace to your life that is a price worth paying.
"Come unto me, and be converted that I may heal you..." (3 Nephi 9:13) is the call and promise
of Jesus Christ. Although he said to take up [your] cross (Matthew 16:24) he also said his
yoke is easy (Matthew 11:29). The call to pick up your cross is a clear message that there is
effort involved, but the easiness of the yoke is a welcome promise, the promise of a lighter
burden. Thus, you must pick your pain whether you carry your cross, or carry your unwanted
behavior. Decide now between the pains of addiction, or the yoke of change.

Action Items to complete this week:

Although no change is asked of you during this lesson, you are encouraged to continue with
your efforts to resist viewing pornography.
This week you will set the stage for success, and make preparations to fully engage in recovery.
1. Decide once and for all if you are going to engage in the healing process to the end.
Are you absolutely committed? Decide there is no more giving it a try. Really commit.
This does not mean there will not be occasional relapses along the way, but it does
mean that you have decided that pornography is over.
2. Complete the Goals on the Horizon worksheet.
Over the next week, contemplate what is most important to you, and what makes
change worthwhile? What are you going to become when you exit the pornography
trap? What has it held you back from? Make it one of your goals on the horizon.
3. Select a recovery partner if you are ready; if not, begin considering who it will be in
the future.
This is tough for some people. It can be embarrassing to reveal that which must be
changed. If needed, select one of the members of your Small Recovery Group, if you
have one. If no small group is available, ask a spouse, friend, counselor, clergy, chaplain,
co-worker, or other reliable individual someone you trust, that cares about you, and
will follow through.
Your recovery partner is your support person, the one who will follow your progress,
encourage you through tough times, and save you when you are in crisis. Those with at
least one partner (2-3 is even better) have greater success and report that the burden of
change is lighter.
4. Remove as much opportunity to view pornography as possible by turning off the
internet, or by having it monitored and/or filtered.
If turning the internet off is not feasible. Select a filter and have your recovery partner
control all passwords.
I recommended that you discard your easiest unmonitored accesses to the internet
(such as your smartphone or tablet) and use only "non-smartphones" for at least 90
days. If this is unreasonable for you, have all pages blocked except those you absolutely
need. Most smartphones and filters have setting that allows you to build such a list.
Then give your recovery partner control over the passwords that control the settings.

Goals on the Horizon

Pornography use erodes the potential of what you could be in the future. Consider the
following questions as you complete the Goals on the Horizon

What do you want to be?

What kind of person do you aspire to be?
What is important to you?
What values are important to you?
What will keep you motivated to stay engaged in recovery?
Most people suggest Goals on the Horizon should include something in each of the following
areas: 1) Family/Social, 2) Career/Education, 3) Spiritual/Values, and 4) Physical. But this is your
list, you write it.
1) _____________________________________
2) _____________________________________
3) _____________________________________
4) _____________________________________
5) _____________________________________

If you continue viewing pornography and strengthen your pornography addiction, how will it
erode the possibility of reaching your Goals on the Horizon?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

If you stop using pornography, how will it increase the possibility of reaching your Goals on the
Horizon?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Review this list daily and focus on the determination and commitment to change you will
need in order to reach these goals, as well as contemplating the real possibility that you will
do it.
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Lesson 2
Reward Circuits
Review of Lesson 1
Now is the time for you to set aside your reasons for avoiding change?
Settle this in your heart (Luke 14:28 JST) and commit to do what is required to live a
life free of pornography.
Remember, regardless of the potential difficulty, you have been measured before and
were found equal to the task (Neal A. Maxwell).
Review your Goals on the Horizons worksheet each day.

Principle: We are all prone to addiction. Reward circuitry is necessary for survival but
addiction distorts the use of this circuitry.
Addiction literally triggers changes in the brain. Recovery from addiction requires that those
changes be reversed as much as possible. Despite the cause or nature of a persons addiction,
all addictions cause the same fundamental changes in the brain. Internet pornography and its
unique ability to induce addictive brain changes, coupled with our natural sexual drives, has
earned the label of super stimulus. Although there are many potentially addictive behaviors and
substances, there are only a few that rise to the level of super stimulus.

Addictions
An addiction, by definition is the continued use of a mood or behavior altering substance
despite adverse consequences. Addictions can include, but are not limited to, drug abuse,
sexual addiction, gambling, overeating, and even exercise addiction.
To better understand addiction its important to understand the brain's reward pathways. The
reward pathway consists of several brain structures that play roles in reward, pleasure,
laughter, addiction, aggression, fear, and the placebo effect. These brain structures are the
motivators for pleasure and can even become activated merely in anticipation of pleasure.
These centers communicate with each other by releasing chemicals such as dopamine, a
neurotransmitter which enhances motivation and plays a key role in addictions.
The reward pathway in the brain generates feelings, which in return motivates us to act and
behave in ways that are necessary for the survival of a person, such as seeking out food,
procreation, and protection. Furthermore, the reward pathway is a natural and important
component of our enjoyment in life. Addictions result when that reward system is abused.
Physical dependence occurs when the body learns to adjust to a substance by incorporating it
into the bodys normal function. This adjustment creates conditions of tolerance and
withdrawal. Tolerance refers to the bodys adaptive response to a substance which then
requires increasing amounts of that substance in order to achieve the original effect.
7

Withdrawal refers to the symptoms, both physical and psychological, a person experiences
when the substance use is discontinued or even just reduced. Withdrawal symptoms can
include anxiety, irritability, intense cravings, nausea, headaches, tremors, and hallucinations.
Addictiveness
The addictiveness of a substance generally falls into one or more of the following categories:
The substance is a highly stimulating version of a natural product (for example, high calorie
foods).
The substance is available in limitless supply.
The substance comes in lots of varieties, thus adding to the sense of novelty.
The substance causes us to binge without realizing it is triggering brain changes.
Highly addictive substances such as high calorie foods and exercise usually fall into two or more
of these categories, whereas internet porn falls into all four categories.
All addictions have a common theme: they induce physiological changes in certain structures of
the brain. So why do addictive patterns occur? Addictions arise because of the misuse of the
normal reward pathways of the brain.

Internet pornography
Now that we have a basic understanding of brain centers and the reward pathway, we can
explore why some substances become so incredibly addictive. As previously stated, it is
important to understand that the reward circuitry is crucial to survival. At the forefront of the
reward system is the chemical dopamine. The purpose of dopamine is to motivate. Thus, the
bigger the dose of dopamine, the bigger the motivation and the more desire to do something.
For example, chocolate and ice cream triggers a large dopamine release while broccoli, by
comparison, does not. Not surprisingly, sexual activity causes large surges of dopamine.
Dopamine surges also increase with novelty. Internet pornography is especially enticing
because endless novelty is just clicks away. Keep in mind, the brain will eventually adapt,
causing the originally exciting stimulus to gradually become less exciting, thus causing the brain
to require increasing amounts of more intense stimuli in order to achieve the same level of
excitement--tolerance. This adaptation ultimately leads to addiction.
Brain Changes
All addictions lead to the same major brain changes:
Desensitization: The neurotransmitter dopamine loses its effectiveness. This creates a less
sensitive area for natural dopamine release and leaves the individual craving for activities
that result in higher dopamine release. The addict will tend to neglect interests and/or
behaviors that were once of high personal value.

 Sensitization: The newly wired brain and reward pathway will start to turn on in response
to any addiction-related stimuli or even thoughts associated with the stimuli.
Hypofrontality: The frontal lobe centers, those associated with understanding and
responding to consequences, begin to weaken. As a result, the addict has a reduced ability
to appropriately respond to the known consequences of his actions.
Dysfunctional stress circuits: Stress easily managed before the addiction begins to trigger
relapses when the individual comes under duress.
Heavy pornography use can also result in tolerance (adapting to the stimulus) as the user
moves in search of more intense experiences in order to produce a more powerful chemical
response. The more intense the event (for example, adding masturbation), the stronger the
response, resulting in an increased brain re-wiring.
What makes Internet pornography unique and so addictive?
Extreme novelty: Internet pornography allows for hundreds of new scenes per session.
As mentioned earlier in this lesson, novelty is highly stimulating. This novelty makes
todays pornography even more addictive than pornographic magazines of the past.
Married men often report that real sexual experiences grow boring by comparison.
With Internet pornography, a user can escalate both with new scenes and with new
types of pornography. Its quite common for a user to continue to move to ever more
extreme and degrading forms of pornography.

Limitless exposure: With food and drug addictions, there are physical limits to
consumption. The food addict will eventually be too full to cram in one more morsel of
food. The drug addict will run out of drugs or pass out. But there are no physical
limitations to internet pornography. The user can simply click and indulge in an endless
array of pornographic images, videos, and chat rooms.

Lack of aversion mechanism: Your bodys aversion system activates when you dont like
the symptoms. For example, eating too much is associated with pain so you typically
stop binging in response to the pain (aversion system). Internet pornography doesnt
have any immediate side effects to activate the natural aversion system. Nevertheless
there are definitely side effects. Long term side effects can include:
o Distress about escalation to more extreme pornography.
o Frequent masturbation.
o Uncharacteristic, worsening social anxiety or lack of confidence.
o Morphing pornography tastes that dont match sexual orientation.
o Inability to concentrate, and extreme restlessness.
o Depression and anxiety.

Many of these symptoms arise from the changes in dopamine levels and dopamine receptors.
9

At this point, recovery may seem overwhelming. Is there hope for the internet pornography
addict?
Fortunately the brain, including the reward center, is very plastic and fully able to restore order.
The first step in addiction recovery is to rebalance the brain. This begins with stopping all sexual
stimulation, including pornography, masturbation, fantasies, chat rooms, erotic stories, or
surfing on the internet. Other triggers must also be carefully watched, including boredom,
loneliness, anger, stress and being overly tired. In essence, the pathways must be rebuilt to
respond to natural stimulants. You must cause a re-adaptation, a recovery.

10

Action Items to complete this week

Write your Effect Story.

Your overuse of pornography, especially internet pornography, has a number of negative
effects on you. These effects can include increased problems with depression, social anxiety,
self-discipline, and confidence just to name a few. In what ways has pornography contributed
to unwanted changes in you, your life, your family, and associates? (For example, changes in
your mood, your resilience, your ability to move forward in a productive manner; your family,
your relationships and so on.)

11

Lesson 3
Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast
Review of Lesson 2
1. Addiction causes physical changes in the brain.
2. Reward circuitry becomes distorted as it changes in response to ever increasing
stimulus.
3. The brain is plastic and can change again for the better.

Principle: Pornography erodes the goodness in your life. The most successful way to overcome
your unwanted behavior includes discarding its secrecy and reaching out to others.
Consider the following words from Moroni:
And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another
concerning the welfare of their souls.Moroni 6:5
How does speaking to others about your welfare increase your ability to change, and
resist unwanted behavior?
In contrast to the words of Moroni, how does the secrecy of pornography use and the
taboo of pornography discussionor any unwanted behaviormagnify that behaviors
hold on you?
Do you have someone you can speak [to] concerning the welfare of [your] soul? It is
likely that you do, except for this one thingpornography. Thus, the addiction remains.
Most professionals in the field of addictions would tell you those who experience
successful recovery have a recovery partner. Those with two to three recovery partners
do especially well with their recovery.

Pornography: Uniquely Suited to Trap the Good Guys

The use of pornography is uniquely suited to hook good, compassionate people. The brain
releases many hormones and neurotransmitters that contribute to the allure of pornography.
While some of these brain chemicals contribute to excitement and intense pleasure, they also
contribute to feelings of compassion, understanding, attachment, connection, and trust.
Good childhood nurturing over time increases the likelihood that your brain will release these
chemicals in adulthood when you engage in social contact. As a result, a well-nurtured
individual can form attachments and develop relationships quickly, as well as becoming adept
at using relationships to foster resilience and contentment in life. In turn, pornography, with its
seemingly social context, takes advantage of a good guys adeptness to bond emotionally to
what the brain is interpreting as a social connection. Especially with todays technology of
webcams and video access, your brain is vulnerable to identifying internet pornography as a
source of connection, belonging and attachment. All of which are basic human needs.

