Ask Dan & Jennifer

When you say you're "addicted," what exactly does that mean? Do you feel you have let other areas of your life go to watch pornography? Do you feel that your use of pornography is causing problems in other areas of your life? Is your guilt about the pornography because you think it's harmful or is it based on a religious fear?

Basically everyone in America will see, and masturbate to, pornography as an adolescent. Most people use it casually and responsibly. For some people, they will lose control of their use to the point that it starts to negatively impact other areas of their life. If you have reached the point that you're losing control, you will need help. That will take the cooperation of your parents. I know that's a drastic step, but nothing else will work if you have truly developed a compulsion.

A good starting place might be your school counselor. If you can talk to your parents about this, they can install internet filtering software to help you manage the temptation. Everyone I have seen successfully deal with this problem has put some kind of accountability system in place, such as filtering software with tracking that can be checked by the parents or someone else.

Best wishes. Please let us know how you're doing.

Take the time to figure out something you can do outside of your house or at least away from the computer. As you spend less time from the computer and occupy your mind with other activities, your addiction will slowly fade away. At 14 this may not be so easy because you probably have to rely on your parents for other possible activities. You mention your daily life at the end of your post. What does your daily life consist of when you're not watching porn?

Take control because this is an addiction. Limit your time online/ on the computer.

Honestly, it became a problem for me for a bit of time. I limited my self to at least 2 times a week and 4 maximum in case I needed to get off a bit more. Taking control of the situation will really make your life better. Now is the time before it becomes way too routine and you cannot even ask for help.

Side note: be careful where you torrent and watch this stuff. It can really damage your computer with viruses and Trojans.

It is already an addiction obviously but don't fret because you are not alone in this. People become addicted to masturbation for many reasons, and this can cause a number of health and psychological concerns if not dealt with early on. Good thing that you are already aware of the condition, because you will get more addicted to masturbating as you satisfy yourself further. One of the ways to get over this is to keep your mind occupied, keep it busy and look for other activities like sports, or something worthwhile that doesn't involve browsing the net because it may deviate your attention to your usual habits. Rewire your brain and give it fresh new tasks, remember that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. :)

Ok, this goes way outside my comfort zone but I do have a few ideas.

Why do you masturbate? The idea of a sex drive active even when you don't want it to be is quite scary. As an ex-addict to masturbation myself, i do have some tricks.
1: Why do you feel guilty? Focus on that. Finds some way you can be reminded of that. I myself felt guilty because it got in the way of my feminine side. As a bigender, that affected me. I reminded myself of this constantly-there's an idol of mine, Kim Petras, that was invaluable in stopping the addiction. As a matter of fact, I have one of her youtube videos open in another window right now. A constant reminder.
2: Repressed desires. Forgive me if I'm leaping back into my comfort zone, but as soon as I typed 'why' those two words entered my head. I stopped masturbating, well, started the process of stopping masturbating, as soon as I realized, identified with, and accepted my sexual orientation. While I was masturbating, I thought of myself as a heterosexual male. Now I'm more of a bisexual transwoman, and with that change my masturbation issues subsided a lot.

this is really interfering with my daily life.

If you didn't say this, I would have said not to be so hard on yourself.
I feel there's nothing wrong with doing that, unless you're hurting yourself or someone else.
Then you're probably crossing the line of addiction. That's where you continue to have a compulsion and an obsession to act on a behavior regardless of negative consequences.

Examples...
continuing to drink and drive even though you have DUIs.
Dieting when you're malnourished and emaciated.
Being promiscuous and jeopardizing your marriage.

Do you think you are even addicted? Maybe you are but if it is interfering with your life to the point where you want to lock yourself from the world and watch porn, then you might be addicted. Maybe you should find something to take your mind off of it. I think watching occasionally is normal, but too much can be bad. I think you should try using your computer when someone is with you so you won't look up porn. You could also use a computer where someone is going to constanty pass by like in your kitchen so you wont feeel like opening and closing it every time someone walks by.