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You could try the chaplains here maybe if you can’t afford a Christian therapist?

I’m sure everyone is giving you what they think is the best advice but it’s important you decide to do what you think is best as ultimately you know your husband and family far better than we do.

Keep praying and we will keep praying for you too
 
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I really appreciate all the input more than you all know! Some seem to think this is pretty serious, others not so much. It’s so hard to know what to do because while I feel like I know him, this other part that sees all these things he’s looking up feels like I don’t know him at all. I’m not leaving the kids alone with him right now since thankfully I’m not working and have that option, but should I be doing more? I still haven’t confronted

Here's the deal. 1. He isn't going to stop looking at inappropriate content. It's an addiction. 2. He will continue to hide it from you because you don't want him to look at it.

If those things you can live with and he is otherwise a normal, caring, loving person and you love him too, stay married. I doubt he is any more a danger to your children than any other guy you get attached to. And that is no guarantee at all but the odds are in your favor.

If you are not able to live with 1 and 2 above, cut your losses and move on because you will eventually do that anyway.

M'Lady used to go to the strip clubs with me. And we have been married now for fifty years and she says she is completely happy with me and loves me still. It really is what you want and what you can accept.

It isn't about him. It is about you.
 
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Sketcher

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This time it seems the content has gotten worse and he’s consistently searching for things about incest like brother/ sister, father/daughter, and we have 3 young kids at home.
Is he the one searching for it, or are those results being pushed on him when he searches for more "conventional" inappropriate content?
 
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RestoreTheJoy

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I really appreciate all the input more than you all know! Some seem to think this is pretty serious, others not so much. It’s so hard to know what to do because while I feel like I know him, this other part that sees all these things he’s looking up feels like I don’t know him at all. I’m not leaving the kids alone with him right now since thankfully I’m not working and have that option, but should I be doing more? I still haven’t confronted
Yeah. You should shut off the internet. You will quickly find out what is more important to him by his reaction - the inappropriate content or his family.
 
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He is searching specifically for that
I see. This cannot continue.

I wish I had useful advice, but there's no silver bullet solution to inappropriate content addiction. Filtering on any device within the home cannot be relied upon. I will not get into how that can be gotten around for the sake of anyone who uses it and is being helped by it.

Are there men at church that he can reliably be accountable to?
 
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I see. This cannot continue.

I wish I had useful advice, but there's no silver bullet solution to inappropriate content addiction. Filtering on any device within the home cannot be relied upon. I will not get into how that can be gotten around for the sake of anyone who uses it and is being helped by it.

Are there men at church that he can reliably be accountable to?
I don’t know- I feel like he’d be too embarrassed to get help at church. And I agree with the filtering as in the past no matter how I find out about it he found a different way to access it and then lies when I try to ask him how it’s going or if he’s been tempted. And he knows the lying hurts me more than if he were just honest with me about it.
 
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There have been a lot of suggestions surrounding cutting out internet, putting up filters, getting him accountability, etc. The problem with this is that, even for the person who is addicted to inappropriate contentography and wants to stop looking at it, they have an addiction, meaning that they can't control it. An addiction isn't just a moral defect, it is something that literally rewires the brain. You indulge in the addiction, it triggers a release of chemicals from the pleasure centers of the brain, and your body takes that positive experience and says, "We need to do this again."

So when you are dealing with someone with an addiction who is not all that interested in stopping, cancelling internet or putting up filters is kind of like you babysitting your husband, and no one wants to have a parent-child relationship with their spouse. Along with that, it's like those cartoons where holes are popping up in a boat and the character is trying to plug them all to keep it from sinking. You can put a stopper on the internet, your computers, your phones, etc. but if he really wants it he is going to find a way to get it.

So with that said, the solution here is that he needs to make the decision for himself that he is going to make changes. I know your concern is about the safety of your children, and I will say that while his inappropriate content addiction and the nature of his searches don't necessarily mean that he is a danger to them, it would be naive to think that it isn't a possibility. If your husband has been a victim of sexual abuse himself in the past, that would make it even more of a concern in my mind.
But regardless of whether or not he is a danger to your kids, he is seriously hurting you with his actions and that is enough to demand change. Any advice you have been given that says you should continue to endure this for the sake of your children or not splitting up your family is downright horrible advice. You are not required to endure this type of emotional trauma by God or anyone else.