12

Pornography possesses significant ability to form an addiction for anyone across many different
venues in which it can be viewed, as well as distorting the use of attachment and belonging
(some of the positive traits that makes you a compassionate individual) to foster vulnerability
to its addictive properties.
As discussed in Lesson Two, pornography contains several addictive properties (See Addictive
Properties in Lesson 2) that contribute to its capacity to trap an individual in unwanted
behavior. While Lesson Two outlined the primary process of addiction, most are surprised to
know that pornography can prey upon your ability to attach emotionally and socially, adding an
additional layer to strengthen the addiction trap.
But science aside, what information can make a difference in motivating you to stick with the
change process. It is different for everyone, but let's take a look at addiction through the eyes
of a recovering pornography addict. His insight encapsulates more than 30 years of addiction,
as well as his own self-reflection and study as he sought escape from the pornography trap.
Understanding the principles explained below helped him understand and lay hold upon the
process of addiction and recovery. For him, knowing the process of addiction and recovery
helped him remain hopeful and motivated. Knowing that much of what was going on inside him
was not really him--it was just "brain process". This knowledge helped him work toward
recovery and help him act wisely as he moved from step to step escaping the pornography trap.
Addiction Principles as Explained by a Recovering Pornography Addict:
The Pleasure Principle and Broadened Identification of Sexual Opportunity
The pleasure principle states that all humans seek pleasure to avoid pain. Whenever a
person experiences pain or discomfort, he or she will be prompted to seek relief from
the pain or discomfort, even the discomfort of boredom will trigger this process.
Pornography offers temporary relief and brings stimulating experience to life with
seemingly minimal consequences. But unlike the occasional desire for relief of pain or
discomfort offered by other addictions, we are all built to be drawn to sexual behavior
even when there is no need for relief or stimulus of any kind. You are driven with an
innate ability to identify procreative opportunity (sexual opportunity). Although the
anticipation of pleasure is part of the equation that prompts you to pursue this
opportunity, it does not need the relief seeking nature of addiction to prompt action.
Your addicted brain is overly sensitive to sexual triggers. The pornography addicted
brain quickly responds to perceived procreative opportunity when none is there you do
not need to be seeking relief or distraction from boredom for this to happen. The
addicted brain is plagued with sexually themed distractions throughout the day because
it has distorted the ability to correctly perceive real procreative opportunity. Your brain
falsely identifies these opportunities when the non-addicted brain would have no such
thought. As you recover from addiction, you must significantly narrow what your brain
perceives as sexual opportunity.

13

The Variety/Novelty Principle

It is human nature to enjoy variety, your brain loves it, and internet pornography
provides overwhelming stimulating novelty. When you have one intimate partner you
satiate quickly after a few sexual experiences. With just one partner, it takes longer and
longer for you to become aroused over time. By contrast, when you view multiple
potential partners, such as several pornography images, your arousal endures tenfold
your brain falsely believes it needs to engage multiple partners. This process of
prolonged arousal due to the perception of multiple potential partners is called the
Coolidge Effect -- the Coolidge Effect can be triggered in all animals including humans.
Pornography offers such vast variety that it keeps the pleasure principle voraciously
active. But beware; your brain was never made to endure the experience of internet
pornography. In a matter of just one or two hours, viewing the endless array of
pornography on the internet forces your brain to react to more potential sexual
partners than it was ever evolved to experience in a lifetime. As such, viewing internet
porn for a long period of time floods your brain with more neurochemicals and
hormones than it was ever made to experience, and for longer than it was ever made to
experience them. Your brain was made to experience a moderate flooding of these
neurochemicals and hormones for short periods of time. Experiencing it regularly and
for long periods of time causes a number of problems, including distorted physical
changes in your brain as it races to adapt to this experience it was never made to have.
The changes do not just distort the way you perceive procreative opportunity; it can
contribute to cognitive decline, poor emotional control, and diminished self-control over
many aspects of your life, including memory, depression, anxiety, and problem solving.
All of these things are the result of the repeated and prolonged release of these
powerful hormones and brain chemicals.
Addictions that distort natural processes like the need for food, sex, and human
attachment have an unusually strong ability to trap you in a cycle of overindulgence
because of your need to repeatedly engage in these behaviors even if you were not
addicted. Hence, addictions related to sexual behavior, food, and human attachment
are known as Natural Process Addictions (NPA).

The Arousal vs Executive Function Principle

As your brain becomes more arousedwith any kind of emotionthe executive
functions of the brain (the rational part of the brain that helps control impulses) begins
to shut down. Once rational thought leaves, it becomes harder and harder to exercise
control. (Anger and rage are good examples of this.) Hence, as sexual arousal rises,
executive function diminishes.
Consequently, repeated or constant over-arousal physically changes the frontal cortex
of the brain (the part that houses your ability to control impulses) to be less responsive
as you experience an array of impulses. Healthy executive functions are crucial to your
quality of life. A negative change in your frontal cortex affects many aspects of your life,
not just control of sexual arousal. Your lack of self-control and other traits that
accompany diminished executive function takes its toll. You slowly lose your selfdetermination and discipline to engage in normal occupational, personal, and family
14

activities and responsibilities. This diminished functioning of the frontal cortex of your
brain is known as hypofrontalitythe decline of the executive functions of your brain,
the decline of your ability to exercise self-control in all aspects of your life.

The Learning Principle

Your brain is a learning machine; it takes copious notes. As a result, whenever
discomfort or boredom is felt in any degree, your brain provides you with a list of
options that will remedy the situation.
This list of possible options is generated by past experience. The option the brain
perceives as the best and fastest remedy is always considered first, whether harmful or
not.
In the learning process, your brain works incredibly hard to make your behavior as
automatic and efficient as possible. Doing this frees your attention to respond to novel
stimulus as your brain puts the rest of your behavior on autopilot. This is what allows
you to walk and chew gum at the same time, and other activities all at once. The
learning ability of your brain facilitates the multitasking needed for efficiency.
When your brain prompts the use of pornography, it is doing what it thinks it is
supposed to do: it is providing you with what it has been taught to be the most efficient
way to provide reliefit wont wait for you to think about it, it does it automatically for
efficiency sake.

Attachment, Isolation, and the Habit Building Power of Social Interaction Principle
Social attachment is a cousin to the pleasure principle in social beings, such a humans.
When humans experience discomfort, including boredom, this discomfort often
activates a persons attachment instinct in order to help facilitate more emotional
control or relief, also known as emotional regulation. The effectiveness of engaging with
an attachment object or person to help lower emotional discomfort is why we often
seek the company of others when we have difficulty if not a person, then an object like
a childs teddy bear.
In truth, humans are not very good at regulating emotion when they are isolated. This is,
in part, why solitary confinement can be so torturous. In addition to being painfully
deprived of stimulation, you feel emotions to the fullest extent when you are left alone,
without the comforting ability of attachment to lower the pain.
For example, children have a strong attachment instinct. This is why you might hear a
mother say he is just seeking attention. Although, at one level she is right, what she
really means to say is he is just seeking emotional regulation by using his attachment
instinct. We often say the same thing about adolescents and adults that seem to
constantly draw attention to themselves. It is generally emotional regulation their brains
are seeking and the tool they are using to temper their emotional discomfort is
attachment.
Meanwhile, social interaction also stimulates learning and neural growth, and with the
stimulation of neural growth comes the development of habitual behavior, whether to
your deficit or benefit.
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Social interaction, emotional regulation, and attachment are all good and necessary in
anyones life, but involvement in pornography distorts the use of these wonderful life
fulfilling experiences into a powerful addiction. In the case of pornography addiction,
viewing pornography tricks the brain into thinking it is having one of these potentially
fulfilling social interactions--but it has adopted the belief in error.
To add insult to injury, many pornography websites enhance the potential for the
distortion of the traits mentioned above by allowing social interaction via webcams. This
increases the illusion of social interaction and enhances the strength of the trap; and
since social interaction stimulates neural growth, you are prone to developing the habit
quickly.
What a powerfully addictive process you have activated. While viewing pornography
you have potentially involved your attachment instinct, processes of learning,
stimulation of neural growth, the relief of emotional pain, and possibly others to solidify
your addiction. Finally, you do it in isolation from others so you can have a private,
uninterrupted, but particularly crippling addiction building experience.
This is the capturing of good guys. You are probably very skilled at using elements like
attachment instinct, emotional regulation, ability to learn, ability to engage in social interaction,
and other such traits that are abundant among well-adjusted, companionate people. These
traits that contribute to a fulfilling life and deep relationships are hijacked by pornography and
used to accelerate the building of addiction.

Recovery
It may seem surprising, but you can build new behaviors, new habits, and new neural pathways
by using much of the same process used to build your addiction. Your goal, however, is to
assign healthy behaviors and helpful social interaction in a variety of circumstance throughout
your day to enhance the change process. You will learn to seek relief, attachment, and
connection in a positive and powerful way and paving the path toward wholesome behaviors,
and making them as automatic as your addictive behaviors.
This process includes:
Identifying alternative behaviors that bring satisfying relief when you engage in them.
Engaging in different thinking when confronted with temptations throughout your day.
Practicing new thinking by imagining yourself responding to temptations differently.
Engaging in social behavior that contributes to others after correcting your thinking.
Recognizing and relabeling your brains mistaken perceptions of sexual opportunity.
Responding to crisis days, when the temptation to view pornography becomes
overwhelming.
Healing from personal baggage which may have caused you to seek emotional relief
through pornography.

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And finally, pursuing a completely different lifestyle by being more than just a
Pornography Avoiderbecome the Doer of Something Else more wholesome and
productive.

Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast

When you start the work of changing behavior you must be aware of the potential to trigger a
strong need for relief from your efforts by overwhelming yourself with too much change at
once. Your own initial motivation can contribute to a relapse.
Many people have tried but failed to eliminate unwanted behaviors, or add wanted behaviors,
because they trigger a burnout. Burnout activates the addiction process in an effort to find
relief from the uncomfortable experience of change. Be aware, change can be hardespecially
in the beginningbut there is no need to overwhelm yourself unnecessarily. The secret is to
take it slow and steady.
You should exert yourself enough for the change process to be challenging, but not so heavy
that it crushes you. The Lord teaches us line-upon-line, precept upon precept, here a little and
there a little (2 Nephi 28:30), and to continue in patience (D&C 67:13). This process of
change needs to happen a little at a time. However, beware of the trap of using the here a
little and there a little concept as an excuse to procrastinate healthy efforts and never
generate enough momentum to escape the addiction. The Lord also warns us about such
behavior, counseling us to be diligent, that thereby [you] might win the prize (Mosiah 4:27).
The fastest way to reach your goal is steady, smooth, and diligent progress. Hence, Slow is
Smooth and Smooth is Fast.

The Work that begins the Change

Implementing the steps in the next few sections will be fundamental in your success in
recovering from pornography addiction. Many people dismiss these steps because they seem
silly or too easy to be effective. Combat the temptation to dismiss any instruction given in this
manual (or your therapist, or treatment group, if you are involved in one).
When I served as a Behavior Health Officer in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, I became
frustrated with the tendency for service members to dismiss the practical exercises that would
facilitate healing and good behavioral health, despite coming to me for help. I learned that the
physical therapist in the same medical facility experienced a similar frustration. I realized that
our patients would dismiss our instructions because the physical therapist and I would ask the
service members to do things that seemed insignificant in their eyessome were even
offended at the simplicity of the healing steps.
The day came when I discovered I was no better than the other service members. I approached
the physical therapist for help due to a painful foot condition. The physical therapist gave me a
few exercises to complete every morning and evening. One of exercises was to pick up a piece
of tissue paper with my toes and drop it, and then repeat it over and over again for about 15
17

minutes a day. Well, for a long time I didnt do it. I believed that such a simple exercise was
below my dignity and would not be an effective solution for so much painhow could
something so insultingly simple relieve my pain. I was wrong. After several more weeks of pain I
decided to try this simple undignified exercise. To my surprise the exercise worked. The pain
eventually subsided. I came to the realization that I had treated the physical therapists advice
the same way my patients treated my advice. It was a worthwhile lesson. Don't you fall into the
same trap.
Today you will begin following some important yet simple instructions meant to empower you
to abandon a painful lifestyle. Do not make the mistake of dismissing them or believing they are
below your dignity. Follow these instructions with meaning and determination.
Defining Some Behaviors
Throughout the change process you will engage in five broad behaviors:
Abstaining behavior
Replacement behavior
Anchoring behavior
Contributing behavior
Restructuring behavior
Abstaining behavior: Abstaining behavior is the process of stopping a behavior from occurring.
You will be asked from time to time to discover and eliminate seemingly innocent behaviors,
and rather obvious behaviors, that contribute to your addiction.
Replacement behavior: Replacement behaviors are used to take the place of abstaining
behaviors and compete with the series of behaviors that eventually lead you to view
pornography. Replacement behaviors can be short or long, depending on your needs. These
behaviors are interesting to you, entertaining, and wholesomely stimulating. They will interrupt
and prevent you from engaging in behavior that generally leads to pornography use.
Anchoring behavior: Anchoring behaviors are activities that help keep your heart in the right
place so you dont feel the allure of temptation. These behaviors are often things like reading
scriptures, exercising regularly, praying, reading a good book, and developing a talent. These
behaviors require 10 to 30 minutes to complete but affect your disposition, mood, and attitude
for long periods of time. You will engage in them whether you are being tempted to view
pornography or not.
Contributing behavior: Contributing behavior is positive service-like interaction with othersa
random act of kindness, for example. You will contribute, serve, or promote companionship and
goodness with others, God, or yourself. Although the best contributing behaviors include
reaching out in small acts of service to others, doing something good for yourself can also be
worthwhile, but always try to reach out to others first. You will use contributing behaviors
when you confront your thinking and common daily temptationssometimes called triggers.
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Restructuring behavior: Restructuring behaviors are exercises you will do to stimulate new
patterns of thinking and eliminate old patterns of thinking. These behaviors will help build the
new thinking to be more automatic so it can effectively compete and replace the old thinking.

