OREM — Utah Valley State College students have formed a porn-addiction support group that will begin meeting on campus next week.
Organizers say the support group will allow students struggling with pornography-related problems to discuss them discreetly and learn how to receive help.
The support group will meet in Room 222 of the Sorensen Center from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursdays, beginning March 9.
In addition to the support-group, Amy Lloyd and fellow students also organized a seminar Wednesday at UVSC on breaking pornography addiction, featuring a lecture by social worker and adjunct instructor Rory C. Reid and a panel discussion with Reid and other professionals.
According to a poll of UVSC students conducted this semester by seniors in the behavioral science program, 64 percent said they've seen adverse affects of pornography on someone close to them.
Before and during Reid's lecture, those who attended the seminar were able to anonymously write questions they have about their use of pornography.
Those questions were then read and addressed by the panel, which included Jan Booth, an adjunct faculty member who is doing a doctoral dissertation on the role of pornography addiction and sexual offending; and Maraia Weingarten, a mental health therapist at UVSC.
Reid, who serves as program director at the Provo Counseling Center and teaches part time in UVSC's behavioral science department, said he hopes students left the seminar with broadened perspectives about pornography problems.
"I hope they don't see pornography problems being about sex," he said.
Pornography problems are no more about sex than an eating disorder is about food, Reid said.
"What happens is we gravitate toward the sex," he said. "I think a lot of times in doing that we focus on the symptoms of the problem and we ignore what can potentially be the root of the problem."
In researching the problem at the Provo Counseling Center, Reid said he and his colleagues have identified a number of associated issues, such as loneliness, shame, fear and anxiety.
Loneliness is often thought of as precursor to pornography problems, but Reid said that's only partly true.
"What happens is people become anxious about their loneliness," he said, "and they turn to pornography to soothe the restlessness or the anxiety of the loneliness."
But people also are able to work through pornography problems, said Reid, who co-wrote the book "Discussing Pornography Problems With a Spouse" with Dan Gray, the clinical director of Sexual Trauma and Recovery in Salt Lake City.
"Hopefully (students left the seminar) with some hope that if there's something going on in their own life, there are resources and treatments that can help people," Reid said.
E-mail: jpage@desnews.com