Pornography use and recovery / PPU-A09-1
Stress and Avoidance Alternatives — Concept brief
Understand the idea behind stress and avoidance alternatives and consider whether it fits your context.
8 minutes · Handout · Adults; supported use as appropriate
Fictional example: Noah uses viewing to postpone a stressful email.
Use an ordinary or fictional example, with a clinician when appropriate. Alternative coping should address the actual function and available resources.
The idea
Alternative coping should address the actual function and available resources.
An ordinary example
Noah uses viewing to postpone a stressful email.
What this can look like
Identify one stressor, what the current behavior temporarily changes, and two feasible alternatives to try.
Check the fit
What alternative addresses the underlying task or need? You may disagree with the framing, use fiction, or decide that this approach is not useful today.
A useful distinction
A chosen change goal and a clinical diagnosis are different questions. Address functioning, control, consent, values, and distress without assuming that sexual expression itself is pathological.
Prompts for this resource
- What part of this idea makes sense to me?
- What alternative addresses the underlying task or need?
Conceptual background
AASECT Position on Sex Addiction — American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.