Identifying Your Bottom-lineReplacing Your Bottom-line

Every person that struggles with addictive behavior has seemingly innocent behaviors that
subtly open the door that leads to the addiction. The most innocent behavior in the series of
behaviors that eventually leads to pornography use is called a bottom-line. You sometimes find
yourself rationalizing when you approach one of your bottom-line behaviors because it is
seemingly innocent.
Example 1: Johnny likes to watch TV or DVDs with his family. They eat popcorn, laugh,
and have a good time during the show. Johnny sometimes watches the show with his
family without any problems, but he often uses his iPad to look up other movies the
actors and actresses have starred in. Although seemingly innocent at first, he eventually
starts to focus on the pretty female actresses, which leads to looking at more and more
revealing pictures of them. This almost always leads to a complete relapse later in the
day, with several pornography sites. Looking up the stars of the show is his bottom-line.
He replaces this behavior with quietly practice his guitar chords during the lulls in the
movie rather than looking up things on his iPad. This activity disrupts his usual pattern
but still feeds the need to be preoccupied while watching a movie.

Example 2: Sam arrives home from high school an hour before the rest of his family.
Each day he tells himself that he will not view pornography during that hour, but
resisting the opportunity to view pornography is a rare occurrence. Going home to an
empty house is his bottom-line. He could go home and make other plans but he decided
that the first of the series of behaviors that begins the spiral down to pornography use is
arriving home alone. Sam replaces his bottom-line (going home to an empty house) with
an hour at the gym. This bottom-line replacement behavior completely disrupts his usual
pattern and allows him to exercise more control over his pornography use.
The best place to start the fight is with the bottom-line. You must do the same as Sam and
Johnny. Think of the last few times you viewed pornography. Walk the events back and identify
the most innocent of the series of behaviors that began your approach to pornography. Take
note of your bottom-line behavior and select an alternativethe bottom-line replacement
behavior.
Identifying Triggers
Triggers are not as predictable as bottom-lines. A bottom-line is connected to activities you can
plan for, and you know they are coming. Triggers are random but expected experiences for a
pornography addict. You must always stand ready to address them, but they spring up in front
of yourequiring you to have an immediate but preplanned response.
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You can have internal triggers and external triggers. External triggers will include anything from
outside you that prompts your brain to entertain sexually themed thoughts. These include
seeing a pretty girl, making eye contact with someone, or facing painful criticism. Internal
triggers are generated from within you. These include feelings of depression, self-loathing, or
stress, prompting you to seek out pornography for relief of these feelings. Taking note of
triggers you face frequently and preparing for them is very important.

SIS ACDCYour Gateway to New Thinking

Let me introduce you to SIS ACDC (sister acdc). SIS ACDC is a pre-planned response to daily
triggers. It is a restructuring behavior. A restructuring behavior trains your brain, over time, to
respond differently to the experiences that spring up in front of you. SIS ACDC has all of the
elements known to cause your brain to build new automatic thinking and stimulate neural
growth so you can compete with the old addiction thinking.
SIS ACDC is an exercise you will do for several minutes every day. The acronym stands for:
SStop
IInhale
SSmile
AAcknowledge and Re-label
CCorrect
DDetermine/Decide
CContribute
Changing your thinking will require you to think about your thinking. To accomplish this, you
will need to do real-life practice and imaginal practice. This is described below using the SIS
ACDC steps:
Real life Practice
Whenever you engaged in the normal activities of the day and you come across something that
triggers your thoughts in a sexual manner, follow the steps of SIS ACDC:
SStop: Say the word stop either in your mind or quietly to yourself.
IInhale: Calm your degree of arousal by taking a deep relaxing breath.
SSmile: Literally give yourself half a smile. Smiling helps to promote a different pleasant
emotion.
AAcknowledge and Relabel: Tell yourself what is happening and relabel the thought as
something separate from you, like an unknown person placed the thought in your head.
20

Example: Think quietly to yourself, A degrading thought just entered my mind. This is
the addiction talking, not me. I dont have to allow this thought to continue.
CCorrect: Correct the thinking with a new script. Repeat what you would prefer to think in
your mind and label it as your thinkingthe real you.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, "I think she is a child of God, someone's wife,
and mother. She deserves to be treated and thought of properly.
DDetermine/Decide: Determine the rewards of your corrected thinking. Try to feel the
reward inside.
Example: I feel so much better having these thoughts. They are guilt free and peaceful,
and I can also maintain my integrity (allow that peace to settle on you).
CContribute: After the corrected thinking, refocus your behavior and thoughts toward
contributing in a positive way to someone, God, or yourself. Do a quick act of service, give a
compliment, smile at someone, open the door for someone, or express gratitude to someone
or to God.
Example: Johnny walks over to his SIS and says I heard you did really well at the
Volleyball tryouts. You work hard; you deserve to make the team.
Imaginal Practice
Schedule a quiet 10-20 minutes each day and imagine a situation that frequently triggers
sexually themed thoughts. Run through all of the SIS ACDC steps several times in your mind,
just like you would in real-life practice. Do not entertain the trigger so much and for so long that
you become aroused. Focus on the most innocent part of the trigger and quickly move on to
the SIS ACDC steps. Predetermine what you will say in your mind and do as a contributing
behavior in the end. Rehearse the same script over and over againslowly and methodically
every day.
Practicing this process is essential. A person that only uses SIS ACDC when triggered in real life
and when absolutely necessary fails to develop the competency necessary to consistently
confront situations that lead to pornography. You need to practice frequently when you control
the environment completely.
Despite occasional feelings of awkwardness while practicing this seemingly simple series of
steps, follow through. This is important. With time, you will begin to do all of these steps almost
simultaneously. This eventually leads to completing the steps automatically when confronted
with a trigger. Overtime your wholesome thoughts, if you practice regularly, will be as
automatic as your old addiction thoughts.
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Action Items to complete this week

1. Refrain from ONE of your bottom-line behaviors. (Use the form provided but select just
one bottom-line. You will make a complete list in the next lesson).
A bottom-line behavior is the most innocent but first behavior that leads to pornography use.
Record just one bottom-line behavior on the Bottom-line and Bottom-line Replacement form.
Example: Johnny likes to watch TV or DVDs with his family. They eat popcorn, laugh, and
have a good time during the show. Johnny sometimes watches the show with his family
without any problems, but he often uses his iPad to look up other movies the actors and
actresses have starred in. Although seemingly innocent at first, he eventually starts to
focus on the pretty female actresses, which leads to looking at more and more revealing
pictures of them. This almost always leads to a complete relapse later in the day, with
several pornography sites.
Johnnys bottom-line behavior is looking up the actors and actresses. He sometimes watches
shows with his family without incident, but he almost always has a relapse when he includes
innocently looking put the movie stars on his iPad.
Watching the movies with his family is probably ok, but he should not couple the moviewatching with his bottom-line behavior.
2. Pick ONE bottom-line replacement behavior. (Use the form provided but select just one
bottom-line replacement behavior. You will make a complete list in the next lesson).
A bottom-line replacement behavior is something to replace the bottom-line. This behavior
allows you to disrupt the usual pattern. It is better to do battle with a bottom-line and find a
replacement than to battle the temptation of clicking on the enter button on a pornography
website. The bottom-line replacement behavior should be something inspiring, interesting, or
entertaining to you.
Example: Continuing with Johnnys experience. While watching movies with his family,
Johnny has developed the habit of preoccupying himself with looking up the stars of the
show. But today is different; he decides to quietly practice his guitar chords during the
lulls in the show rather than his usual activity of getting on his iPad.
Johnny begins his bottom-line replacement behavior before the usual temptation because he
already knows if he watches movies he will be feel the need to engage in his bottom-line

22

behavior. A preemptive strike if you will, to replace the addiction trigger and interrupt his usual
cycle. He makes his guitar the added stimulus to combine with watching movies.
3. Pick ONE trigger. Start responding to the trigger using SIS ACDC. (Use the form provided
but select just one trigger. You will make a complete list in the next lesson).
Write this trigger on the Triggers and Contributing Behavior form.
4. Practice SIS ACDC.
Pick a consistent time and place to practice the SIS ACDC steps for 10-20 minutes a day.
S Stop
A Acknowledge and Re-label
I Inhale
C - Correct
S Smile
D Determine/Decide
C Contribute

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Bottom-line behaviors
Write the first seemingly innocent behaviors connected to your series of behaviors
leading to pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Bottom-line replacement behaviors

Write the best replacements for the bottom-line behaviors above. These are the
behaviors that will change-up the frequent patterns that would typically lead to
pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

24

Triggers
Write down events (sight, sound, smell, emotion, situation, etc.) that prompt your
thoughts toward sexual content.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Contributing Behaviors
Identify good contributing behaviors. Behaviors that you can do quickly, and are
frequently available. The best contributing behaviors are small acts of kindness. You will
use them in the final step of SIS ACDC as you confront your triggers.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

25

SIS ACDC
S

Stop: Say the word stop in your mind or quietly to yourself. Use this as a thought
stoppersomething that momentarily halts the progression of the unwanted thinking.

Inhale: Calm your degree of arousal by taking a deep relaxing breath. Get yourself
under control.

Smile: Literally give yourself a half-smile. Smiling helps to promote a different pleasant
emotion.

Acknowledge and Re-label: Tell yourself what is happening and re-label the thought as
something separate from you. Treat it as if an unknown person has placed the wrong
thought in your head.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, A degrading thought just entered my
mind when that girl walked by. (Acknowledge) This is the addiction talking, not
me. I dont have to allow this thought to continue. (Re-label)

Correct: Correct your thinking with a new script. Repeat what you would prefer to think
in your mind and label it as your thinking.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, What I think is that she is someones mother,
daughter, and wife, and she deserves to be treated with respect and thought of with
respect.

Determine/Decide: Determine the rewards for the new thinking, and try to feel the
reward inside.
Example: I feel so much better having these thoughts. They are guilt free and
peaceful. I dont have to feel the depression that settles on me when I look at
porn. Allow that peace to settle on you give yourself a half-smile again.

Contribute: After the corrected thinking, refocus your behavior and thoughts toward
contributing in a positive way to someone or yourself. Do a brief act of kindness for
someone: give a compliment, smile at someone, open the door for someone, practice a
talent, express gratitude to someone or God.
Example: Walk over to a co-worker. Give him/her a compliment: John, I really liked
your presentation last week, I can tell you worked hard on it.
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Lesson 4
The Ever Burning Pilot Light, and Rolling Boulders
Review of lesson 3
1. Secrecy adds to the power of addiction.
2. Pornography is uniquely suited to capture the human mind and foster addiction.
3. New habitual but wholesome neural pathways can be built.
4. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Do not move so fast in your recovery that you trigger
the need for pornography as a means to get relief from the demands of change.
5. Real-life and imaginal practice of SIS ACDC: Stop, Inhale, Smile Acknowledge and relabel, Correct, Determine, Contribute.

Principle: Using willpower alone to resist temptation and abstain from your addiction
strengthens the addictive drive.
Why is this? Addiction tricks the brain into thinking that the addictive behavior is necessary for
survival. That is why the drive to engage in addictive behavior feels so aggressive and desperate
in nature. Therefore, using willpower alone severely increases the addictive drive. Willpower
alone causes the brain to respond as though you are trying to harm it. This is particularly true of
Natural Process Addictions (NPA) like sexually-related behavior or eating.

Feeding the Addiction on Your Terms

Unlike many other addictions, we are hardwired to have a sexual drive. Biologically speaking,
sexual behavior will always have some degree of allure. Your brain will always take notice of
sexual opportunity and that which is necessary for procreation and survival. This is why we use
the analogy of the ever burning pilot light, it is always lit, vigilant and ready to fully ignite. A
pilot light is a small flame used to ignite a gas furnace when you turn up the thermostat. Your
pilot light is always primed to become a large burning flame if your brain recognizes a potential
sexual opportunity. Consequently, when your brain identifies what it believes is a sexual
opportunity, it will attempt to drive you in that direction.
You have trained your addictive brain to have a particular sensitivity to falsely identify potential
sexual opportunity, unfortunately this means it makes a lot of mistakes and identifies
opportunity when none is there. Like a soldier that comes back from combat, until adjustment
back to civilian life is complete, he responds to harmless noises, smells, and situations as
potential dangerbut there is no danger. Your addicted brain labels casual social experience as
a sex rich opportunitybut it is not. Despite your brains error, it is just doing what it thinks it
should be doing, because it has been trained to do so. You must move your thoughts in a new
direction and strongly label casual social experience as something other than sexual
opportunity.

