ESSAY August 2025 - Moving the One-Year Dating Line - Catherine H., Cleveland, Ohio

Having had a spiritual experience has allowed her to accept the plans God has for her personal life.  Sitting in the counselor’s office in early 2020, I voiced my biggest fear: that one day my sexual behavior would destroy a marriage. Fetish-oriented fantasy, masturbation, literature, and pornography had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember, for no apparent external reason. I managed to curb the habit during a one-year relationship in my senior year of college. The moment the relationship ended, however, my compulsive behavior and thinking were back with a vengeance.