Amjad Tarsin – Pornography Addiction
AI: Summary ©
The Muslim hipster discusses the impact of pornography on mental health, with statistics showing a prevalence of it in the Muslim community. They stress the importance of warning young people about the danger of pornography and warning them about the potential impact on their mental health and perception. The speakers also touch on the negative impact of pornography on people's mental health and perception of reality, as it causes addictions such as drug, alcohol, and addiction to drugs. The conversation explores the factors that contribute to addiction, including people wanting to get a whole lot of pleasure and anxiety, and mental health services for pornography.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome back. According to nisiha, a Muslim youth helpline, one of
the most pressing issues facing young Muslims is the easy access
to free and infinite amount of *, internet, music
videos and movies makes it more prominent and almost gives one the
ideology that it is acceptable in our times today. Regardless, it is
a very important issue and one of the most popular trends amongst
Muslim males. Let's hear what amji tarsi, Muslim chaplain at the
University of Toronto, has to say on this topic and his own
experiences with counseling students. Welcome back to the
show, amjit, thank you for having me. So we're talking about a
difficult and disturbing topic. I know you do provide counseling. Is
a * addiction, something that you that you see often? Yeah,
it's something that I see more often than I would like to, and
within what age range and in the Muslim community, right? Yeah. So,
so I'm speaking of exclusively the Muslim community, mostly students
who come to me for counseling. And you know, every so often someone
will come in, even in one case, a young woman coming in and telling
me that they have a * addiction. And I recognize it's a
hard topic to talk about. It's very sensitive, but the reality is
is that it's there, it's available, and we really need to
figure out ways to inoculate ourselves against something that
is a spiritual, emotional and social disease. Now, you know
there are a lot of statistics that you know, if you Google
* addiction, it's very, very, unfortunately, very common,
and the statistics are disturbing.
But when it comes to statistics, sorry, a lot of people are kind of
like, well, that's a broad statistic. It doesn't relate to
me. And I would go as to say maybe the Muslim community also feels
like that. What's your take when we look at the statistics on that?
Yeah, if you look at statistics in general, in society, the Muslim
community is not immune to what everyone else around them is going
through. So oftentimes those statistics really transfer over.
We just don't like to talk about it, and the statistics are very
shocking. For example, there's a statistic that was mentioned in an
article in the Washington Post how a large number of US university
students males had watched * in the last year, and
of those who have that, 83% of them were more likely to commit
sexual assault or not report it if they saw a sexual assault
occurring. So it's warping people's minds, their sense of
morality, their sense of decency. It objectifies women, and it
really destroys the internal fabric of a human being. And I
know we were talking off air briefly about, you know, it also
promotes things that are considered like illegal, like *
*, and you're hearing about that as well. I mean, it's
once again, it's a reality. It's something we don't like to talk
about. But one of the most highly watched genres of * is
* *. So what does that do to someone's mind? What
does that make a person who has become addicted to that kind of of
poison when they go out in the street and they see they see
women, what does that make them look at them like? You know? How
does that affect their perception of reality? It objectifies them,
and it really takes away the common human decency that we're
supposed to afford one another. And I would say the Muslim
community, once again, is not fully immune to that, especially
with devices like cell phones and laptops and so forth. And most
people who come to me, they say it's their cell phone or their
tablet, it's it's readily available, and we need to, we need
to warn people from a young age. I know a lot of people don't want to
talk to their children about this, and I appreciate that there needs
to be sensitivity, but we really need to warn them from a young age
to be very careful that this isn't something that's just exciting,
but this is something that is very damaging, like a drug. So tell me
a little bit about that. What are the implications when it comes to
* addiction based on your counseling that you've
provided, and also, you know, you said talking about this at a young
age, what is like? What is that age as well, I would say around
the age of puberty, 1213, years old, especially, maybe even a
little bit younger, to prepare them, depending on the access that
they have to technology. Every household is different. Every
parenting style is different, but at the very least, if not talking
about *, talking about the fact that there are bad images
out there, if you just google search a regular thing, you might
have, you have, like, a billion image come up accidentally. So we
need to really tell young people to be very careful, to know that
this is both forbidden religiously, but very damaging
personally. And many of the implications that I've seen are
people isolate themselves. They become very socially awkward. They
prefer isolation so that they can engage.