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To move your thoughts in a different direction, you must learn to feed the addiction on your
terms. To do this, you will use a redirect process. In essence, redirect the energy toward
behaviors and thoughts that are not sexually related. Avoid abruptly stopping the process if you
can. Like a rolling boulder, you do not want to stand in front and try to stop it suddenly. You
want to run alongside and nudge it in a different direction. It may crush you if you just stand in
front of it.
Redirecting it provides a more nurturing feel when confronting the addiction, thus minimizing
the brain's tendency to respond as if it is being harmed or starved. You must tend the flame,
rather than threaten the pilot light with immediate extinction. Remember, your brain has
mistakenly labeled your pornography use as being necessary for survival. It is willing to burn
you and crush you if it feels you are aggressively withholding something it thinks it needs to
survive it will act desperately. You want to avoid any tendency for your brain to desperately
pursue pornography with survival type aggression.

Bottom-lines: Making your short list

You will start redirecting your behavior and thoughts by managing your bottom-lines. By now
you should be able to identify one bottom-line behavior. It is the most innocent behavior
among the series of behaviors that leads to pornography use. The bottom-line can seem far
removed from the time you sit down in front of the computer and view pornography, but it is
the first step that begins the momentum towards your addiction.
It is time to take personal inventory and identify seemingly innocent behaviors connected to
pornography use and develop a small list of bottom-line behaviors. Although they seem
innocent, you should treat them seriously. Why? A bottom-line is the gateway behavior that
begins your brains anticipation of pornography use, even though pornography use may be
hours awayyour brain is starting to anticipate something it thinks it needs to survive.
Somehow your brain has connected your bottom-line behavior to pornography use. It is often
subtle enough that you do not begin resisting yet, but it is better to do battle with your bottomline than with powerful feelings of arousal further down the path.
Although subtle in its presentation, a bottom-line behavior is the first turn of the key on the
way to opening the lion's cage. You just don't see the lion yet. Or maybe you do see it, but you
rationalize by saying the lion is still too far away to do any harm. You tell yourself you can beat
the lion to the cage door if it tries to capture you. But if you think a little deeper and listen to
your inner voice, you know that the cunning lion has captured you more often than not. In
truth, you are just hoping for one of those rare exceptions when you escapedbut dont risk it.
Besides, what are you doing in a lions cage anyway? Even if you can run faster than the lion?
A key to your success in tempering the ever burning pilot light is using decisive and determined
action to contend with a small flame before it ever becomes a raging fire. In the process of
recovery, large burning flames will still appear. You will have times when it is all you can do to
keep from getting burned. There will be days when it seems the rolling bolder has picked up too
28

much momentum to redirect. Use your determination right now by discarding your bottomline, dont wait for it to grow.
A few steps to help contend with your bottom-line
A bottom-line behavior is connected to activities that you know you must face on a regular
basis but are unfortunately connected to pornography use, such as the example of Johnny.
Johnny knows he will frequently watch movies with his family. He interrupts the part of the
activity that leads to pornography uselooking up the actresses on his iPadwith a bottomline replacement behaviorpracticing his guitar cords. He took the slow momentum of that
rolling boulder and directed it towards music. He did not sit there and do nothing but endure
the urge to get his iPad paramount to standing in front of the boulder as it plows him down.
The temptation to engage in bottom-line behavior is not a crisis. You have time to prepare and
adjust your routine, so as not to begin the journey toward pornography use, but it is precisely
the time to act purposefully and with determination to redirect the anticipated momentum
that will begin.
If you engage in your bottom-line or beyond, use the SIS ACDC steps, then move back to your
bottom-line replacement behavior. Sexually themed thoughts may plague you for a time
because you took a few steps toward pornography use and your brain began to anticipate the
pornography. Combat the thoughts with SIS ACDC until the bottom-line replacement behavior
takes hold. If a bottom-line replacement behavior is not feasible, extend the time you spend on
the contribute step of SIS ACDC until you get completely wrapped up in contributing to others.
If you are contemplating engaging in bottom-line behavior, the ever burning pilot light has
started to grow. Your brain could be trying to seek relief from some kind of discomfort,
boredom, or stress. In response, you should purposefully direct it to where it can find relief
the contribute step or bottom-line replacement behavior. Give your brain the experience of
relief with activities other than pornography use. As these new behaviors (contribute and
bottom-line replacements) take hold, your brain will soon begin to prompt their use rather than
pornography.

Triggers: Make your short list

Triggers are similar to bottom-lines but they are more random in nature. You walk past an
attractive girl. You see a revealing picture while reading a news magazine. Or you are caught by
surprise by someone actually flirting with you. Some of your triggers may come from the inside
like feelings of depression, disappointment, or embarrassment. Sexually themed images start
drifting into your mind as a means of removing the difficult emotions or to pursue your brains
false identification of a sexual opportunity. These are triggers. Daily confrontations as you go
about your business.
While practicing SIS ACDC last week, you should have identified at least one trigger. It is time to
make your short list of the triggers you encounter most. Think of your daily routine. What are
29

the frequent experiences that trigger sexually themed thoughts and behavior? Write them
down. Your effectiveness in managing your behavior may rest on how well you can redirect
your thinking when you are confronted with a trigger. Use the SIS ACDC steps to successfully
redirect and restructure your thinking habits.
Example: Yesterday when Johnny caught a ride to work on the bus he saw a scantily clad
woman in one of the back seats. Such sights usually spiral his thinking down to eventual
arousal and pornography use. Johnny tells himself to put on the brakes (Stop), takes a
deep breath (Inhale), and gives himself half a smile (Smile). He then moves to ACDC and
tells himself I just had a risky thought enter my mind, but it is the addiction talking, not
me (Acknowledge and re-label). He then inserts the thought, I think she is probably a
nice person and there is no need to objectify her. She is just going to workthat is what I
think. (Correct). Then he says, Thinking like this is much more pleasant. It produces a
sense of self-respect and peace of mind. Not disappointing like the addiction thinking
(Determine/Decide). He then sits down and complements the bus driver for being so
punctual and introduces himself (Contribute). If Johnny is experiencing more difficulty
with redirecting his thoughts, he can talk to the bus driver for a while or move to an
activity that needs more time to complete.

SIS ACDC: Consistently use real-life and imaginal practice

Frequently, recovering addicts make an incorrect assumption when making changes. They
believe all activities used to solve a serious problem must be painful: the medicine must taste as
bad as the illness feels. This is an error. Recovery from addiction has its painful days, and you
will certainly feel them, but regular practice of SIS ACDC to increase your readiness for real
confrontation is not so painful. Nevertheless, in order to make changes, you must be diligent
and consistent with your practice, both real-life and imaginal.
You will often feel tempted to put off the real-life and imaginal practice of SIS ACDC. The reality
is that you will never get good at redirecting your thinking and changing your thinking patterns
unless you practice iteven when you think you don't need it.
Repetition and concentration not only fosters the growth of new neural pathways, but they also
build the skill necessary to compete with the old neural pathways. Your old addictive neural
pathways are well established. They only got that way because you practiced using them over
and over. You even used fantasy (similar to imaginal practice) to strengthen them when you did
not have any other means to engage in pornography. Building new pathways takes your skill for
fantasy and uses it to establish a new way of thinking.
Can you imagine belonging to a sports team that never practiced, never ran drills or never
rehearsed plays, and only played the game when there was a competition of some kind?
Correcting the errors from game to game would never occur. You would never develop the skill

30

necessary to effectively challenge your opponent. You would never learn the subtleties of the
game, the manipulation of the ball, the formation of strategy, how to move and counter move.
Completing 10-20 minutes of imaginal practice each day, running through your scripts and using
SIS ACDC with imagined but realistic triggers will likely determine how successful you are when
"game day" comes. As you practice SIS ACDC, you will discover what intervening thoughts and
behaviors work best for you. Practice will help you memorize how you want to respond so your
new thoughts flow freely with little interruption. This prepares you for a smooth confrontation
when real events occur. You will be able to confront your addiction thinking with greater ease,
rather than stumbling and allowing the old automatic thinking to get the upper hand.
Real-life practice is also needed. When you are confronted with small sexual thoughts about
individuals you meet or see throughout the day, practice using SIS ACDC. Perhaps you easily
push these mild thoughts aside alreadygood for you. But now use SIS ACDC to strengthen
your new thought patternseven the small ones. This will enable you to eventually change
how you automatically think about someone, rather than having to constantly push the thought
away.
The more you practice, the more you will notice that you no longer have thoughts that need to
be thrown away or redirected because they are already going in the right direction
automatically. That is the difference between stopping your thinking vs. re-directing your
thinking.
Getting Cozy with the Process of Change
During the last couple of lessons you have been provided with a great deal of information. Now,
its time to slow down and allow all that information to soak in while you practice the skills
youve learned up to this point.
Rather than quickly moving on to the next lesson, take a few weeks to get good at SIS ACDC.
Identifying your bottom-lines and triggers. Find the best time to practice. Decide what your
bottom-line replacements and contribute behaviors are. Get good at what has been presented
so farit is fundamental in your success from here on out.

31

Action Items to complete this week

1. Finish filling out the Triggers and Contributing Behaviors form. What are the triggers you
have to confront most often?
Write them down. What contributing behavior will you add to the end of SIS ACDC? Write
them down.
2. Finish filling out the rest of the Bottom-line and Bottom-line replacement behavior form.
3. Make copies of the SIS ACDC script form. Make one for each trigger that you frequently
face.
Using the form, write out a premade script of how you plan to respond to at least three
triggers. You can also make audio recordings of the scripts. Listen to them and focus on
completing each step as the audio recording runs through the script.
4. Continue to practice SIS ACDC using the scripts. Use your scripts for real-life and imaginal
practice.
Continue imaginal practice for 10-20 minutes a day.

Do not charge ahead to the next lesson. Remember, Slow is Smooth and Sooth is Fast.
Take the next two to three weeks and get good at what you have learned to far.

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Bottom-line behaviors
Write the first seemingly innocent behaviors connected to your series of behaviors
leading to pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Bottom-line replacement behaviors

Write the best replacements for the bottom-line behaviors above. These are the
behaviors that will change-up the frequent patterns that would typically lead to
pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

33

Triggers
Write down events (sight, sound, smell, emotion, situation, etc.) that prompt your
thoughts toward sexual content.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Contributing Behaviors
Identify good contributing behaviors. Behaviors that you can do quickly, and are
frequently available. The best contributing behaviors are small acts of kindness. You will
use them in the final step of SIS ACDC as you confront your triggers.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

34

SIS ACDC Script Worksheet

Trigger: Identify a trigger you frequently have to confront.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Stop

Inhale

Smile

Acknowledge and re-label: What are you going to call these thoughts?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Correct the Thinking: What is a healthier way to think about this trigger?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Decide/determine rewards: What are the rewards for having healthier thinking and behavior?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Contribute: What small but kind act can you do for someone/yourself/God?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Imaginal Practice: Run this script through your mind, several times, for about 10-20 min a day.
Real-Life practice: When confronted with real triggers throughout the day, apply the
appropriate script to the situation. Figure out the best ways to complete the steps in different
situations.

35

SIS ACDC
S

Stop: Say the word stop in your mind or quietly to yourself. Use this as a thought
stoppersomething that momentarily halts the progression of the unwanted thinking.

Inhale: Calm your degree of arousal by taking a deep relaxing breath. Get yourself
under control.

Smile: Literally give yourself a half-smile. Smiling helps to promote a different pleasant
emotion.

Acknowledge and Re-label: Tell yourself what is happening and re-label the thought as
something separate from you. Treat it as if an unknown person has placed the wrong
thought in your head.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, A degrading thought just entered my
mind when that girl walked by. (Acknowledge) This is the addiction talking, not
me. I dont have to allow this thought to continue. (Relabel)

Correct: Correct your thinking with a new script. Repeat what you would prefer to think
in your mind and label it as your thinking.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, What I think is that she is someones mother,
daughter, and wife, and she deserves to be treated with respect and thought of with
respect.

Determine/Decide: Determine the rewards for the new thinking, and try to feel the
reward inside.
Example: I feel so much better having these thoughts. They are guilt free and
peaceful. I dont have to feel the depression that settles on me when I look at
porn. Allow that peace to settle on you give yourself a half-smile again.

Contribute: After the corrected thinking, refocus your behavior and thoughts toward
contributing in a positive way to someone or yourself. Do a brief act of kindness for
someone: give a compliment, smile at someone, open the door for someone, practice a
talent, express gratitude to someone or God.
Example: Walk over to a co-worker. Give him/her a compliment: John, I really liked
your presentation last week, I can tell you worked hard on it.
36

Lesson 5
Putting Your Heart in the Right Place
Dont Just Play DefenseTake an Offensive Posture
Review of lesson 4
1. Willpower alone causes the addictive drive to increase because the brain
believes you are trying to harm it, thus triggering a survival reaction.
2. Address your bottom-lines and triggers with decisiveness and determination.
3. Tend to and care for the ever burning pilot light when it receives fuel, dont race
to extinguish it. Redirect the momentum of the rolling boulderthis nurtures
the brain, minimize the chance of a survival reaction as you guide the brain to
the relief it needs.
4. Make a list of your most frequent bottom-lines and triggers.
5. Steady daily practice of SIS ACDC is necessary real-life practice and imaginal
practice.
6. Take a few weeks to get good at all you have learned so far before beginning
lesson 5.