With that said, I think it is most helpful if you are clear and straight-forward but also kind in the way you speak to him. It is up to you if you want to wait until you have caught him again, or if you have caught him recently that is enough to have the conversation. My suggestion is to ask him to leave, and say that the only way he is allowed back in is if he starts making changes. There are 12-step support groups all over the country like Sexaholics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous that cost nothing to be a part of. If he can go to counseling, that would be ideal as well. But at this point, after 10 years, the only way that crap is going to get real for him is if he starts to sense that his addiction is causing him to lose what is most important to him. There is no guarantee that he is going to change, obviously, and you have to be prepared to divorce if that is the case, but this is the only real way you have at this point to ruffle his feathers enough to make him do something about his behavior. I know men who were engaged in extramarital sexual behavior due to their addictions, and one day crap hit the fan, so to speak, and they were kicked out of their house. They saw that they were going to lose their wife and children, and they started doing everything they could to reconcile and get on a better path, and for most of them that is exactly what happened. Many of them have been clean from their addictive behavior for several years now. That is what I hope would happen for him, for your marriage, and for your family.

This might seem a little bit extreme, but marital infidelity is extreme. You do not need to endure this kind of pain in your marriage just because your husband doesn't want to work at it. And all of this is biblical advice. I would not suggest anything that I thought was unbiblical. I will be praying that God would give you the wisdom and strength to do what is necessary for the sake of your own emotional well-being and your marriage, and that he would have a change of heart and find freedom from his addiction as well.
 
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There have been a lot of suggestions surrounding cutting out internet, putting up filters, getting him accountability, etc. The problem with this is that, even for the person who is addicted to inappropriate contentography and wants to stop looking at it, they have an addiction, meaning that they can't control it. An addiction isn't just a moral defect, it is something that literally rewires the brain. You indulge in the addiction, it triggers a release of chemicals from the pleasure centers of the brain, and your body takes that positive experience and says, "We need to do this again."

So when you are dealing with someone with an addiction who is not all that interested in stopping, cancelling internet or putting up filters is kind of like you babysitting your husband, and no one wants to have a parent-child relationship with their spouse. Along with that, it's like those cartoons where holes are popping up in a boat and the character is trying to plug them all to keep it from sinking. You can put a stopper on the internet, your computers, your phones, etc. but if he really wants it he is going to find a way to get it.

So with that said, the solution here is that he needs to make the decision for himself that he is going to make changes. I know your concern is about the safety of your children, and I will say that while his inappropriate content addiction and the nature of his searches don't necessarily mean that he is a danger to them, it would be naive to think that it isn't a possibility. If your husband has been a victim of sexual abuse himself in the past, that would make it even more of a concern in my mind.
But regardless of whether or not he is a danger to your kids, he is seriously hurting you with his actions and that is enough to demand change. Any advice you have been given that says you should continue to endure this for the sake of your children or not splitting up your family is downright horrible advice. You are not required to endure this type of emotional trauma by God or anyone else.

With that said, I think it is most helpful if you are clear and straight-forward but also kind in the way you speak to him. It is up to you if you want to wait until you have caught him again, or if you have caught him recently that is enough to have the conversation. My suggestion is to ask him to leave, and say that the only way he is allowed back in is if he starts making changes. There are 12-step support groups all over the country like Sexaholics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous that cost nothing to be a part of. If he can go to counseling, that would be ideal as well. But at this point, after 10 years, the only way that crap is going to get real for him is if he starts to sense that his addiction is causing him to lose what is most important to him. There is no guarantee that he is going to change, obviously, and you have to be prepared to divorce if that is the case, but this is the only real way you have at this point to ruffle his feathers enough to make him do something about his behavior. I know men who were engaged in extramarital sexual behavior due to their addictions, and one day crap hit the fan, so to speak, and they were kicked out of their house. They saw that they were going to lose their wife and children, and they started doing everything they could to reconcile and get on a better path, and for most of them that is exactly what happened. Many of them have been clean from their addictive behavior for several years now. That is what I hope would happen for him, for your marriage, and for your family.

This might seem a little bit extreme, but marital infidelity is extreme. You do not need to endure this kind of pain in your marriage just because your husband doesn't want to work at it. And all of this is biblical advice. I would not suggest anything that I thought was unbiblical. I will be praying that God would give you the wisdom and strength to do what is necessary for the sake of your own emotional well-being and your marriage, and that he would have a change of heart and find freedom from his addiction as well.
Thank you so much. The more I have been praying about this I do feel like that may be the best way to go about this. And I agree with your boat analogy. I even asked him today about it and he lied to my face. I gave him the opportunity to talk about it and get my help but even though he knows the lies hurt me more, that’s still what he did. The only problem with asking him to leave until he gets things under control, is I really don’t know that he would have anywhere to go. And we couldn’t financially afford another place. Do you have any advice or ideas of how we could manage a separation when there’s nowhere else to go?
 