In their addiction, they have a hard time getting married. And
then the studies that are coming out is that it actually alters the
brain chemistry that certain hormones are released in the brain
when these images are seen. And then, just like a drug, people are
looking for more and more intense expressions so that they can get
that that pleasure experience through the hormone release or
whatever in their brains, which changes their their brains, and
changes what they actually experience pleasure, and which is
why people who are addicted to * actually don't find a
whole lot of satisfaction in marriage. So it's it's bad.
And what about just so we can, I guess, especially for our viewers
who might be disturbed by this conversation or having this
conversation for the first time, when we talk about *
addiction, is that? And I just want to break down the term
addiction as it relates to *. Is it where you're just obsessed
with it? And so 24/7, that's what you want to do at all times. Or
what does that look like? Is it similar to drug addiction, people
who have a drinking problem? It is. It is similar to drug
addiction. And I think one of the one of the definitions of an
addiction is that a person continuously seeks it, and that it
starts to increase, that the person does not satisfy themselves
with the same amount of intake, but that they actually look for
more and more. They look for a bigger high, which is why it gets
more and more intense, which is why you have a genre like great
*. Who on earth would watch that? But you start to
realize that people are looking for more.
You know, quote, unquote, hardcore expressions so that they can
actually get that that release in their brain to feel that pleasure
for something at the beginning that they would have found
repulsive. So it is, it is an addiction. And for anyone who's
watching, who might be suffering or challenged by this, there are
institutions even like CAMH, the Center for Addiction and Mental
Health has services for even * addiction and things
related to that. So there are even mental institutions, mental health
institutions, that are recognizing that this is a problem that needs
to be addressed. And once again, if you look at the *
consumption worldwide, Muslim majority countries are high on
that list. So we can't really act like we're not a part of this. And
what about, I guess, from a spiritual sense, just so people
aren't, you know, people are watching and you know, if they are
dealing with this, just so they don't feel completely like there's
no turning back. From a spiritual sense, we know that there are
resources out there and we'll provide the link. But from that
sense, what's your we always believe spiritually, that the door
to Allah, the door to God, is always open,
and that even if someone has engaged in great harm towards
themselves or even others, that there is always an opportunity to
turn back, that we believe that God is a Rahman, a Rahim, the Most
Merciful, the Most Compassionate, and that God loves for His
servants to turn back, and loves for them to repent, and wants them
to attain this wholeness and This contentment and this wholesomeness
of heart and of life, which is why, you know, so many of these
things are forbidden to begin with, so that people don't harm
themselves. But even if someone has gone down that road, there's
always an opportunity to turn back, as long as there's life,
right? So we never write anyone off. We never lose hope. We never
think that there's no going back for me, I'm too far gone. There's
always an opportunity, and God can heal all scars, but we just have
to take whatever steps are available. And when we take those
practical steps, then spiritually, we will also begin to heal as
well. So is it? Is it focusing on taking the practical steps and
then repenting to God? What is that spiritual component? The
spiritual component? The spiritual component is that turning back to
God is that we cease from from doing that which harms us, that
sin, in this case, it would be watching *, definitely
taking all of the means available that are good to overcoming that
addiction or that obsession. And so the practical and the spiritual
are actually very much intertwined, absolutely, and then
turning back to God and asking God for forgiveness and asking God for
healing and asking God for the strength never to go back. So it's
both of those. It's a disturbing topic, but I'm glad we ended off
on that note. So thank you. Thank you very much. There's always
hope. Thank you very much for having thanks.
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