Principle: Playing only defense in your efforts to combat pornography addiction scores
no points, fails to foster lasting change, and leads to eventual relapse. Taking on an
offensive posture builds a new life style, absent of pornography, with permanent
change.
Gaining the advantage by moving to an offensive posture essentially means that you will
be proactive when changing to a lifestyle that does not include the use of pornography.
You must not be a pornography avoider only. You must be the pursuer of something
else. Your brain will do your thinking for you if you do not actively direct its activity.

Your Brain is a Habit Building Machine

As emphasized in the last few lessons, your brain is designed to develop habits and
make thinking and behavior as automatic as possible. If the brain didnt actively build
habitual behavior, you would have to exert a great deal of energy every day to perform
routine tasks. As you know, you were born with your brain controlling numerous
functions without your need to regulate it, such as the beating of your heart. Along
these same lines, your brain will also create pathways to make your thinking and
behavior to be as spontaneous possibleyour brain wants you to be very efficient. The
building of these pathways, over your lifetime, depends on your experiences and how
you choose to respond. Although it is often called automatic thinking/behavior, in
reality it is limited automatic thinking/behavior. All of this thinking and behavior shares
control with you unlike the other functions that were automatic since birth. The
automatic feel of these behaviors is, in part, for your convenience and efficiency--not to
rob you of control of your behavior.
37

The brain is always seeking to build new pathways and become more efficient for you.
Natural drives, such as eating and sex, have a particularly powerful ability to direct the
building of neural pathways if you let your brain stay in the drivers seat. Or put another
way, your brain will take its own initiative if you do not purposefully direct its creative
power. As such, you may end up with some habitual behavior unawares, simply because
your brain was doing what it thought it was supposed to do when you were not paying
attention.
When you were a child your parents helped directed your behavior as they followed you
around and sought to influence your responses to life experience. They also labeled and
relabeled your world to influence your thinking and perceptions. This helped direct and
mold the results of your brains constant efforts. Little by little your parents turned this
control over to you. It is now up to you to continue the directing, or leave your brain to
follow every instinctual drive.
To illustrate how this works, lets look at a scene from a popular movie. If you are an old
Star Wars fan, you may remember Obi-Wan Kenobi training Luke Skywalker. Obi-Wan
Kenobi puts a helmet on Lukes head with the blast shield down, covering his eyes so he
cannot see. Luke protests but Obi-Wan Kenobi tells him to "use the force." A moment
later in the training Luke asks an important question, You mean it controls my
actions? Obi-Wan Kenobis answer relates to how your brain works when it is building
pathways that reinforce habitual behaviors: "Partially," he says, "but it also obeys your
commands. You see, your brain works much in the same way. It will take control if you
let it, but it will also obey your commands and build the pathways you want and the
habitual behaviors you desire if you seize the initiative and purposefully direct your
brains activities and thought processes.
Building a lifestyle absent of pornography is not unlike building any other talent, such as
playing the piano or basketball, but it takes time and consistency just like any other
talent. These examples may be simplistic in nature but making change is a similar
process. No one accidentally becomes a concert pianist, or an all-star basketball player.
It takes purposeful action. If you are to become a concert pianist, you must pursue it
and give your brain the experience it needs to build the pathways consistent with a
concert pianist.
You are the Coach
Speaking of piano players and basketball players, it is not uncommon for coaches and
teachers to focus on correcting poor technique or bad habits early on in the classroom
and on the practice field. A bad habit may not cause any noticeable difficulty when
playing on the junior varsity team, but may make all of the difference when you enter
the varsity league. As such, you may not have any particular problem eliminating small
unwanted behaviors, but when addressing behavior that rises to the level of addiction,
effective technique can make a big differencesuch as directing the momentum of the
38

rolling boulder rather than abruptly stopping it. The exertion of every ounce of energy
counts.
Common among teachers and coaches at the beginning of the game season and
classroom is the identification and elimination of bad technique that has become habit.
Unfortunately, these habits take time to change. First and foremost, the student or
athlete needs to exercise self-awareness and change the way he or she plays the game.
Why? His or her old behavior has an established neural pathway. It takes attention,
repetition, and practice to build the new pathway and diminish the old. Over time, the
proper technique, taught by your new coach, becomes the new habit. This is what you
are doing with your pornography-seeking brain. Using SIS ACDC and bottom-line,
replacement behaviors, strong contributing behaviors combined with purposeful effort,
will eventually cause your thoughts and behavior to flow in a different direction when
confronted with your usual triggers. You will only have to deal with the ever burning
pilot light occasionally, simply because sexually related behavior is a natural process
given to us all.
Your efforts to change and rid yourself of pornography thus far have likely been heroic,
and you should be commended for your efforts, but it is also likely that your efforts and
"techniques" fostered a frustrating backlash. Your brain responded with protest rather
than cooperation. Probably because you made the mistake of taking on too much
change at once, and abruptly stopping old thinking rather than redirecting it, using raw
grit and self-discipline alone to foster the change. This technique caused your brain to
react like a caged lion, with you taking the role of lion tamer with whip in hand. You
have won the contest from time to time, but most fail over and over again. Consistency,
effort, and goal setting are necessary, but not to the degree that you trigger your own
relapse with the very behavior you are using to rid yourself of pornography use. Your
brain will act like a caged lion from time to time regardless of your efforts, but if you
nurture it with the steps in this program you will not experience the caged lion to the
degree that you have in the past.
Follow the steps you have learned so far.
1. Continue using SIS ACDC to ensure you are directing your thinking in a nurturing
manneruse imaginal practice and real-life practice.
2. Use SIS ACDC early in the thought process do not dismiss mild triggers thinking
you are still safe.
3. Redirect your behavior early. Respond to approaching bottom-lines with energy
and confidence using your bottom-line replacements.
4. Give your brain the relief it may be seeking by focusing on a contributing
behavior. Engage in it until you feel relief.
5. If your brain is not seeking relief, but is actually pursuing sexual behavior
because it has mistakenly identified potential sexual opportunity, direct your
thoughts away from mistaken opportunity and/or remove yourself from the
situation, and strongly re-label the experience and redirect your thinking
39

appropriately using SIS ACDC, and direct the momentum toward the contributing
behavior.

Using Your Anchors

Begin establishing anchoring behaviors. Anchoring behaviors are those behaviors that
can stimulate your creative interest, inspire you, enrich your life, and invite the Holy
Ghost. Examples include reading scriptures, good books, talent practice, and service to a
loved one. You will use anchoring behaviors to literally remove the desire for
pornography use for a window of time. As such, a good anchoring behavior elevates
your thought process to a degree that pornography and the surrounding temptations
lose their allure for a time.
Only using anchoring behaviors and other replacement behaviors in response to the
temptation of pornography is too defensive in nature. Although you can engage in these
behaviors when temptations arise, anchoring behaviors are an enriching part of your life
that you will pursue even when no temptation is present. This means that anchoring
behaviors are intended to move you toward the development of your potential.
Anchoring behaviors drive you to the new youthe you you would be trying to become
even if you had no harmful addictions to tackle.
Accomplished individuals engage in anchoring behaviors regularly. In other words,
engaging in anchoring behaviors is your pursuit of excellences, not just a means for
avoiding pornography. Adding enrichment in your life builds a wholesomely stimulating
life. Wouldnt it be nice if you craved wholesomeness with the enthusiasm your brain
pursues its addiction? When you enrich your life with anchoring behaviors and those
things that push toward your goals on the horizon, and your potential, you are on your
way to a complete lifestyle change. Not just the removal of pornography.
Having periods of time when your anchoring behavior temporarily removes the desire to
engage in unwanted behavior is restful. These events refresh you because there is no
disposition to engage in your addiction. You find rest from any sense of struggle you
may experience as you balance diligent but nurturing efforts with keeping the caged
lion acting like a tame kitten. These restful windows of time are small but extremely
rewarding because they put your heart in the right place.
You may have experienced these restful windows of time in your life already. One
example includes a man who had used pornography throughout his early childhood until
his forties. When he read or listened to the sermons of his favorite church leaders
however, life was void of temptation. Although he had difficulty describing the
experience, he indicated that he felt very inspired, uplifted, and encouraged. He
described one time, after attending a sermon from one of these church leaders, he felt
like he loved everyone and everything all at once. He could not bring himself to engage
in the mildest of offensive behaviors, nor did he have any desire to do so. Having been
40

exposed to some of his expected triggers throughout the day, he noticed they had no
effect. The tempting world he usually had to experience on a regular basis suddenly lost
its power for several hours. What did he do with this time? He enjoyed it and took rest
in the experience. It eventually wore off but he looks forward to engaging in his
anchoring behaviors and basking in some much needed rest.
Not Just a Pornography Avoider
Anchoring behaviors are a piece of the new you. It is the scaffolding in which your new
life will be built. To fully empower yourself to adopt a lifestyle absent of habitual
pornography use, you must be more than a pornography avoider. You must be the doer
of something elsesomething healthy, wholesome, enjoyable, and something that
maintains necessary relief and lowers the power of temptation. You must pursue a
different life.
Keeping life exactly the same with only the absence of pornography is a scenario for
relapse. You must pursue enrichment, additional improvement, and development. Right
now your brain considers pornography the enrichment in lifebut it is not.
Pornography gives the illusion of enrichment as part of its deceptive trap. Like a drug, it
gives you temporary feelings of abundance while cloaking its destructive effect until it
has grasped you.
Anchoring behaviors, and their effect on you, are intended to become a permanent part
of your character. So, if you pursue the better you, the future you, the part of you that is
more than just a pornography avoider, what will you be? Who will you be? Place it on
the horizon. Some of your anchor behaviors will be the steps that bring you to that
enriched life on the horizon.
Anchors Away
One of the differences with anchoring behaviors is that you will engage in the behavior
daily, not just when you encounter a trigger, or have to face one of your bottom-lines. A
good anchoring behavior is a far more proactive step in your offensive plan. In what
ways will you begin to enrich your life with anchoring behaviors? What would invite the
Holy Ghost, what will move you toward your goals on the horizon?

41

Action Items to complete this week.

1. Select several anchor behaviors and engage in one or more for at least 15
minutes every day. Make a list of anchoring behaviors on the worksheet
provided.
2. Continue practicing SIS ACDC. If you are getting good at SIS ACDC you may
consider practicing the two parts separately, on occasion, by practicing the SIS
part for several minutes, or reviewing the ACDC steps.
3. Begin building your new life rather than just avoiding pornography by selecting
an anchoring behavior to do every day. Maybe it is studying your scriptures,
spending time with your children, or having a heart to heart with your spouse,
whatever they are, do one every day.

42

Anchors

Anchors
Behaviors/activities that promote a change of disposition. One of these behaviors should be
done for at least 15 minutes everyday.
Example: Every morning Johnny reads several pages from the biography or his favorite
historical figure, Winston Churchill. Stories of Churchill inspires and motivates him.
A few of these behaviors should contribute to your Goals on the Horizon.
1.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________________

43

Lesson 6
Handling Challenging Days
The Offensive Posture During a Defensive Play
Review of lesson 5
Your brain will take its own initiative if you do not purposefully direct its creative
power.
If you take an offensive posture you will have greater success.
Cast your anchors daily to keep the caged lion acting like a tame kitten.
Dont just be a pornography avoider, be the doer of something else, enrich your
life, pursue the better you.
Use SIS ACDC regularly to nurture thinking in a different direction.

Principle: You will face powerfully tempting days even though you are doing
everything right. Expect them and prepare for them. Experiencing these days does not
indicate a personal failure. They will occasionally happen regardless of your progress.
Habitual behavior and established thinking patterns have a tendency to act as though
they have a life of their own, they will fight for their survival. After not engaging in
addictive behavior for a period of time, the drive to engage in it will seemingly come out
of the blue for no apparent reason. This is what is sometimes called an Extinction
Burstexpect it, it is normal.