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RestoreTheJoy

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There have been a lot of suggestions surrounding cutting out internet, putting up filters, getting him accountability, etc. The problem with this is that, even for the person who is addicted to inappropriate contentography and wants to stop looking at it, they have an addiction, meaning that they can't control it. An addiction isn't just a moral defect, it is something that literally rewires the brain. You indulge in the addiction, it triggers a release of chemicals from the pleasure centers of the brain, and your body takes that positive experience and says, "We need to do this again."

So when you are dealing with someone with an addiction who is not all that interested in stopping, cancelling internet or putting up filters is kind of like you babysitting your husband, and no one wants to have a parent-child relationship with their spouse. Along with that, it's like those cartoons where holes are popping up in a boat and the character is trying to plug them all to keep it from sinking. You can put a stopper on the internet, your computers, your phones, etc. but if he really wants it he is going to find a way to get it.

So with that said, the solution here is that he needs to make the decision for himself that he is going to make changes. I know your concern is about the safety of your children, and I will say that while his inappropriate content addiction and the nature of his searches don't necessarily mean that he is a danger to them, it would be naive to think that it isn't a possibility. If your husband has been a victim of sexual abuse himself in the past, that would make it even more of a concern in my mind.
But regardless of whether or not he is a danger to your kids, he is seriously hurting you with his actions and that is enough to demand change. Any advice you have been given that says you should continue to endure this for the sake of your children or not splitting up your family is downright horrible advice. You are not required to endure this type of emotional trauma by God or anyone else.

With that said, I think it is most helpful if you are clear and straight-forward but also kind in the way you speak to him. It is up to you if you want to wait until you have caught him again, or if you have caught him recently that is enough to have the conversation. My suggestion is to ask him to leave, and say that the only way he is allowed back in is if he starts making changes.
Of course he needs to make the decision that his family is more important than his habit (and inappropriate content is a habit, an evil one lets in the gate, not an "addiction" as is say, heroin, if he shot it up regularly and became physically dependent). I don't buy that. A big chocolate sundae gives you a rush of pleasure, and would make you crave sugar if you keep it up on a regular basis, but it's not an "addiction".

It's a bad habit. (Could also be a sin if you are prone to gluttony - that's between you and God)

That said, I simply wouldn't permit inappropriate content access in my home on my watch. Sure, you can't prevent what he does elsewhere and he will do what he wants until he decides the cost is higher than he wants to pay.

That said, I agree with your advice to tell him to leave because it is extreme. Looking at the categories he is looking at is a real red flag.
 
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Of course he needs to make the decision that his family is more important than his habit (and inappropriate content is a habit, an evil one lets in the gate, not an "addiction" as is say, heroin, if he shot it up regularly and became physically dependent). I don't buy that. A big chocolate sundae gives you a rush of pleasure, and would make you crave sugar if you keep it up on a regular basis, but it's not an "addiction".

It's a bad habit. (Could also be a sin if you are prone to gluttony - that's between you and God)

That said, I simply wouldn't permit inappropriate content access in my home on my watch. Sure, you can't prevent what he does elsewhere and he will do what he wants until he decides the cost is higher than he wants to pay.

That said, I agree with your advice to tell him to leave because it is extreme. Looking at the categories he is looking at is a real red flag.
What if he has nowhere to go and we can’t afford another place ? Do you have any ideas for that? I do think it’s the best solution from the way things have gone in the past but don’t know how to practically make it work.
 
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RestoreTheJoy

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What if he has nowhere to go and we can’t afford another place ? Do you have any ideas for that? I do think it’s the best solution from the way things have gone in the past but don’t know how to practically make it work.
He would not be accessing inappropriate content under my roof once I know about it. I would do whatever it takes to stop that. You are only responsible for what you know and what you do about it. If he takes other means to access it afterwardl, you will find out. These things always come to light.

If he has nowhere to go, then he doesn't use the internet, since he cannot control himself. Period. It is probably better that he stays rather than go to his parents' or somewhere where he can pursue his habit without interference, actually.

That would be a hard line for me. Heck no, after finding you found. If it is a real hardship to be elsewhere, and he cares about his family, he will be willing.
 
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