Extinction Bursts
Although extinction bursts are most often attributed to children and their occasional
tantrums when their behavior is corrected, it seems to fit well with the sudden urges
that one feels to engage in addictive behavior, even after you have not engaged in any
addictive behavior for several weeks. Essentially it is your brain throwing a temper
tantrum.
During an extinction burst, on almost all levels, you want to engage in the behavior.
Many people describe it as a time when they cant seem to control the sexualized
thought patterns in their minds. They feel particularly sensitive to their triggers, and are
even triggered by events that are typically non-triggers. They further describe it as being
hypersensitive to arousal.
It is during these times that most people relapse into their old behavior. They will
suddenly binge for hours on pornography; often for longer periods of time than when
they were looking at pornography regularly.
A good example of this involved a young man who had developed an addiction to
pornography. He generally looked at pornography for a few hours nearly every day. He
44

eventually decided to quit. He rallied support from a few friends and family members,
learned important steps to restructure his thinking patterns and behavior, including
identifying triggers, bottom-lines, and effective contributing and replacement activities.
Lastly, he began to identify solid anchoring behaviors. He experienced some rough
waters typical for someone new to behavior change, but overall he was successful in
keeping his efforts a generally nurturing experience.
One day this young man experienced an extinction burst. He explained that his mind
seemed to drift toward sexual themes when triggered by what he would normally
consider inert experiences. He engaged in his usual SIS ACDC, and even tried to engage
in some anchoring behaviors, but with little success. His usual triggers seemed to jump
out at him, and the usual nurturing approach seemed ineffective. The ever burning pilot
light seemed to burst through its containment walls. The momentum of the rolling
boulder countered his attempts to direct it. Practically everything seemed to arouse
sexual thoughts. For lack of a better explanation, he said, It was like I was suddenly
participating in rutting season, and I was the alpha male. It was a strange conflicting
experience. I didnt want to view pornography, but I couldnt stop wanting to look at
pornography at the same time. This young man went on to explain that he became
very distressed and relapsed into a pornographic binge that lasted nearly 48 hours, with
only a few hours of sleep during that time. Although looking at pornography was not
unusual for him, historically, he had never viewed pornography for more than a few
hours at a time. This was his first extinction burst binge.
Although this young mans experience is rather extreme, you may experience something
like this, to one degree or another, when you try to extinguish any unwanted behavior,
including overeating, substance use, video games, cussing, just to name a few. This does
not mean you are bad, broken, or a hopeless case. These experiences are expected. It is
part of your brains strategy to maintain the behaviors it has worked so hard to build.
A few extinction burst explanations
Use it or lose it firing. Your brain, always striving for efficiency, will protest if it lacks the
stimulation needed to keep an established pathway healthy and running in tip-top
condition. Your brain not only builds these pathways, it is charged with maintaining
them. Like muscle fiber, if it is unused, it weakens. As such, it will expend a great deal of
energy to get you to stimulate a pathway from time to time if it has not been used
recentlythe extinction burst. Just as a muscle needs to be adequately stimulated after
you have been sitting in a chair for too long, the extinction burst is the proverbial urge
to get up and walk around and stretch those muscles. Put another way, in order to
maintain the strength of the pathway, the brain will occasionally try to light things up
simply for the sake of maintenance.
Pattern firing. Another explanation for an extinction burst has to do with how the brain
works in patterns or cycles. Your brain, wanting to be as efficient as possible, follows a
schedule. Like a pilot light, your brain stands ready to fire when it receives stimulus, but
45

a highly used pathway may light up because your usual pattern or cycle indicates it is
time. This is like being prompted to eat at lunch time, because you always eat at lunch
time, even though you are not hungry. As your brain does its maintenance rounds, and
rotates through its established cycles/patterns, it will light up a few pathways that are
scheduled to light up. The more you comply with the pattern, the more frequent the
pattern becomes. The less you use the pattern, the more this pattern lengthens out.
Broadening generalization of triggers. If your brain is doing what it is supposed to be
doing, you will get triggered to display an array of behaviors throughout the day and not
even know it. Remember, the brain loves automatic behaviors because of their
efficiency. One of the ways it builds efficiency is by generalizing your triggers. At first,
your triggers are very specific and identifiable. As you respond to triggers, your brain will
connect very subtle experiences to trigger an automatic response. This causes your
behaviors to begin earlier and earlier in the process. Triggers can eventually become so
loosely connected they are barely recognizable. For the sake of efficiency, your brain
seeks to anticipate pornography use as early as possible.
For example, this phenomenon is often seen in the struggle with problematic anxiety. A
person who is afraid of big dogs may begin to fear small dogs. Over time it is generalized
more; and cats might eventually cause anxiety. If the brain continues to generalize,
eventually all animals could trigger fear. In worst case scenarios, seemingly unrelated
objects begin to trigger you simply because they are loosely associated with the once
obvious trigger. These triggers can be generalized so much, and be so subtle and so far
removed from the original trigger, that you will often fail to recognize them when they
happen. All of the emotion and arousal may be present, but you do not know why.
In terms of unwanted sexual behavior, like viewing pornography, your arousal may be
triggered by something seemingly harmless and unnoticed. You may have no idea why
you are being bombarded with sexual themes and thoughts, but your brain has
somehow made a connection. It has loosely connected something with the anticipation
of pornography and started firing your arousal pathways.
Congratulations and Hip Hip HoorayYou Are on Your Way!
Although managing an extinction burst can be quite distressing, if you have experienced
one, I offer my congratulationsrelapse or not. If you experienced an extinction burst
and muddled through without a complete relapse, I offer you a Hip Hip Hooray.
Why is an extinction burst a reason for celebration? Because you would not have
experienced an extinction burst without successfully avoiding pornography to the point
that your brain had to compel you to act. Your brain is now forced to stimulate that
circuitry or allow it to weakena vital crossroad.
You want the pathway to diminish, the time between extinction bursts to lengthen out,
and the triggers to retreat from generalization and become specific again. Successfully
46

resisting the extinction burst sends the message, despite your brains temper tantrum,
that it is time to allow the diminishing process to begin. Your brain will reluctantly do it,
but it will do it if you command it to do such. Remember, It controls your behavior, but
it also obeys your commands (lesson 5).
In essence, before your brain begins to allow these pathways to diminish, it is going to
ask, Are you sure? in the form of an extinction burst. It will do this, to a degree,
several times throughout your recovery.
Successfully navigating an extinction burst is one of the most beneficial things you can
do, but if you have not prepared yourself with regular practice of SIS ACDC, bottom-line
replacement behaviors, and regular anchors, it will be much harder.

The Offensive Play as a Defensive Strategy

Handling extinction bursts is a defensive move, but you must execute it with an
offensive attitude. Even when you are retreating, you are attacking.
Extinction Burst Response
An Extinction Burst is a crisis. Reach out for help to ensure success. Do not treat it lightly.
The tell-tale sign of an extinction burst is the significant increase of sexual arousal for
seemingly no apparent reason, and/or in the presence of mild triggers. Your goal is to
remove opportunity for pornography use and calm the arousal.
Strategies to combat the extinction burst:
Remove Opportunity/Refuse Isolation
Contact your recovery partner and/or social supports and inform them of what is
going on.
Ensure availability of pornography is minimized or removed.
Remain in the company of a friend, co-worker, family member, etc., and refuse
to isolate.
Ways to Calm Arousal
Modified SIS ACDC. Use SIS ACDC with emphasis on an extended contribute step.
o Engage in strong contributing activities. Something more than a passing
complement or opening the door for someone. Get caught up in the
activity. Consider mixing bottom-line replacement behaviors and
anchoring behaviors during this time.
o If this step is not working, consider using hop-skip-jump.

Hop-Skip-Jump. Use your capacity for fantasy to lower arousal. Many who
struggle with pornography addiction have an increased ability to build powerful
47

fantasies. Now use it to combat the extinction burst. Engage in the strategy until
the appetite subsides.
o In your mind, skip over all entertaining and arousing aspects of your
thoughts and focus on the unappetizing consequences or possible
consequences of relapse.
o Focus on consequences until you can begin to feel the possible reality of
them, such as being discovered by a loved one, co-worker, or friend, the
feeling of disappointment, your embarrassment, and their
embarrassment, the ensuing guilt, depression, or personal emotional cost
of relapse. Remember Pick Your Pain from lesson one. Remind yourself of
the pain of relapse.
o Visualize the plight of so many people who are trapped in the
pornography industry and want out, and your exploitation of them.

Remove the Vividness of the Images. If the vividness of images are powerfully
arousing, and it seems too difficult to focus on consequences, remove the vivid
nature of the images step by step.
o View the images in black and white. Like an old TV.
o Move the images back as though you are viewing them at a distance.
Increase the distance until you cannot see the image well. In your mind
view it from 20 feet, then 50 feet, then 50 yards, 100 yards, until the
image becomes obscure.

When you have gained control of the arousal and the extinction burst elements hardest
to escape, engage in bottom-line replacements/anchors/contributing behaviors until
things are back to normal and your usual SIS ACDC steps is all that is needed.
It can take a long time to remove an extinction burst sometimes hours or even a day or
two. Do not despair. You can do everything right and still struggle with an extinction
burst. This is why you need to call your support. Sometimes you must dig in and wait
for it to passwhat is left of it to pass. Continue to move offensively dont just play
defense.

48

Action Items to complete this week

Track Your Success and Habit Patterns

Use the tracking form to record your habit strength and response success on a daily
basis using the green to red scale.
Habit Strength: How strong was the drive to engage in pornography that day?
o Green = no or mild habit strength.
o Red = very strong urge or extinction burst.

Response Success: How successful were you in responding to the urge to engage
in pornography?
o Green = complete success responding to the sexually themed triggers.
o Red = no success or relapse.

Track the consistency of your recovery/offense activities

Anchorscheck this box if you successfully engaged in effective anchoring
behaviors that day.
SIS ACDC-Icheck this box if you successfully engaged in 10-20 min of imaginal
practice.
SIS ACDC-Rcheck this box if you used SIS ACDC during real-life events.
(LI Moment: Do not worry about this check box for now. It will be used in a later lesson.)

49

Strategies to combat the extinction burst

Remove Opportunity/Refuse Isolation
Contact your recovery partner and/or social supports and inform them of what is going
on.
Ensure availability of pornography is minimized or removed.
Remain in the company of a friend, co-worker, family member, etc., and refuse to
isolate.
Ways to Calm Arousal
Modified SIS ACDC. Use SIS ACDC with emphasis on an extended contribute step.
o Engage in strong contributing activities. Something more than a passing
complement or opening the door for someone. Get caught up in the activity.
Consider mixing bottom-line replacement behaviors and anchoring behaviors
during this time.
o If this step is not working, consider using hop-skip-jump.

Hop-Skip-Jump. Use your capacity for fantasy to lower arousal. Many who struggle with
porn addiction have an increased ability to build powerful fantasies. Now use it to
combat the extinction burst. Engage in the strategy until the appetite subsides.
o In your mind, skip over all entertaining and arousing aspects of your thoughts
and focus on the unappetizing consequences or possible consequences of
relapse.
o Focus on consequences until you can begin to feel the possible reality of them,
such as being discovered by a loved one, co-worker, or friend, the feeling of
disappointment, your embarrassment, and their embarrassment, the ensuing
guilt, depression, or personal emotional cost of relapse.
o Visualize the plight of so many people who are trapped in the porn industry and
want out, and your exploitation of them.

Remove the Vividness of the Images. If the vividness of images are powerfully arousing,
and it seems too difficult to focus on consequences, remove the vivid nature of the
images step by step.
o View the images in black and white. Like an old TV.
o Move the images back as though you are viewing them at a distance. Increase
the distance until you cannot see the image well. View it from 20 feet, 50 feet,
50 yards, 100 yards, until the image becomes obscure.

When you have gained control of the arousal and the extinction burst elements hard to escape,
engage in bottom-line replacements/anchors/contributing behaviors until things are back to
normal and your usual SIS ACDC steps is all that is needed.

50

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

LI Moment

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

LI Moment

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SATURDAY

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

LI Moment

Response Success

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

LI Moment

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

FRIDAY

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Response Success

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Anchors

THURSDAY
Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

WEDNESDAY

Habit Strength

Response Success

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

TUESDAY
Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Anchors

MONDAY
Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SUNDAY

Month ___________________

Response Success
Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SUNDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

MONDAY

Month________________________

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

TUESDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

WEDNESDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

THURSDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

FRIDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SATURDAY
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Lesson 7
Living in the Moment and Self-Awareness
The Victory Goes to the One Who is Aware
Review of lesson 6
An extinction burst is a crisis.
Extinction bursts occur, but it does not mean that something is wrong. They are normal,
but you must deal with them effectively and decisively.
Extinction burst response steps to lower arousal.
o Avoid isolation; contact support people
o Ensure that porn is difficult or impossible to access
o B e g i n SIS ACDC with emphasis on the contribute step
o Remember Hop-Skip-Jump
o Remove vividness
o Continue until SIS ACDC alone is sufficient
Start tracking progress

Principle: Fundamental to your offensive posture is your capacity and efforts to be "selfaware, also known as mindfulness, of what is going on both around you and inside you, and
your ability to live in the moment.
Almost all emotional peace, regulation, and resiliency in the midst of potential difficult emotions
and challenges is hinged on the ability to feel, see, recognize, and act on common daily triggers,
including the triggers that exacerbate personal burdensome issues from the past.
Your success may very well depend on how you handle earlier life experiences and the deeply
ingrained behavior patterns you have built over a lifetime.

Your Responses Today are a Blast from the Past

In prior lessons we primarily discussed triggers that directly prompted sexual arousal and the
pursuit of pornography, but there are other matters that contribute to your addiction.
If you have an addiction of any kind, it is likely that your brain prompts the use of this addiction
for the emotional relief of personal burdens. Personal burdens are often more subtle than you
think. For example, boredom (lack of stimulus) is seen by your brain as a burden. These burdens
are exacerbated by other personal issues that promote depression, anxiety, low self-esteem,
self- loathing, and other unpleasant internal turmoil. Your unresolved personal burdens may
include a history of abuse, poverty, grief, bullying, loneliness, or being the victim of a crime.
Each of these burdens, whether they exist because of illness or circumstance, can lay an added
measure of emotional pain on your shoulders and erode your resilience until common life
experiences quickly overwhelms you, compelling you to seek frequent relief. You will often seek
53

relief by involving yourself in behavior against your own better judgment; however, addictive
behavior, while deceptively offering a measure of temporary relief, actually erodes your
capacity to shoulder the burdens of the past and the burdens of today.
In order to successfully address addictive behavior, you must decide to address these other
issues and their contribution to the unnecessary burden you carry. Over time these issues helped
mold behavior, thinking, attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs. These personal issues dont allow
you to shoulder the burdens of just today. It is the burden of today and the constant burden
of unresolved personal issues that slowly weigh you down.
Addiction, as a general rule, is a secondary problem, driven by a primary issue. You remain
vulnerable to relapse until this other baggage and its effect on you is resolved. If by chance you
do not have baggage from days gone by, and you consider yourself a person that responded to
your natural process of sexual behavior until you became addicted for the mere pleasure of it,
your involvement in pornography has eroded your resilience to the degree that common life
experience is now toxic life experience, and toxic life experience is now the other baggage. Like
a drug addict that can no longer tolerate the stresses at work, providing for a family, or finish
school, pornography has diminished your ability to handle the tempo of a healthy and enriched
life.
Often times, the most difficult emotions are generated from sensitivities you have developed
over the years in response to the baggage of past events and the toxicity of common life while in
the vulnerable state of being addicted. In most cases, these sensitivities and adaptive responses
may have served you well; unfortunately, as your brain works to respond to the world around
you with ever greater efficiency, making your behavior as automatic as possible, you inevitably
develop a few unhealthy responses, or responses that are no longer necessary. You probably
didnt recognize the price of these events or your problematic responses to them until recently,
when you began feeling uncomfortable consequences. When you became aware of these
consequences, you probably identified the need to change the effects these events have on you
and create a more productive response.
Just like the coach who tells you, You may have played the game like that on your old team,
but that is not how we play it here, you have to recognize the way you have been playing the
game causes more problems than it has been solving. It is time to begin the work of unraveling
the strangle hold these toxic issues have on you.
Schemas and Living in the Moment
When your brain has developed deeply ingrained, emotions, beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes
that facilitate automatic behavior patterns in responses to the world around you, we call them
schemas. I am aware of a few different definitions of a schema but for the simplicity sake of this
manual we will call this bundle of behavior, thinking, beliefs, and attitudes a schema.

54

Regardless of what these patterns are called, the fundamental beginnings of changing these
patterns are the same.
Some of these schemas are appropriately adaptive to your current life, others cause you
problems, and they are maladaptive. If you have an addiction, you have a maladaptive schema.
Your maladaptive schemas were likely built over time in response to difficult or traumatic
events, but they are no longer a good fit for what is required of you now. Despite schemas being
triggered into action, it does not contribute to real problem solving. The autopilot nature of
activated schemas does not mean you have to follow them. They can be challenged. They can
be changed. They can be re-adapted to respond with a better fit for your current situation,
thereby contribute to real problem solving. In other words, you need to live in the moment
rather than allowing your maladaptive schemas, built from the past, to play out.
In a nutshell this is how it works. As common life situations arise, your ever vigilant brain, using
its own initiative, does quick evaluations from moment to moment and throws out automatic
responses based on what it anticipates like a butler constantly rolling out the red carpet just
ahead of you. You often follow these responses without question and without awareness
because so many of them are a perfect fit for most situations. You proceed as though your
brains automatic evaluation of the momentary situation is true and accurate, the associated
emotion is appropriate, and the automatic response is a suitable response. Herein lies the
problem: your brains evaluations, emotions, and responses, are a best guess formulated by
what your brain anticipates. It generates this anticipation from its perceptions and
connections it has made to similar past events and its record of how you responded. In a sense,
you live a great deal of your life as though you were living in the past.
To overcome maladaptive schemas you must spend more time living in the moment and
respond in a well thought out manner rather than letting the autopilot nature of a schema take
over. The schema is only there for efficiencyit is often wrong.
Mindfulness
The key to interrupting and changing maladaptive schemas relies on your ability to be aware of
what is going on both around you and inside you. This awareness is called mindfulness. To be
effectively mindful, you must be aware not only of the events that trigger maladaptive schemas,
but also how you tend to automatically respond to them. You must then reevaluate your
situation and purposely choose a different response when needed.
You have probably used a form of mindfulness already. One example may have been the first
time you visited the home of your boss, or the parents of a significant other. If you are like most
people, you wanted to be on your best behavior. There were some automatic behaviors etc.,
you did not want to show. As such, you slowed down a little bit. Every time you felt prompted
to act in a way that would be inappropriate, you reevaluated and chose a different response.
You were not being fake, you were just showing the better you. The you that comes out when
you are mindful of yourself.
55

If you have ever done this, you already have the skill to change maladaptive schemas. You have
mindfulness skills. The challenge now is to be as vigilant as you were on the day you visited the
home of a significant other, or similar life experience.

The Call to Attention, Evaluation, and Action - LAMBASTED

How do you know that a maladaptive schema may have been activated? Strong Emotion.
Although there are exceptions, a frequent first maladaptive response to your brains best guess
evaluation is emotion that elevates to a high degree when you are in the midst of a common life
experience, or in other words, being LAMBASTED. You may also feel a strong urge to act.
LAMBASTED stands for:
LLonely
AAngry
MMoody
BBored
AAroused, Anxious
SStressed/Shamed/Scared
TTired
EEmbarrassed
DDepressed/Hopeless
All of these emotions, although uncomfortable and/or painful, have a very important purpose.
Dr. Marsha M. Linehan, from the University of Washington, explains what some of the primary
purposes for emotions are:
Signal attention to what is going on around you.
Organize, prioritize, and motivate action in response to a situation.
The higher the priority, based on your brains best guess of what it anticipates the stronger the
emotion and urges to attend to what is happening and act upon the event.
Getting LAMBASTED from time to time is a common life experience. As such, your brain, always
a few steps ahead of you, throws out its premade recipe, the schema, in an attempt to respond
to the situation in a manner that is in line with what it has learned from the past.
Unfortunately, when your schema includes addictive behavior, your typical response is like being
shoved underwater and coming up for air at the cost of sinking deeper. Hence, you need to
build schemas that keep your head above water.
If you use the skills of mindfulness, you will recognize these emotions earlier in the process and
halt the automatic response until you have reevaluated it and selected a more adaptive
response.
56

Your automatic response needs your mindfulness

What most people do:
1. Your brain recognizes an event that it believes requires your attention.
2. Your brain evaluates and formulates a "best guess" response based on its anticipation of
what needs to happen.
3. Your brain generates emotion to draw your attention to the event and motivate you to
act. The stronger the emotion the higher the priority of the best guess evaluation.
The neglected part:
4. Re-evaluate the best guess evaluation, emotion, and motivation to act. Remember,
although your brain is ready to move you into action automatically if it has to, you do
not have to follow it.
5. Allow the suggested response your brain is trying to get you to do, if you agree with it, or
formulate a different response, a better fit response.
Live in the momentnot in the past
Many people only complete the first three steps of the pattern above and allow themselves to
be driven by the initiative of their brains, not realizing the process is intended to include
mindfulness and purposeful direction rather than a constant repeat of the automatic pilot's
course. Remember your brain is making all of these assumptions and plans from a best guess,
not necessarily from an accurate evaluation. If you are on automatic pilot, much of your
behavior is being dictated by the pastyou are not living in the moment.
The pain of extra baggage
Painful personal baggage often contributes to your brain pushing out overly intense emotions,
due to very inaccurate assumptions when it formulates its best guess. This then encourages
impulsive and strongly driven maladaptive schemas that lead to an exacerbation of events and
problems. This causes you to reach out with heightened desperation for relief by engaging in
unwanted behavior. You must remember, an activated schema is only a "best guess," and that
best guess can be challenged and changed.
Never forget to use steps four and five above when you know a maladaptive schema has been
triggered.

Responding to Schemas with Mindfulness and Living inthe Moment

Maladaptive schemas are usually a cry for relief and resolution of an event, not a cry for
pornography use. You can offer resolution and relief on different terms. When you are
LAMBASTED, seek relief, but question your schemas and respond using a modified SIS ACDC.
Remember the purpose of emotions as you go through the process:
1. Signal attention to the situation.
2. Organize, prioritize, and motivate action.
57

SIS
If your emotions are intense, incorporate the SIS steps to calm your emotion and the urge to act
so you do not become impulsive.
SStop: Tell yourself to stop.
IInhale: Take a few slow, soothing breaths.
SSmile: Give yourself half a smile.
ACDC
AAcknowledge and re-label what is really going on.
Acknowledge that you are being called to pay attention, prioritize, and take action on
something. Identify and label the emotion. The higher the priority and urgency to
respond based on your brain's best guess evaluation, the more intense the emotion. In
what way are you being motivated to act and think?
Example: Im embarrassed, and I feel the urge to leave the party. I am starting to have
thoughts that nobody really wants me here.
Re-label what is really going on. Label it as something separate from you. Remember
everything happening inside is a best guess formulated by your brain. It may not be
accurate. It may not be a good fit. Does the best guess response have history tied to
it? Do you know what it is? Give it any name you want.
Example: Everything Im experiencing is an old reaction to the years of humiliation and
bullying when I was in elementary school. Its my Bully Schema, it is not really me.

CCorrect your thinking, feeling, and urge to act.

Re-evaluate and decided how you prefer to think, feel, and act in the situation. Label the
thinking as your thinking
Example: What I really think is occasional awkward and embarrassing things happen
at parties, but it is harmless. I am going to enjoy myself and have fun. I know people like
me because I was invited.

DDetermine the rewards of your new response.

Example: When I am optimistic like this I have more fun and people seek out my
company.

CContribute to the building of a new response and emotion by doing something that
promotes it.
Give yourself a new experience that promotes a new emotion.
Example: Instead of leaving, Im going to ask someone to dance..
58

Action Items to complete this week

Tell your story.

Tell one of your support people the history of how you started using pornography and why you
think you developed the habit. If you choose not to express this to one of your support people,
write a letter to yourself telling the story of how and why this habit was built. Do it thoughtfully,
do not rush it.
Fill out the Schema Formulation worksheet.
What Schemas have developed that no longer serve you well? Label them and give them a
name. How do you plan on living in the moment when they are triggered?
On the Progress Tracking form, begin logging your use of living in the momentLI Moment.
LI Moment = Check this box on the Progress Tracking form if you confronted your maladaptive
schemas as they were triggered that day and selected a more appropriate response.

59

Not having my ideas

accepted.

Frequent Trigger
(Call to Attention/Motivation to Act)

Schema Emotion

Label: The Tease

History: Being laughed at Embarrassment and

and teased when speaking anger.
up in class as a child.

(How was it made)

Schema
History and Label
Cost

(Live In the Moment)

New Thought/New
Response

Thought: I hate you when I get labeled as moody and New Thought: Correction
you correct me in front of uncooperative.
is needed from time to
others and I hate this job. People walk on eggshells time. That is how I learn
around me and I am
to improve. Its harmless.
Reaction: Say a sarcastic avoided.
comment and walk away.
New Response: Take notes
and be thankful for input.
Say thank you.

(Motivation to Act How)

Schema
Thoughts/Reaction

Schema Formulation/Response

Lesson 8
Thinking About Your Thinking
Review of lesson 7
Addiction is a secondary problem.
Be aware of what is going on inside you and around you.
When you act automatically, you are living in the past.
When you re-evaluate and decide on a response, you are living in the moment.
Identify and label your maladaptive thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors
maladaptive schemas.
Use a modified SIS ACDC to correct your responses and build new patterns.

Principle: Remaining aware of your automatic thoughts, behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and
perceptions (schemas) is an ongoing process that requires frequent reflection. Those that
journal about their experiences regularly are generally more self-aware.
There is good reason for maintaining a journal or diary. Most people who do so have a
tendency to be self-reflective. As such, they often have great insight about their own thinking,
including whether it is problematic or beneficial.

Deep Insight for Continued Success

During the last lesson you learned a simplified version of how behaviors become automatic
over time as you respond to situations from day to day. Most of these responses are adaptive
and serve you well, but a few, built during times of difficulty or unusual circumstances, become
a bad fit response. These bad fit responses exacerbate your problems and continue to erode
your resiliency. Your unresolved burdens, coupled with the maladaptive responses, quickly
overwhelm you. This is because you are responding to more than just the problems of today.
Before the current burden leaped upon your shoulders, you were already carrying an
unresolved burden. Carrying such burdens spark a degree of desperation for relief. As such, you
may turn to habitual self-destructive behavior.
Schemas are deeply ingrained patterns fostered over many years. They are so well established
they take on a life of their own and strongly direct your behavior. Whether you believe your
behavior to be as deeply ingrained as a schema or more shallow and recent in its origin, the
process of charting a new course, or getting back to an old course you veered from, requires
the same fundamental steps that have been taught.
The Schema Formulation Worksheet from lesson 7 is meant to give you insight regarding the
origin of your schemas and what triggers them. The purposeful redirection of these schemas is
the beginnings of overcoming them. If you feel you need more professional help to heal from
some of the life events that contributed to maladaptive schemas, you should consider seeing a
professional psychotherapist.
61

Regardless of the origin of a schema, if you identify thinking, behavior, attitudes, perceptions,
feelings, and beliefs that are getting in the way, discard them as elements that are not the real
you and chart a new course. Your brains automatic process in guiding your behavior is a best
guess that provides a degree of convenience and efficiency. That best guess can be wrong. The
coupling of best guess and re-evaluation before you act makes for the best outcomes. This is
the process of incorporating old lessons learnthe old schemawith the wisdom of today
the re-evaluation before acting.
Thinking About Your Thinking
It is time to start doing more thinking about your thinking on a regular basis. You will need to
focus particularly on patterns of thinking after relapse and/or displaying behavior beyond your
bottom-line. You will also need to pay attention to successful management of difficult days or
extinction bursts.
You can do this in two different ways, either by journaling or by completing Thinking Reports. If
you have completed the most recent action items, you should have completed the Schema
Formulation Worksheet. Completing this homework should give you an initial view of your
schema patterns, their origin and what generally triggers their activation. Keeping a journal or
completing thinking reports regularly, will help you identify thoughts that lead to both relapse
and success. As you pay attention to your thinking, you will begin to identify the subtle
thoughts you can correct and challenge. This allows you to intervene in a targeted manner on
the most problematic parts. In terms of success, you will also be able to track the thoughts that
are most effective in moving you in the right direction.
Since your brain has generalized and broadened your triggers over time, it can sometimes be
difficult to find where you took the wrong fork in the road. Thinking Reports or journaling is the
walking back process of identifying your triggers so you can begin to make them specific and
narrow again. By discovering your forks in the road as you return and build new, more helpful
patterns of behavior and thinking, you will identify the subtleties in your behaviors, thoughts,
beliefs, and attitudes and where they try to detour to unwanted behavior.

62

Action Items to complete this week

Start a journal and regularly record (at least twice a week) your thoughts, feelings, and
attitudes about events of the day. Pay special attention to your challenging times and
your successes. What made them challenging? What made them a success?

Ideas for journaling include what you have done that is successful; what leans toward
pornography use; what guides you away from use; skills that are working for you; those
that need improvement; the insight you have gained from your journey.

If you choose not to journal, complete a Thinking Report at least twice a week. Review
both successful days and difficult days. Remember to complete all sections of the
report:
o Situation. Give a short description of the event.
o Original thoughts. Write down all of the thoughts you can remember.
o Risky thoughts. Put a check by the thoughts you believe add to the risk of using
pornography or respond to any schema in an unhealthy manner.
o Replacement thoughts. Propose new, non-risky thoughts, to replace the risky
thoughts.
o Feelings/Attitudes. Write a list of feelings you experienced during the event,
and/or the attitude you displayed during the situation.

Using a journal or thinking report is up to you. But whichever you choose, complete the work
with meaning.

63

Thinking About Your Thinking

Thinking Report
Situation: _________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Original Thoughts: (if thoughts are risky)

Replace Risky Thoughts:

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Feelings/Attitudes:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

64

Educational Videos and Information

(These videos are educational in nature but may contain moderately graphic content.)

A Compilation of articles, advice, and instructional videos:

www.yourbrainonporn.com
Highly recommended videos from www.yourbrainonporn.com
Your Brain on Porn
http://yourbrainonporn.com/your-brain-on-porn-series
Links to individual parts:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aS9vumF6JMU
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fxrG6QZ-G0M
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nOsF81sC4vo
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DGwIrmF1Z6k
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iQgUzACfTHI
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cQQRHdPri2s
Things You Didnt Know about Porn: three-part video for adolescent audience
http://yourbrainonporn.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-porn
Links to individual parts:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aJLRTL7w5qA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dK0olPvibFU
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LfylsR9j47M
The Great Porn Experiment, Gary Wilson, TEDx talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wSF82AwSDiU
Adolescent Brain Meets High-speed Internet Porn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XvyejdlmKpE

65

ACTION ITEM
FORMS

Goals on the Horizon

Pornography use erodes the potential of what you could be in the future. Consider the
following questions as you complete the Goals on the Horizon

What do you want to be?

What kind of person do you aspire to be?
What is important to you?
What values are important to you?
What will keep you motivated to stay engaged in recovery?
Most people suggest Goals on the Horizon should include something in each of the following
areas: 1) Family/Social, 2) Career/Education, 3) Spiritual/Values, and 4) Physical. But this is your
list, you write it.
1) _____________________________________
2) _____________________________________
3) _____________________________________
4) _____________________________________
5) _____________________________________

If you continue viewing pornography and strengthen your pornography addiction, how will it
erode the possibility of reaching your Goals on the Horizon?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

If you stop using pornography, how will it increase the possibility of reaching your Goals on the
Horizon?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Review this list daily and focus on the determination and commitment to change you will
need in order to reach these goals, as well as contemplating the real possibility that you will
do it.

Bottom-line behaviors
Write the first seemingly innocent behaviors connected to your series of behaviors
leading to pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Bottom-line replacement behaviors

Write the best replacements for the bottom-line behaviors above. These are the
behaviors that will change-up the frequent patterns that would typically lead to
pornography use.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Triggers
Write down events (sight, sound, smell, emotion, situation, etc.) that prompt your
thoughts toward sexual content.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

Contributing Behaviors
Identify good contributing behaviors. Behaviors that you can do quickly, and are
frequently available. The best contributing behaviors are small acts of kindness. You will
use them in the final step of SIS ACDC as you confront your triggers.
1. ____________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________________

SIS ACDC
S

Stop: Say the word stop in your mind or quietly to yourself. Use this as a thought
stoppersomething that momentarily halts the progression of the unwanted thinking.

Inhale: Calm your degree of arousal by taking a deep relaxing breath. Get yourself
under control.

Smile: Literally give yourself a half-smile. Smiling helps to promote a different pleasant
emotion.

Acknowledge and Re-label: Tell yourself what is happening and re-label the thought as
something separate from you. Treat it as if an unknown person has placed the wrong
thought in your head.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, A degrading thought just entered my
mind when that girl walked by. (Acknowledge) This is the addiction talking, not
me. I dont have to allow this thought to continue. (Re-label)

Correct: Correct your thinking with a new script. Repeat what you would prefer to think
in your mind and label it as your thinking.
Example: Think or say quietly to yourself, What I think is that she is someones mother,
daughter, and wife, and she deserves to be treated with respect and thought of with
respect.

Determine/Decide: Determine the rewards for the new thinking, and try to feel the
reward inside.
Example: I feel so much better having these thoughts. They are guilt free and
peaceful. I dont have to feel the depression that settles on me when I look at
porn. Allow that peace to settle on you give yourself a half-smile again.

Contribute: After the corrected thinking, refocus your behavior and thoughts toward
contributing in a positive way to someone or yourself. Do a brief act of kindness for
someone: give a compliment, smile at someone, open the door for someone, practice a
talent, express gratitude to someone or God.
Example: Walk over to a co-worker. Give him/her a compliment: John, I really liked
your presentation last week, I can tell you worked hard on it.

SIS ACDC Script Worksheet

Trigger: Identify a trigger you frequently have to confront.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Stop

Inhale

Smile

Acknowledge and re-label: What are you going to call these thoughts?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Correct the Thinking: What is a healthier way to think about this trigger?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Decide/determine rewards: What are the rewards for having healthier thinking and behavior?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Contribute: What small but kind act can you do for someone/yourself/God?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Imaginal Practice: Run this script through your mind, several times, for about 10-20 min a day.
Real-Life practice: When confronted with real triggers throughout the day, apply the
appropriate script to the situation. Figure out the best ways to complete the steps in different
situations.

Anchors

Anchors
Behaviors/activities that promote a change of disposition. One of these behaviors should be
done for at least 15 minutes everyday.
Example: Every morning Johnny reads several pages from the biography or his favorite
historical figure, Winston Churchill. Stories of Churchill inspires and motivates him.
A few of these behaviors should contribute to your Goals on the Horizon.
1.

_______________________________________________________________________

2. _______________________________________________________________________
3. _______________________________________________________________________
4. _______________________________________________________________________
5. _______________________________________________________________________

Strategies to combat the extinction burst

Remove Opportunity/Refuse Isolation
Contact your recovery partner and/or social supports and inform them of what is going
on.
Ensure availability of pornography is minimized or removed.
Remain in the company of a friend, co-worker, family member, etc., and refuse to
isolate.
Ways to Calm Arousal
Modified SIS ACDC. Use SIS ACDC with emphasis on an extended contribute step.
o Engage in strong contributing activities. Something more than a passing
complement or opening the door for someone. Get caught up in the activity.
Consider mixing bottom-line replacement behaviors and anchoring behaviors
during this time.
o If this step is not working, consider using hop-skip-jump.

Hop-Skip-Jump. Use your capacity for fantasy to lower arousal. Many who struggle with
porn addiction have an increased ability to build powerful fantasies. Now use it to
combat the extinction burst. Engage in the strategy until the appetite subsides.
o In your mind, skip over all entertaining and arousing aspects of your thoughts
and focus on the unappetizing consequences or possible consequences of
relapse.
o Focus on consequences until you can begin to feel the possible reality of them,
such as being discovered by a loved one, co-worker, or friend, the feeling of
disappointment, your embarrassment, and their embarrassment, the ensuing
guilt, depression, or personal emotional cost of relapse.
o Visualize the plight of so many people who are trapped in the porn industry and
want out, and your exploitation of them.

Remove the Vividness of the Images. If the vividness of images are powerfully arousing,
and it seems too difficult to focus on consequences, remove the vivid nature of the
images step by step.
o View the images in black and white. Like an old TV.
o Move the images back as though you are viewing them at a distance. Increase
the distance until you cannot see the image well. View it from 20 feet, 50 feet,
50 yards, 100 yards, until the image becomes obscure.

When you have gained control of the arousal and the extinction burst elements hard to escape,
engage in bottom-line replacements/anchors/contributing behaviors until things are back to
normal and your usual SIS ACDC steps is all that is needed.

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

LI Moment

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

LI Moment

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Response Success

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SATURDAY

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

LI Moment

Response Success

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

SIS ACDC-R

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

LI Moment

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

FRIDAY

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SIS ACDC-I

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Response Success

LI Moment

Habit Strength

Response Success

Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-R

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Anchors

THURSDAY
Habit Strength

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

WEDNESDAY

Habit Strength

Response Success

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

TUESDAY
Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Anchors

MONDAY
Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Anchors

SUNDAY

Month ___________________

Response Success
Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SUNDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

MONDAY

Month________________________

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

TUESDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

WEDNESDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

THURSDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

FRIDAY

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

LI Moment

SIS ACDC-R

SIS ACDC-I

Anchors

SATURDAY
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success
Response Success

Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength
Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Response Success

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Habit Strength

Not having my ideas

accepted.

Frequent Trigger
(Call to Attention/Motivation to Act)

Schema Emotion

Label: The Tease

History: Being laughed at Embarrassment and

and teased when speaking anger.
up in class as a child.

(How was it made)

Schema
History and Label
Cost

(Live In the Moment)

New Thought/New
Response

Thought: I hate you when I get labeled as moody and New Thought: Correction
you correct me in front of uncooperative.
is needed from time to
others and I hate this job. People walk on eggshells time. That is how I learn
around me and I am
to improve. Its harmless.
Reaction: Say a sarcastic avoided.
comment and walk away.
New Response: Take notes
and be thankful for input.
Say thank you.

(Motivation to Act How)

Schema
Thoughts/Reaction

Schema Formulation/Response

Thinking About Your Thinking

Thinking Report
Situation: _________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Original Thoughts: (if thoughts are risky)

Replace Risky Thoughts:

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

___________________________________________

_____________________________________________

________________________________________

_____________________________________________

Feelings/Attitudes:
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________